title: Social Complexification and Pig (Sus scrofa) Husbandry in Ancient China: A Combined Geometric Morphometric and Isotopic Approach.
abstract: Pigs have played a major role in the economic, social and symbolic systems of China since the Early Neolithic more than 8,000 years ago. However, the interaction between the history of pig domestication and transformations in Chinese society since then, have not been fully explored. In this paper, we investigated the co-evolution from the earliest farming communities through to the new political and economic models of state-like societies, up to the Chinese Empire, using 5,000 years of archaeological records from the Xiawanggang (XWG) and Xinzhai (XZ) sites (Henan Province). To trace the changes of pig populations against husbandry practices, we combined the geometric morphometric analysis of dental traits with a study of the stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios from bone collagen. The domestication process intensified during the Neolithic Yangshao, prompted by greater selective pressure and/or better herd control against wild introgression. After that, pig farming, in XWG, relied on local livestock and a gradual change of husbandry practices overtime. This was characterized by a gentle increase in millet foddering and animal protein intake, until a complete change over to household management during the Han dynasty. The only rupture in this steady trend of husbandry occurred during the Longshan period, with the appearance of small sized and idiosyncratic pigs with specific feeding practices (relying on millet and household scraps). From three exploratory hypothesis, we explored the possibility of anti-elite pig production in XWG during the Longshan period, as a means to resist incorporation into a new economic model promoting intensified domestic production. This exploratory hypothesis is the most suitable to our dataset; however, numerous areas need to be explored further in order to adequately document the role of pigs in the rise of China's complex societies.
authors.affiliation: CNRS, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, UMR 7209, Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements, Paris, France.|Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen, St Mary's, Aberdeen, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cucchi
authors.affiliation: History Faculty, Anhui University, Hefei, China.|Key lab of vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Lingling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: CNRS, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, UMR 7209, Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Balasse
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Chunqing
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jiangtao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: History Faculty, Anhui University, Hefei, China.
authors.forename: Yaowu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: CNRS, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, UMR 7209, Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Denis
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Vigne
mesh_terms: D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000266:history*; D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D002681:China; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D034421:Sus scrofa