growth. More people meant more labor to work on farms
and, hence, larger harvests.
Larger harvests in turn made for greater security. Agri-
cultural surplus could stave off famine in lean years, and it
meant that not everyone had to work at farming. A successful
agricultural community could support people who did not
produce foods, such as craft smen, scholars, soldiers, priests,
bureaucrats, and rulers. Th e rise of agriculture was accompa-
nied by the growth of towns and eventually cities, as well as
the development of increasingly elaborate belief systems and
organized religion.
Th e early invention of agriculture in China gave the Chi-
nese many advantages over people in neighboring countries,
which resulted in China’s coming to infl uence or dominate
much of the Asia Pacifi c region. Rice quickly became the
main cultivated grain throughout southern Asia. Rice did
not travel on its own; it was carried by Chinese people who
moved into Southeast Asia around 4000 b.c.e. It arrived in
Th ailand between 3000 and 2000 b.c.e. People were grow-
ing rice in Mahagara, India, on the upper Ganges about 1500
b.c.e., while the earliest known rice cultivation in the Philip-
pines dates to about 1400 b.c.e. In Japan and Korea people
began growing rice in about 1000 b.c.e. Archaeologists have
found rice in a cave in Celebes, Indonesia, that was probably
grown during the fi rst century c.e.
Chinese culture became the standard against which all
other regional cultures compared themselves. Korea and Ja-
pan not only adopted rice farming from China but also bor-
rowed its system of writing. Th e modern Japanese language
contains a large portion of Chinese words and characters,
a relic of China’s cultural conquest. Modern people from
Th ailand, Burma, and Laos are descended from southern
Chinese ancestors. Th e previous occupants of the region,
hunter-gatherers of diff erent ethnic groups, were almost
entirely eradicated.
SOUTHEAST ASIA, INDIA, AND
THE PACIFIC ISLANDS
Once humans had mastered agriculture, increasing popu-
lations led them to investigate other lands. Over the course
of about 5,000 years, people managed to spread agriculture
through the entire Asia Pacifi c region. Scientists are not sure
that rice cultivation was the fi rst form of farming to reach
Southeast Asia. Southeast Asians have long grown a variety of
roots and tubers, including taro, arrowroot, and yam, as well
as fruits such as coconut, sago palm, citrus, banana, bread-
fruit, and jackfruit. No one knows exactly when these crops
were domesticated. Some historians believe that agriculture
arose independently in the region long before rice cultiva-
tion arrived around 3000 b.c.e. and that the fi rst domesti-
cated crops were replaced by rice farming. Th ey theorize that
roots and trees are plentiful in Southeast Asia and that they
are easier to cultivate than rice and other grains, so it makes
sense that people should have started farming them before
rice arrived with the Chinese.
Scientists have found evidence of rice cultivation in
Th ailand that dates from 3000 to 2000 b.c.e. at the sites Ban
Chiang and Non Nok Th a. Th e rice grains found at these sites
are larger than the grains of wild rice, a common sign of do-
mestication. Th e settlements themselves appear to have been
permanent, and there are many ceramic and metal objects
in graves, indicating a well-established society. Th roughout
Southeast Asia people modifi ed the land to grow their crops.
Th ey terraced hills to make fl at surfaces that would not erode.
Th ey dug drainage canals. Th ey cut down trees and burned
underbrush to make room for crops.
India received agriculture from both east and west. Th e
earliest agricultural societies in India clustered around the
major rivers, the Indus and the Ganges. Th e people of the
Indus valley began cultivating Near Eastern grains such as
emmer wheat and barley as early as 5000 b.c.e.; they also be-
gan growing cotton and lentils around the same time. Ad-
ditionally they domesticated cattle, which became the main
measure of wealth in their society. Along the Ganges, people
began cultivating rice around 1500 b.c.e., and rice culture
gradually traveled south through the subcontinent.
Most of the Indian subcontinent was subject to annual
monsoons, which brought nearly all of the year’s rainfall in
a single season. Although in some areas the soil retained
enough water from the monsoon to sustain crops year-round,
in most of the region farmers had to use artifi cial irrigation,
especially canals. Floods and droughts were perennial prob-
lems. Some years the monsoons did not bring much rainfall;
in other years they brought far too much.
In New Guinea people began experimenting with agri-
culture around 7000 b.c.e. Th is makes New Guinea one of the
few locations in the world where agriculture arose indepen-
dently. Historians believe that humans invented agriculture
in several places; the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East and
the rivers of China are two of the most signifi cant cradles of
agriculture. Agriculture spread from these places as people
moved around, bringing along with them seeds, tools, and
expertise. In a few places, however, people invented farming
by experimenting with wild seeds or roots and gradually do-
mesticating them, creating plants that could grow only with
human assistance. New Guinea is one of the places where this
happened. Native New Guineans had no contact with the
rest of Asia, so external agricultural techniques could not be
brought in. Th e island was home to several wild plants that
lent themselves to agricultural experimentation. Although
most people on the island in the eighth millennium b.c.e.
lived as hunter-gatherers, early farmers had begun growing
bananas, nuts, grasses, and green vegetables. Th ey also grew
breadfruit, sugarcane, yam, taro, and other roots. Root veg-
etables that survived in the hot, wet climate predominated.
New Guinea has several natural limitations that pre-
vented farmers from growing other major crops, notably
grains. No grains like wheat or barley are native to the is-
land, so farmers had no opportunity to domesticate them.
New Guinea also lacked large mammals; thus the human32 agriculture: Asia and the Pacific