Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T23:42:27.897Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Matrilocality during the prehistoric transition to agriculture in Thailand?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2015

R. Alexander Bentley ,
Michael Pietrusewsky ,
Michele T. Douglas  and
Tim C. Atkinson
R. Alexander Bentley
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Durham, 43 Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HN, UK (Email: [email protected])
Michael Pietrusewsky
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Hawai’i-Manoa, 2424 Maile Way, Saunders Hall 346, Honolulu, Hawai’i 96822-2223, USA (Email: [email protected])
Michele T. Douglas
Affiliation:
Affiliate Graduate Faculty, University of Hawai’i-Manoa, 4020 Edgehill Road, Fort Worth, TX 76116-7325, USA (Email: [email protected])
Tim C. Atkinson
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street London WC1E 6BT, UK (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Stable isotopes in teeth are providing important correlations between ancient people and the geographical location of their childhood homes. In an exciting new application, the authors measured the varying signatures of strontium, oxygen and carbon isotopes in the teeth of a sequence of people buried in Thailand during the period of the introduction and intensification of agriculture. Preliminary results point to the arrival of immigrant men, followed by a change in the relationship between the sexes: the women grow up on local food, the men have access to more widespread resources. This perhaps implies a matrilocal system, where forager men raised elsewhere marry into farming communities. It provides a likely antithesis to the social consequences of introducing agriculture into central Europe.

Keywords

Southeast AsiaNeolithic agriculturemarital residencestrontium isotope analysisoxygen isotope analysis
Type
Method
Information
Antiquity , Volume 79 , Issue 306 , December 2005 , pp. 865 - 881
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ambrose, S.H. & Norr, L.. 1993. Experimental evidence for the relationship of the carbon isotope ratios of whole diet and dietary protein to those of bone collagen and carbonate, in Lambert, J.B. & Grupe, G. (ed.) Prehistoric human bone: archaeology at the molecular level: 1–37. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Ammerman, A.J. & Cavalli-Svorza, L.L.. 1984. The Neolithic transition and the genetics of populations in Europe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, R.C. 1988. The significance of hypergyny for understanding subsistence behavior among contemporary hunters and gatherers, in Kennedy, B. & Le-Moine, (ed.) Diet and subsistence: current archaeological perspectives: 57–65. Calgary: University of Calgary Press.Google Scholar
Balasse, M., Ambrose, S.H. Smith, A.B. & Price, T.D.. 2002. The seasonal mobility model for prehistoric herders in the south-western cape of South Africa assessed by isotopic analysis of sheep tooth enamel. Journal of Archaeological Science 29: 917–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellwood, P.S. 1996. The origins and spread of agriculture in the Indo-Pacific region: gradualism and diffusion or revolution and colonization?, in Harris, D.R. (ed.) The origins and spread of agriculture and pastoralism in Eurasia: 465–98. Washington, DC: Smithsonian.Google Scholar
Bellwood, P.S. 2001. Early agriculturalist population diasporas? Farming, languages and genes. Annual Review of Anthropology 30: 181–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentley, R.A. 2004. Characterising human mobility by strontium isotope analysis of the skeletons, in Higham, C.F.W. & Thosarat, R. (ed.) Khok Phanom Di: summary and conclusions: 159–66. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Bentley, R.A., Price, T.D. Lüning, J. Gronenborn, D. Wahl, J. & Fullagar, P.D.. 2002. Human migration in early Neolithic Europe. Current Anthropology 43: 799–804.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentley, R.A., Krause, R. Price, T.D. & Kaufmann, B.. 2003a. Human mobility at the early Neolithic settlement of Vaihingen, Germany: evidence from strontium isotope analysis. Archaeometry 45: 471–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentley, R.A., Price, T.D. & Chikhi, L.. 2003b. Comparing broad scale genetic and local scale isotopic evidence for the spread of agriculture into Europe. Antiquity 77: 63–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentley, R.A., Price, T.D. & Stephan, E.. 2004. Determining the ‘local’ 87Sr/86Sr range for archaeological skeletons: a case study from Neolithic Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science 31: 365–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentley, R.A. & Knipper, C.. 2005. Geographic patterns in biologically-available strontium, carbon and oxygen isotope signatures in prehistoric SW Germany. Archaeometry 47: 629–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowen, G.J. & Wilkinson, B.. 2002. Spatial distribution of δ18O in meteoric precipitation. Geology 30: 315–8.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryant, J.D., Koch, P. Froelich, P.N. Showers, W.J. & Genna, B.J.. 1996. Oxygen isotope partitioning between phosphate and carbonate in mammalian apatite. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 60: 5145–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Budd, P., Millard, A. Chenery, C. Lucy, S. & Roberts, C.. 2004. Investigating population movement by stable isotopes: a report from Britain. Antiquity 78: 127–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burton, M.L., Moore, C.C.M. Whiting, J.W. & Romney, A.K.. 1996. Regions based on social structure. Current Anthropology 37: 87–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charoenwongsa, P. 1982. Ban Chiang in retrospect. Expedition 24: 13–6.Google Scholar
Chiaradia, M., Gallay, A. & Todt, W.. 2003. Differential lead and strontium contamination styles of prehistoric human teeth at a Swiss necropolis (Sion, Valais). Applied Geochemistry 18: 353–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chikhi, L., Nichols, R.A. Barbujani, G. & Beaumont, M.A.. 2002. Y genetic data support the Neolithic diffusion model. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 99: 11008–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cronk, L. 1989. From hunters to herders: subsistence change as a reproductive strategy among the Muckogodo. Current Anthropology 30: 224–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Currat, M. & Excoffier, L.. 2005. The effect of the Neolithic expansion on European molecular diversity. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 272: 679–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
D’Angela, D. & Longinelli, A.. 1990. Oxygen isotopes in living mammal’s bone phosphate: further results. Chemical Geology 86: 75–82.Google Scholar
Deniro, M.J. & Epstein, S.. 1978. Influence of diet on the distribution of carbon isotopes in animals. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 42: 495–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diamond, J.& Bellwood, P.. 2003. Farmers and their languages: the first expansions. Science 300: 597–603.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ericson, J.E. 1985. Strontium isotope characterization in the study of prehistoric human ecology. Journal of Human Evolution 14: 503–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fucharoen, G., Fucharoen, S. & Horai, S.. 2001. Mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms in Thailand. Journal of Human Genetics 46: 115–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gorman, C.F. 1977. A priori models and Thai prehistory: a reconsideration of the beginnings of agriculture in Southeast Asia, in Reed, C.A. (ed.) Origins of agriculture: 321–55. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffin, P.B. 1984. Forager resource and land use in the humid tropics: The Agta of Northeastern Luzon, the Philippines, in Schrire, C. (ed.) Past and present in hunter gatherer studies: 95–121. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Gronenborn, D. 1999. A variation on a basic theme: the transition to farming in Southern Central Europe. Journal of World Prehistory 2: 123–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hage, P. & Marck, J.. 2003. Matrilineality and the Melanesian origin of Polynesian chromosomes. Current Anthropology 44: S121–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, M. 1980. Cultural materialism. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Headland, T.N. & Reid, L.A.. 1989. Hunter-gatherers and their neighbors from prehistory to the present. Current Anthropology 30: 43–66 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heaton, T.H.E. 1999. Spatial, species, and temporal variations in the 13C/12b ratios of C3 plants: implications for paleodiet studies. Journal of Archaeological Science 26: 637–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higham, C. 1996. Archaeology and linguistics in Southeast Asia: implications of the Austric hypothesis. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 14:110–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higham, C. 2002. Early cultures of mainland Southeast Asia. Bangkok: River.Google Scholar
Higham, C.F.W. & Kijngam, A.. 1979. Ban Chiang and northeast Thailand: The palaeoenvironment and economy. Journal of Archaeological Science 6: 211–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hillson, S. 1997. Dental anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hoffman, C.L. 1984. Punan foragers in the trading networks of Southeast Asia, in Schrire, C. (ed.) Past and present in hunter gatherer studies: 123–49. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Holden, C.J. & Mace, R.. 2003. Spread of cattle led to the loss of matrilineal descent in Africa: a coevolutionary analysis. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 270: 2425–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoppe, K.A., Koch, P.L. & Furutani, T.T.. 2003. Assessing the preservation of biogenic strontium in fossil bones and tooth enamel. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 13: 20–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horn, P., HöLzl, St. & Storzer, D.. 1994. Habitat determination on a fossil stag’s mandible from the site of Homo heidelbergensis at Mauer by use of 87Sr/86Sr. Naturwissenschaften 81: 360–2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kealhofer, L. 2002. Changing perceptions of risk: the development of agro-ecosystems in Southeast Asia. American Anthropologist 104: 178–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koch, P.L., Fogel, M.L. & Tuross, N.. 1994. Tracing the diets of fossil animals using stable isotopes, in Lajtha, K. & Michener, R.H. (ed.) Stable Isotopes in Ecology and Environmental Science: 63–92. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific.Google Scholar
Koch, P.L., Tuross, N. & Fogel, M.L. 1997. The effects of sample treatment and diagenesis on the isotopic integrity of carbonate in biogenic hydroxylapatite. Journal of Archaeological Science 24: 417–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohn, M.J. 1996. A predictive model for animal δ18O: accounting for diet and physiological adaptation. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 60: 4811–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krigbaum, J. 2003. Neolithic subsistence patterns in northern Borneo reconstructed with stable carbon isotopes of enamel. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 22: 292–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee-Thorp, J.A., Sealy, J.C. & Van Der Merwe, N.J.. 1989. Stable carbon isotope ratio differences between bone collagen and bone apatite, and their relationship to diet. Journal of Archaeological Science 16: 585–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lekagul, B. & Mcneely, J.A.. 1977. Mammals of Thailand. Bangkok: Sahakarnbhat.Google Scholar
O’Leary, M.H. 1988. Carbon isotopes in photosynthesis. BioScience 38: 328–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Neil, J.R., Roe, L.J. Reinhard, E. & Blake, R.E.. 1994. A rapid and precise method of oxygen isotope analysis of biogenic phosphate. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 43: 203–12.Google Scholar
Oota, H., Settheetham-Ishida, W. Tiwawech, D. Ishida, T. & Stoneking, M.. 2001. Human mtDNA and Y-chromosome variation is correlated with matrilocal versus patrilocal residence. Nature Genetics 29: 20–1.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oota, H., Pakendorf, B. Weiss, G. et al. 2005. Recent origin and cultural reversion of a hunter-gatherer group. PLoS Biology 3: e71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Penny, D. 1999. Palaeoenvironmental analysis of the Sakon Nakhon Basin, northeast Thailand: palynological perspectives on climate change and human occupation. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 18: 139–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, J.T. 1978. Hunter-gatherer/farmer exchange. American Anthropologist 80: 335–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pietrusewsky, M. 1997. The people of Ban Chiang: an early bronze-age site in northeast Thailand. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 16:119–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pietrusewsky, M. & Douglas, M.T.. 2002. Ban Chiang, a prehistoric village site in Northeast Thailand I: the human skeletal remains. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.Google Scholar
Price, T. D. 2000. Europe’s first farmers: an introduction, in Price, T.D. (ed.) Europe’s first farmers: 1–18. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, T.D., Bentley, R.A. Gronenborn, D. Lüning, J. & Wahl, J.. 2001. Human migration in the Linearbandkeramik of Central Europe. Antiquity 75: 593–603.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, T. D., Burton, J.H. & Bentley, R.A.. 2002. Characterization of biologically available strontium isotope ratios for the study of prehistoric migration. Archaeometry 44: 117–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1987. Archaeology and language. London: Cape.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 2000. At the edge of knowability: towards a prehistory of languages. