Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Joseph Lawson
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by White Horse Press, 2019.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
This paper outlines a very longue durée history of three of North China’s most important cereal crops—broomcorn and foxtail millet, and wheat—to illustrate their place within broader social-environmental formations, to illustrate the various biological and cultural factors that enable the spread of these crops, and the ways in which these crops and the patterns in which they are grown influenced the further development of the societies that grew them. This article aims to demonstrate that a very long-run approach raises new questions and clarifies the significance of particular transitions. It, firstly, charts the transition from broomcorn to foxtail millet cultivation in the late Neolithic; secondly, shows efforts to spread winter wheat often met some degree of resistance from farming communities; thirdly, considers the significance of the different processing requirements of wheat and millet, and their implications for social and economic development; and, fourthly, considers the debate over the spread of multiple-cropping systems to North China.
Author(s): He H, Lawson J, Bell M, Hui F
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Environment and History
Year: 2019
Volume: 27
Issue: 1
Pages: 127-154
Print publication date: 01/02/2021
Online publication date: 04/04/2019
Acceptance date: 09/11/2018
Date deposited: 30/11/2018
ISSN (print): 0967-3407
ISSN (electronic): 1752-7023
Publisher: White Horse Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.3197/096734019X15463432086937
DOI: 10.3197/096734019X15463432086937
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
