Sedentism

In evolutionary anthropology, sedentism is a term applied to the cultural transition from nomadic to permanent, year-round settlement. Initially during this transition, populations were still semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers with a primary homebase used for part of the year that was sedentary. This shift is coupled with the adoption of new subsistence strategies, specifically from foraging (hunter-gatherer) to agricultural and animal domestication. The development of sedentism led to the rise of population aggregation and formation of villages, cities, and other community types.

The Natufian culture, a Mesolithic group that occupied the Levant in ca. 12,000 BC, is the first known group to establish permanent settlements and domesticate plants (wild cereals) and animals (dogs).^{[citation needed]} In North America, evidence for sedentism emerges around 4500 BC.^{[citation needed]}

Forced sedentism

Forced sedentism, or sedentarization is where a dominant group restricts the movements of a nomadic group.

This has been a process nomadic populations have been going through since the very first cultivation of land happened, up to today, when the organization of the modern society have imposed demands that have pushed aboriginal populations to adopt a fixed habitat.

There are many examples, that forced sedentarization having strongly detrimental effects on minority groups in developed countries. This is mainly caused by lack of sufficient integration into the greater society, old traditions and identity withering and the broken travel cycle of the year, meaning that there may be lack of jobs and activity through significant parts of the year leaving the population reliant on government funded programs.

This can cause great social decline, and also weaken the ethnic identity of the population affected, as examples show of North American indigenous peoples such as the Inuit in the mid-20th century.

See also

• Sedentary lifestyle
• Timeline of agriculture and food technology
• Indian reservation
• Bantustan
• Ghetto

References

Fagan, Brian. 2005. Ancient North America. Thames & Hudson, Ltd.: London.

This article relating to archaeology is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia