title: Shifting diets and the rise of male-biased inequality on the Central Plains of China during Eastern Zhou.
abstract: Farming domesticated millets, tending pigs, and hunting constituted the core of human subsistence strategies during Neolithic Yangshao (5000-2900 BC). Introduction of wheat and barley as well as the addition of domesticated herbivores during the Late Neolithic (∼2600-1900 BC) led to restructuring of ancient Chinese subsistence strategies. This study documents a dietary shift from indigenous millets to the newly introduced cereals in northcentral China during the Bronze Age Eastern Zhou Dynasty (771-221 BC) based on stable isotope analysis of human and animal bone samples. Our results show that this change affected females to a greater degree than males. We find that consumption of the newly introduced cereals was associated with less consumption of animal products and a higher rate of skeletal stress markers among females. We hypothesized that the observed separation of dietary signatures between males and females marks the rise of male-biased inequality in early China. We test this hypothesis by comparing Eastern Zhou human skeletal data with those from Neolithic Yangshao archaeological contexts. We find no evidence of male-female inequality in early farming communities. The presence of male-biased inequality in Eastern Zhou society is supported by increased body height difference between the sexes as well as the greater wealth of male burials.
authors.affiliation: School of History and Culture, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250100, China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
authors.forename: Chelsea
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Morgan
authors.affiliation: The David Rozensweig Genomics Center, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY 10021.
authors.forename: Yurii
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chinenov
authors.affiliation: Research Division of Archaeological Science, Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Zhengzhou 450000, China.
authors.forename: Ligang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Research Division of Shang and Zhou Dynasties, Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Zhengzhou 450000, China.
authors.forename: Wenquan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Henan Provincial Administration of Cultural Heritage, Zhengzhou 450000, China.
authors.forename: Xiaolin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Queens College, City University of New York, New York, NY 11367 EPechenkina@qc.cuny.edu.
authors.forename: Kate
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8117-2442
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pechenkina
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000266:history*; D000818:Animals; D001106:Archaeology; D001827:Body Height; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000473:pathology; D002048:Burial; D002247:Carbon Isotopes; D002681:China; D018556:Crops, Agricultural; D004032:Diet / Q000266:history*; D005260:Female; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055110:Radiometric Dating; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors / Q000266:history*; D013312:Stress, Physiological
chemical_list: D002247:Carbon Isotopes
keywords: East Asia; Yangshao; bioarchaeology; paleo diet; stable isotopes