There has been a bevy of activity in the last decade surrounding the origins of agriculture in eastern North America, including morphometric and molecular studies of seeds, analyses of macrobotanical assemblages, cultivation of experimental plots, and refinement of theoretical models. Miller approaches the origins of agriculture from a different perspective, bringing his training in lithic analysis and human behavioral ecology to bear on the subject by employing a set of diagnostic bifaces and site file records from central Tennessee.
Miller sets up his study by summarizing the two leading models for the origins of agriculture in the Eastern Woodlands. One camp situates the process of domestication in a context of plenty, namely, resource-rich riverine environments of the mid- to late Holocene, while the other places it in a context of scarcity, with growing Late Archaic populations investing in small-seeded plants as they moved into more marginal upland habitats.
After providing an overview of paleoenvironmental reconstructions and chronological conventions for eastern North America, Miller explains his application of the marginal value theorem to biface size and form. Following this model, hunters are more likely to conserve their ammunition when larger prey are less available: they should resharpen their current projectile points when the likelihood of successfully taking a deer—and therefore recuperating the cost of making new projectile points—is lower. Miller then applies this model to a set of 5,244 diagnostic bifaces, spanning Clovis to Late Archaic barbed styles, from 87 sites in central Tennessee. Using various measurements of length, width, and thickness, he notes several trends in biface shape and form. The first is a decrease in size throughout the Paleoindian period, likely related to the extinction of megafauna. Second is an increase in size in the early Middle Archaic, linked to an increase in deer and nut mast seen in organic assemblages in the region, followed by a decline in biface size and deer recovery. Finally he notes an increase and then decrease in biface size in the Late Archaic that do not appear to be related to environmental shifts; Miller instead interprets this complicated pattern as an indication that Late Archaic groups had already significantly changed local ecologies and economies through the cultivation of native crops.
Miller then employs state site file data, controlled in several ways for biases in survey coverage, to explore the expansion of populations in central Tennessee using the ideal free distribution model, which predicts that groups should occupy the most resource-rich locales first and then expand into less desirable habitats. While Paleoindian and Early Archaic sites demonstrate clustering, mid- to late Holocene sites are spread throughout the study area, suggesting population growth and expansion.
Miller combines these two lines of evidence to sketch a “boom-bust” model for domestication in the region. A mid-Holocene “boom” is evident at the transition between the Early and Middle Archaic with an increase in biface size and the widespread distribution of sites in central Tennessee, as well as increases in deer and hickory nutshell at sites in the larger region. In the later Middle Archaic, decreases in deer recovery and in pollen from masting trees, coupled with decreases in biface size, mark an environmental “bust,” while population levels appear to have remained relatively high. Miller's data lend support, then, to models that place the process of domestication in eastern North America within a context of scarcity rather than a context of abundance.
Rather than presenting a strict model for the origins of agriculture, Miller's study employs different datasets than we usually turn to—stone tools and site distributions rather than pollen records and plant and animal remains—to expand our understanding of the context in which domestication developed in eastern North America. As a paleoethnobotanist, I hoped that Miller would recommend the collection of additional pollen and macrobotanical data to add much-needed detail to environmental reconstructions and our understanding of the economic choices of foragers-becoming-farmers. But the value of Miller's approach to exploring shifts in resource bases using stone tools and site distributions is that it can be applied broadly, as these datasets are not as plagued by uneven recovery as organic remains are.
Just as importantly, Miller's work is an excellent example of the usefulness of human behavioral ecology models in adding interpretive power to diachronic datasets. His conversational writing style makes this an accessible read for a wide range of audiences, including students of all stripes. With its broad applicability in terms of theoretical framework, datasets employed, and approachable writing, this book is a valuable read for researchers interested in population responses to changing ecological conditions in regions well outside eastern North America.
