Two Oxen Ahead : Pre-Mechanized Farming in the Mediterranean

This revealing study shows how careful analysis of recent farming practices, and related cultural traditions, in communities around the Mediterranean can enhance our understanding of prehistoric and Greco-Roman societies. Includes a wealth of original interview material and data from field observati...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Halstead, Paul (Author)
Document Type: Online Resource Book
Language:English
Published: Hoboken : Wiley , 2014
Subjects:
Mittelmeerraum
Landwirtschaft
Landwirtschaftlicher Betrieb
Vorindustrielle Gesellschaft
Electronic books
Online Access:lizenzpflichtig
Volltext
lizenzpflichtig
Related Items:Erscheint auch als: Two oxen ahead
Table of Contents:
  • Two Oxen Ahead: Pre-Mechanized Farming in the Mediterranean; Copyright; Contents; Preface; Acknowledgments; 1 Introduction: Mediterranean Farming between Longue Durée and Contingency; 1.1 Fieldwork; 1.2 Scales of Analysis; References; 2 Working the Earth: Tillage and Sowing; 2.1 Two-Oxen Households in Paliambela; 2.2 Scratching a Living in the Hills of Messenia; 2.3 Tillage Time and Sowing Season from Assiros to Asturias; 2.4 Juggling with Seedcorn; 2.5 Flexible Farmers; 2.6 Ard, Hoe, and Scale of Cultivation; 2.6.1 Ard versus hoe: Benefits; 2.6.2 Ard versus hoe: Costs
  • 2.6.3 On balance: Hoe or ard, cows or oxen?2.7 Tillage and Sowing in the Past; References; 3 Harvest Time; 3.1 Amorgos: From Field to Threshing Floor; 3.2 When to Reap; 3.3 What and How to Reap; 3.4 After Reaping: Binding, Drying, and Transporting the Harvest; 3.5 Who and How many to Reap; 3.6 Harvest Ceremonies; 3.7 Reaping in the Past; References; 4 Sorting the Wheat from the Chaff; 4.1 Amorgos: On and After the Threshing Floor; 4.2 Ways of Threshing; 4.3 Ways of Winnowing and Coarse Sieving; 4.4 Cleaning for Storage and Consumption; 4.5 Storage; 4.6 Consumption
  • 4.7 Questions of Scale: Labor and Time Stress4.8 Threshing Floor Customs; 4.9 Crop Processing in the Past; References; 5 Managing the Land: Coping with Failure and Planning for Success; 5.1 Watching the Corn Grow; 5.2 Planning for Success: Fallowing and Rotation; 5.2.1 Fallowing; 5.2.2 Crop rotation; 5.2.3 Fallowing and rotation in space; 5.2.4 Hedging bets: Mixed cropping; 5.3 Planning for success: Manuring; 5.3.1 Stall manure; 5.3.2 Manuring by folded livestock; 5.3.3 Manuring by grazing livestock; 5.4 Planning for success, Mitigating Failure: Irrigation; 5.5 Averting Failure: Weeding
  • 5.6 Crop Husbandry and Crop Yields5.7 Crop Husbandry and Yields in the Past; References; 6 Family Planning: Land, Labor, and Livestock; 6.1 Clearance; 6.1.1 Uprooting deciduous woodland in lowland northern Greece; 6.1.2 Opening up the maquis in southern Greece; 6.1.3 Shifting cultivation: From Crete to Asturias; 6.1.4 Slashing, burning, and shifting; 6.2 Long-term Improvement: Deep Tillage, Terracing, and Enclosure; 6.3 Extending and Improving Cultivable Land: Drainage and Irrigation; 6.4 Counting the Cost of Extension and Improvement; 6.5 Subsistence and Cash Crops
  • 6.6 Mixed Farming: Livestock6.7 Labor, Land, and Livestock: The Domestic Cycle; 6.8 Household and Community; 6.9 Land, Labor, and Livestock in the Past; References; 7 Homo agronomicus? Mediterranean Farming, Present and Past; 7.1 Analogies for the past: "Matters of fact" and "Matters of Interest"; 7.2 Cultural Reason; 7.3 Environmental and Technological Constraints; 7.4 Practical Reason: Costs, Benefits, and Knowledgeable Farmers; 7.5 Ancient Farmers: Knowledgeable and Rational?; 7.6 Farming in the Mediterranean: Analogy and Change; References; Glossary; Index

Similar Items