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Hoe-farming is a term introduced (as german: Hackbau; as opposed to ''Ackerbau'') by Eduard Hahn in 1910 to collectively refer to primitive forms of
agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...
, defined by the absence of the
plough A plough or plow ( US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or ...
.
Tillage Tillage is the agricultural preparation of soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling methods using hand tools include shoveling, picking, mattock work, hoein ...
in hoe-farming cultures is done by simple manual tools such as
digging stick A digging stick, sometimes called a yam stick, is a wooden implement used primarily by subsistence-based cultures to dig out underground food such as roots and tubers, tilling the soil, or burrowing animals and anthills. It is a term used in ar ...
s or hoes. Hoe-farming is the earliest form of agriculture practiced in the
Neolithic Revolution The Neolithic Revolution, or the (First) Agricultural Revolution, was the wide-scale transition of many human cultures during the Neolithic period from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement, making an inc ...
. Early forms of the plough ('' ard'') were introduced throughout the Near East (
Naqada II The Gerzeh culture, also called Naqada II, refers to the archaeological stage at Gerzeh (also Girza or Jirzah), a prehistoric Egyptian cemetery located along the west bank of the Nile. The necropolis is named after el-Girzeh, the nearby contem ...
) and Europe (
Linear Pottery culture The Linear Pottery culture (LBK) is a major archaeological horizon of the European Neolithic period, flourishing . Derived from the German ''Linearbandkeramik'', it is also known as the Linear Band Ware, Linear Ware, Linear Ceramics or Inc ...
) by the 5th to 4th millennium BC. The invention spread throughout
Greater Persia Greater Iran ( fa, ایران بزرگ, translit=Irān-e Bozorg) refers to a region covering parts of Western Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Xinjiang, and the Caucasus, where both Iranian culture and Iranian languages have had a si ...
and parts of
Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the fo ...
, reaching
East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...
in the 2nd millennium BC ( Chinese Bronze Age). The parts of the world where agriculture was introduced but not the plough (in the case of the
New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...
up to the introduction of plough-farming with
European colonization The historical phenomenon of colonization is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Ancient and medieval colonialism was practiced by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Turks, and the Arabs. Colonialism in the modern sense be ...
) were named the hoe-cultivation belt () by Hahn (1914), followed by Werth (1954). The Hoe-cultivation belt is mostly located in tropical latitudes, including
Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...
(but not the Horn of Africa, where the plough appears to have been introduced via Egypt), Maritime Southeast Asia, and the pre-Columbian Americas. Hoe-farming often coincides with long fallow systems and
shifting cultivation Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned while post-disturbance fallow vegetation is allowed to freely grow while the cultivator moves on to another plot. The period of cu ...
. Split hoes (also known as prong hoes, tined hoes or bent forks) are hoes that have two or more tines at right angles to the shaft. Their use is typically to loosen the soil, prior to planting or sowing. It provides the ability to cultivate effectively at small row distances. Split hoeing is contrasted to permanent plough-based cultivation systems and the intensification of agriculture. Hoe-farming may contain
slash and burn Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed veget ...
clearance techniques, but they are not strictly necessary. Kienzle 2003 (se
online
It is usually embedded in the logic of
subsistence agriculture Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no ...
.


See also

*
Slash and burn Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed veget ...
*
Subsistence agriculture Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no ...
* Center of origin *


References

* Eduard Hahn ''Niederer Ackerbau oder Hackbau?'' Globus 97, 1910, S. 202–204. * Eduard Hahn ''Von der Hacke zum Pflug''. Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig, 1914. * Eduard Hahn ''Die Haustiere und ihre Beziehungen zur Wirtschaft des Menschen'' (Leipzig, 1896). * Eduard Hahn: "Ackerbau". In: ''
Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde ''