IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v9y2022i1d10.1057_s41599-022-01094-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Global processes of anthropogenesis characterise the early Anthropocene in the Japanese Islands

Author

Listed:
  • Mark Hudson

    (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
    Institut d’Asie Orientale)

  • Junzō Uchiyama

    (Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures
    Kanazawa University)

  • Kati Lindström

    (KTH Royal Institute of Technology
    Tallinn University)

  • Takamune Kawashima

    (Hiroshima University Museum)

  • Ian Reader

    (University of Manchester)

  • Tinka Delakorda Kawashima

    (Hiroshima University)

  • Danièle Martin

    (Université Catholique de Lyon)

  • J. Christoper Gillam

    (Winthrop University)

  • Linda Gilaizeau

    (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History)

  • Ilona R. Bausch

    (Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures
    Leiden University Institute of Area Studies
    Kokugakuin University Museum)

  • Kara C. Hoover

    (University of Alaska Fairbanks)

Abstract

Although many scholars date the onset of the Anthropocene to the Industrial Revolution or the post-1945 ‘Great Acceleration’, there is growing interest in understanding earlier human impacts on the earth system. Research on the ‘Palaeoanthropocene’ has investigated the role of fire, agriculture, trade, urbanisation and other anthropogenic impacts. While there is increasing consensus that such impacts were more important than previously realised, geographical variation during the Palaeoanthropocene remains poorly understood. Here, we present a preliminary comparative analysis of claims that pre-industrial anthropogenic impacts in Japan were significantly reduced by four factors: the late arrival of agriculture, an emphasis on wet-rice farming limited to alluvial plains, a reliance on seafood rather than domesticated animals as a primary source of dietary protein, and cultural ideologies of environmental stewardship. We find that none of these claims of Japanese exceptionalism can be supported by the archaeological and historical records. We make some suggestions for further research but conclude that the Japanese sequence appears consistent with global trends towards increased anthropogenic impacts over the course of the Palaeoanthropocene.

