The dispersal of rice in prehistoric Japan — tempo, mode, and consequences

The dispersal of rice in prehistoric Japan — tempo, mode, and consequences

September 12, 2022

September 12 | 2-4 p.m. | Anthropology and Art Practice building, Rm 221, UC BerkeleyEnrico Crema

Speaker: Enrico Crema, University of Cambridge

Moderator: Junko Habu, UC Berkeley

Co-sponsors: Department of AnthropologyArchaeological Research Facility

The 1st millennium BC is a major turning point in Japanese prehistory that lays much of the foundations of the cultural, linguistic, and genetic variation observed in present-day Japan. It is a period of transformation triggered by interactions between the incumbent populations of hunter-gatherers and migrant farmer communities from the Korean peninsula. In this talk, I will review old and new evidence from this period, focusing in particular on the patterns of dispersal of rice agriculture within the Japanese islands. The rates of adoption of the new subsistence technology were geographically diverse, including fast uptakes, prolonged resistance, and even episodes of temporary adoption followed by a reversion to a hunting and gathering economy. I will present some preliminary outputs from the ongoing ENCOUNTER project (https://www.encounterproject.info/), placing emphasis on how we can measure the tempo of this dispersal process and its demographic consequences, concluding with some speculations on the mode of transmission of this subsistence technology.