From Mental Progress to the Domestication of the Self

A Voyage through "the Origins of Agriculture"

Abstract

This article deals with how different views on the human being, on society, and on historical prime movers affect the choice of source materials, methods, and interpretations in archaeology. A central archaeological problem, the origins of agriculture and domestication, is investigated in a historical perspective, beginning with scholars of the Enlightenment and ending with archaeological works published in the early 1990s. It is argued that explanations for the origins of agriculture generally focus on human nature, on the nature of society, or on external forces in nature. A recurring theme is also the differing views of the significance of women in the transition to agriculture.

It is concluded that a 19th-century cultural optimism, which saw the human being as "naturally" progressing towards agriculture and domestication, was replaced by cultural pessimism during the 20th century, emphasizing more or less compelling forces in society or in nature. Accompanying several archaeological interpretations of the transition to agriculture is the idea that technological and economic progress is coupled with a decline in human sociability and ethics. Contemporary social and existential issues serve as inspiration in archaeological interpretations of the mythically charged problem of why human beings began to cultivate the soil and domesticate animals.