Birth of the Gods and the Origins of Agriculture
* Book: The Birth of the Gods and the Origins of Agriculture. Jacques Cauvin. Cambridge University Press, 2000;
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Book: Naissance des divinités, naissance de l'agriculture. Jacques Gauvin. 1994
Description
"French archaeologist Jacques Cauvin rejects this emphasis on ecology and environment as the cause of (agricultural) change (i.e. the birth of farming). Instead, he argues that primacy should be accorded to a restructuring of human mentality from the thirteenth to the tenth millennium BC , expressed in terms of new religious ideas and symbols. Cauvin's book, originally published in French in 1994 under the title Naissance des divinités, naissance de l'agriculture , adopts an ideological approach to explaining the Neolithic which is at odds with many traditional understandings, but which resonates closely with the idea that the Neolithic is much more than an economic transition, and coincided with a transformation in the world view of the prehistoric societies concerned."
More information
- Alternative Thesis: The Oasis Theory on the Origins of Farming
- Review article: Jacques Cauvin, Ian Hodder, Gary O. Rollefson, Ofer Bar-Yosef and Trevor Watkins (2001). The Birth of the Gods and theOrigins of Agriculture by Jacques Cauvin, translated by Trevor Watkins (New Studies in Archaeology.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000; ISBN 0-521-65135-2 hardback £37.50 & $59.95 Reviewed by Ian Hodder, Gary O.Rollefson, Ofer Bar-Yosef with a response by Trevor Watkins. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 11, pp 105-121 [doi:10.1017/S0959774301000063 doi]
URL = https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231877808_The_Birth_of_the_Gods_and_the_Origins_of_Agriculture_by_Jacques_Cauvin_translated_by_Trevor_Watkins_New_Studies_in_Archaeology [accessed Oct 06 2024].