Priliminary Discussion Of Pathways To Pig Domestication In China

According to recent research,the pathways to animal domestication can be grouped into three general domestication scenario s,i.e.,a commensal pathway,a prey pathway,and a directed pathway.It has been proved that pigs were domesticated in northern and southern China independently no later than 8000 B.P.,but the detailed information on both pathways is still vague.The study analyzed diachronic changes of relative ratios(NISP?MNI?MW)of pig bones unearthed,the lengths of M3,age structures and diet change of samples from typical Neolithic sites from the Central Plains region and the lower Yangtze region.In addition,we applied the method of stable isotope analysis into the two areas.Carbon and nitrogen isotope values were measured of human and pig bones from Tianluoshan Site and Jiangjiashan Site in the lower Yangtze region.Existing data from sites located in two areas was also combined with them.Through analyzing the data,we can reveal the diets of human and pigs,which can distinguish the domestic pigs from wild boars.The result can help us judge the domestication stage of pigs.Taken the above results together,we think that both pathways in northern and southern China were tend to be prey pathway while the time duration differs a lot when referring to each domestic stage and the difference was due to the intensity of relationship between human and pigs in diverse sites.