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 10: 7–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, M., Macaulay, V. Hickey, E. et al. 2000. Tracing European founder lineages in the Near Eastern mtDNA pool. American Journal of Human Genetics 67: 1251–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosser, Z.H., Zerjal, T.F Hurles, M. et al. 2000. Y-chromosomal diversity in Europe is clinal and influenced primarily by geography, rather than by language. American Journal of Human Genetics 67: 1526–43 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seielstad, M.T., Minch, E. & Cavalli-Sforza, L.L.. 1998. Genetic evidence for a higher female migration rate in humans. Nature Genetics 20: 278–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Semino, O., Passarino, G. Brega, A. Fellos, M., & Santachiara-Benerecetti, A.S.. 1996. A view of the Neolithic demic diffusion in Europe through two Y chromosome-specific markers. American Journal of Human Genetics 59: 964–8.Google ScholarPubMed
Sharp, Z.D., Atudorei, V. & Furrer, H.. 2000. The effects of diagenesis on oxygen isotope ratios of biogenic phosphates. American Journal of Science 300: 222–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sparks, J.P. & Ehrlinger, J.R. 1997. Leaf carbon isotope discrimination and nitrogen content for riparian trees along elevational transects. Oecologia 109: 363–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spielmann, K.A. & Eder, J.F.. 1994. Hunters and farmers: then and now. Annual Review of Anthropology 23: 303–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suthiragsa, N. 1979. The Ban Chiang culture, in Smith, R.B. & Watson, W. (ed.) Early South East Asia: essays in archaeology, history, and historical geography: 42–52. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tajima, A., Pan, I.-H. Fucharoen, G. et al. 2002. Three major lineages of Asian Y chromosomes: implications for the peopling of east and southeast Asia. Human Genetics 110: 80–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Torroni, A., Bandelt, H.-J. D’Urbano, L. et al. 1998. mtDNA analysis reveals a major Late Paleolithic population expansion from southwestern to northeastern Europe. American Journal of Human Genetics 62: 1137–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trickett, M.A., Budd, P. Montgomery, J. & Evans, J.. 2003. An assessment of solubility profiling as a decontamination procedure for the 87Sr/86Sr analysis of archaeological human skeletal tissue. Applied Geochemistry 18: 653–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trigger, B. 1978. Iroquois matriliny. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 48: 55–65.Google Scholar
Van Der Merwe, N.J. & Medina, E.. 1991. The canopy effect, carbon isotope ratios and foodwebs in Amazonia. Journal of Archaeological Science 18: 249–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vennemann, T.W., Fricke, H.C. Blake, R.E. O’Neil, J.R. & Colman, A.. 2002. Oxygen isotope analysis of phosphates: a comparison of techniques for analysis of Ag3PO4 . Chemical Geology 185: 321–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, J.C. 1982. Discovery of a lost Bronze Age: Ban Chiang. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
White, J.C. 1986. A revision of the chronology of Ban Chiang and its implications for the prehistory of Northeast Thailand. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International.Google Scholar
White, J.C. 1995. Modeling the development of early rice agriculture: ethnoecological perspectives from northeast Thailand. Asian Perspectives 34: 37–68.Google Scholar
White, J.C. 1997. A brief note on new dates for the Ban Chiang cultural tradition. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 16: 103–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, J.C., Penny, D. Kealhofer, L. & Maloney, B.. 2004. Vegetation changes from the late Pleistocene through the Holocene from three areas of archaeological significance in Thailand. Quaternary International 113: 111–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, J.F., Weiss, D.A. Richards, M. Thomas, M.G. Bradman, N. & Goldstein, D.B.. 2001. Genetic evidence for different male and female roles during cultural transitions in the British Isles. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 98: 5078–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Workman, D.R. 1977. Geology of Laos, Cambodia, South Vietnam and the Eastern Part of Thailand. Overseas Geology and Mineral Resources No. 50. London Institute of Geological Sciences.Google Scholar
You-Di, C. 1975. Ban Chiang prehistoric cultures. Bangkok: Fine Arts Department.Google Scholar
Zvelebil, M. & Lillie, M. 2000. The transition to agriculture in eastern Europe, in Price, T.D. (ed.) Europe’s First Farmers: 57–92. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar