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Paper short abstract:

In this paper we present a formal dynamic model of co-evolution between a human and a plant population, focusing on the potentialities or difficulties for the emergence of domesticates and agriculturalist behaviour.

Paper long abstract:

One of the hypotheses for the origin of agriculture is as a co-evolutionary set of interaction between people and plants. One of the most important tenets of this hypothesis is that this mutually advantageous process would have driven to adaptive changes in both subjects. Behavioural ecology has provided an interesting alternative hypothesis, stressing the increasing management of plants by foragers until the marginal return tipped in favour of cultivation. We believe that an approach that takes into consideration both perspectives could be beneficial for the understanding of a complex process such as the emergence of agriculture.

In this paper we present a formal dynamic model of co-evolution between a human and a plant population, focusing on the potentialities or difficulties for the emergence of domesticates and agriculturalist behaviour. Fundamentally, this approach is the outcome of combining two models: (1) a Population Ecology model, relating humans and their food sources, specifically focusing on one plant species; and (2) a simplified co-evolution model, which represents the cross selection of dichotomic phenotypic traits in two populations.

In addition, a synthesis of the results of comparing model behaviour under different conditions -representing different plant species, biogeographies and prior social constraints— is presented. Finally, we concentrate on the model's usefulness for understanding, and eventually quantifying, the effects of each element on the likelihood and timing of domestication trajectories.