Suggested Citation

  • Mark Hudson & Junzō Uchiyama & Kati Lindström & Takamune Kawashima & Ian Reader & Tinka Delakorda Kawashima & Danièle Martin & J. Christoper Gillam & Linda Gilaizeau & Ilona R. Bausch & Kara C. Hoover, 2022. "Global processes of anthropogenesis characterise the early Anthropocene in the Japanese Islands," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:9:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-022-01094-8
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-022-01094-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-022-01094-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-022-01094-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephen Shennan & Sean S. Downey & Adrian Timpson & Kevan Edinborough & Sue Colledge & Tim Kerig & Katie Manning & Mark G. Thomas, 2013. "Regional population collapse followed initial agriculture booms in mid-Holocene Europe," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 4(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. Mark J. Hudson & Mami Aoyama & Kara C. Hoover & Junzō Uchiyama, 2012. "Prospects and challenges for an archaeology of global climate change," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 3(4), pages 313-328, July.
    3. Miriam Cubas & Alexandre Lucquin & Harry K. Robson & André Carlo Colonese & Pablo Arias & Bruno Aubry & Cyrille Billard & Denis Jan & Mariana Diniz & Ricardo Fernandes & Ramón Fábregas Valcarce & Céci, 2020. "Latitudinal gradient in dairy production with the introduction of farming in Atlantic Europe," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    4. Saito, Osamu, 2009. "Forest history and the Great Divergence: China, Japan, and the West compared," Journal of Global History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(3), pages 379-404, November.
    5. Wolfgang Haak & Iosif Lazaridis & Nick Patterson & Nadin Rohland & Swapan Mallick & Bastien Llamas & Guido Brandt & Susanne Nordenfelt & Eadaoin Harney & Kristin Stewardson & Qiaomei Fu & Alissa Mittn, 2015. "Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe," Nature, Nature, vol. 522(7555), pages 207-211, June.
    6. Chuan-Chao Wang & Hui-Yuan Yeh & Alexander N. Popov & Hu-Qin Zhang & Hirofumi Matsumura & Kendra Sirak & Olivia Cheronet & Alexey Kovalev & Nadin Rohland & Alexander M. Kim & Swapan Mallick & Rebecca , 2021. "Genomic insights into the formation of human populations in East Asia," Nature, Nature, vol. 591(7850), pages 413-419, March.
    7. Barry Rolett & Jared Diamond, 2004. "Environmental predictors of pre-European deforestation on Pacific islands," Nature, Nature, vol. 431(7007), pages 443-446, September.
    8. Martine Robbeets & Remco Bouckaert & Matthew Conte & Alexander Savelyev & Tao Li & Deog-Im An & Ken-ichi Shinoda & Yinqiu Cui & Takamune Kawashima & Geonyoung Kim & Junzo Uchiyama & Joanna Dolińska & , 2021. "Triangulation supports agricultural spread of the Transeurasian languages," Nature, Nature, vol. 599(7886), pages 616-621, November.
    9. Francks, Penelope, 2019. "Diet and the comparison of living standards across the Great Divergence: Japanese food history in an English mirror," Journal of Global History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 3-21, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kenichi Yamamoto & Shinichi Namba & Kyuto Sonehara & Ken Suzuki & Saori Sakaue & Niall P. Cooke & Shinichi Higashiue & Shuzo Kobayashi & Hisaaki Afuso & Kosho Matsuura & Yojiro Mitsumoto & Yasuhiko Fu, 2024. "Genetic legacy of ancient hunter-gatherer Jomon in Japanese populations," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Yuxin Tao & Yuancheng Wei & Jiaqi Ge & Yan Pan & Wenmin Wang & Qianqi Bi & Pengfei Sheng & Changzhong Fu & Wuyun Pan & Li Jin & Hong-Xiang Zheng & Menghan Zhang, 2023. "Phylogenetic evidence reveals early Kra-Dai divergence and dispersal in the late Holocene," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    3. de Jong, Wil & Liu, Jinlong & Youn, Yeo-Chang, 2017. "Land and forests in the Anthropocene: Trends and outlooks in Asia," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 17-25.
    4. Ralph, Peter L., 2019. "An empirical approach to demographic inference with genomic data," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 91-101.
    5. Chi-Chun Liu & David Witonsky & Anna Gosling & Ju Hyeon Lee & Harald Ringbauer & Richard Hagan & Nisha Patel & Raphaela Stahl & John Novembre & Mark Aldenderfer & Christina Warinner & Anna Di Rienzo &, 2022. "Ancient genomes from the Himalayas illuminate the genetic history of Tibetans and their Tibeto-Burman speaking neighbors," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.
    6. Sam Passmore & Anna L. C. Wood & Chiara Barbieri & Dor Shilton & Hideo Daikoku & Quentin D. Atkinson & Patrick E. Savage, 2024. "Global musical diversity is largely independent of linguistic and genetic histories," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    7. Lixiong Xiang & Xiaozhong Huang & Mingjie Sun & Virginia N. Panizzo & Chong Huang & Min Zheng & Xuemei Chen & Fahu Chen, 2023. "Prehistoric population expansion in Central Asia promoted by the Altai Holocene Climatic Optimum," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    8. Stephen Lezak, 2018. "Re-Placing the Desert in the Conservation Landscape: Charisma and Absence in the Gobi Desert," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-12, December.
    9. Benny Peiser, 2005. "From Genocide to Ecocide: The Rape of Rapa Nui," Energy & Environment, , vol. 16(3-4), pages 513-539, July.
    10. Markandya, Anil, 2011. "Equity and Distributional Implications of Climate Change," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 1051-1060, June.
    11. Daniel Plekhov & Thomas P. Leppard & John F. Cherry, 2021. "Island Colonization and Environmental Sustainability in the Postglacial Mediterranean," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-20, March.
    12. Jed O. Kaplan & Kristen M. Krumhardt & Marie-José Gaillard & Shinya Sugita & Anna-Kari Trondman & Ralph Fyfe & Laurent Marquer & Florence Mazier & Anne Birgitte Nielsen, 2017. "Constraining the Deforestation History of Europe: Evaluation of Historical Land Use Scenarios with Pollen-Based Land Cover Reconstructions," Land, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-20, December.
    13. Bárbara Sousa da Mota & Simone Rubinacci & Diana Ivette Cruz Dávalos & Carlos Eduardo G. Amorim & Martin Sikora & Niels N. Johannsen & Marzena H. Szmyt & Piotr Włodarczak & Anita Szczepanek & Marcin M, 2023. "Imputation of ancient human genomes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-17, December.
    14. Maciej Chyleński & Przemysław Makarowicz & Anna Juras & Maja Krzewińska & Łukasz Pospieszny & Edvard Ehler & Agnieszka Breszka & Jacek Górski & Halina Taras & Anita Szczepanek & Marta Polańska & Piotr, 2023. "Patrilocality and hunter-gatherer-related ancestry of populations in East-Central Europe during the Middle Bronze Age," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    15. Tuan-Hwee Sng & Chiaki Moriguchi, 2014. "Asia’s little divergence: state capacity in China and Japan before 1850," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 439-470, December.
    16. Gauthier, Nicolas, 2019. "Multilevel Simulation of Demography and Food Production in Ancient Agrarian Societies: A Case Study from Roman North Africa," SocArXiv 5be6a, Center for Open Science.
    17. David Croix & Davide Dottori, 2008. "Easter Island’s collapse: a tale of a population race," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 27-55, March.
    18. Marko Porčić & Tamara Blagojević & Sofija Stefanović, 2016. "Demography of the Early Neolithic Population in Central Balkans: Population Dynamics Reconstruction Using Summed Radiocarbon Probability Distributions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(8), pages 1-12, August.
    19. Enrico R Crema & Junko Habu & Kenichi Kobayashi & Marco Madella, 2016. "Summed Probability Distribution of 14C Dates Suggests Regional Divergences in the Population Dynamics of the Jomon Period in Eastern Japan," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(4), pages 1-18, April.
    20. Yanagisawa, Haruka, 2011. "Village Common Land, Manure, Fodder, and Intensive Agricultural Practices in Tamil Nadu from the Mid-Nineteenth Century," Review of Agrarian Studies, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, vol. 1(1), July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:9:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-022-01094-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.