Rethinking pig domestication in China: regional trajectories in central China and the Lower Yangtze Valley
Ningning Dong, Jing Yuan
Abstract
Animal domestication represents one of the most important advances in human history. Pigs ( Sus scrofa ) were domesticated multiple times in prehistory and are therefore ideal for examining how geography and culture shape the domestication process. The authors integrate zooarchaeological and isotopic data from Neolithic ( c . 10 000–2000 BP) pigs from central China and the Lower Yangtze Valley to demonstrate two dominant domestication trajectories. In central China, pig husbandry intensified following domestication, corresponding with population growth and a shift in socio-economic organisation. In the Lower Yangtze Valley, however, increasing urbanism was associated with a preference for wild resources supplemented by the limited exploitation of domestic pigs.