Origins of Food Production in Southwestern Asia: A Survey of Ideas

The history of ideas on the origins of food production in southwestern Asia is reviewed. It is pointed out that although interest in the origins of food production began as early as the 18th century, no fieldwork to test these ideas directly was initiated until the 1940's. Hypotheses on early food production are discussed, and current data are used to test one of these models-here termed the Flannery-Binford model. It is suggested, on the basis of current evidence, that food production began in south-western Asia as an attempt by man to expand the ecological range of certain heavily exploited resources and first occurred along the margins of the Mediterranean and ak-pistachio woodland environmental zones; and that it was a combination of climatic change and population increase which set the process in motion.