XVI International Botanical Congess

Explanations of agricultural origins in the New and Old World have run the gamut from those that emphasize social causality to those that rely on various forms of evolutionary (Darwinian) theory. Evolutionary (behavioral) ecology appears to be capable of providing testable hypotheses and robust explanations for early human foraging and food production in the Neotropical forest. Because behavioral ecology emphasizes decision making by human actors and phenotypic-level adaptations, and because it does not deny the existence of intentionality in the evolutionary process, it is probably more effective than selectionist Darwinian approaches in explaining the transition from foraging to farming in the Neotropics and elsewhere.