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From Foraging to Food Production in South-east Ireland: Some Lithic Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

Jane D. Peterson
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287–2402, USA

Extract

Current models for the transition from foraging to food production in Ireland describe a range of possibilities concerning the roles played by indigenous populations, the length of overlap between the adaptive systems and the potential influence of one group on the other. For example, Woodman views Mesolithic populations as passive and temporally discrete for the most part (1976; 1978c; 1987). Alternatively, Aalen (1978) sees the potential for Mesolithic groups exerting a significant influence on the Neolithic populations. In Case's model, Neolithic lifeways are introduced fully formed into Ireland, with little or no input from indigenous groups (1969; 1976).

All three agree that colonists initiated the transition on the island. Expanding these models and outlining expectations based on them provides the baseline against which the data from Waterford will be measured.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1990

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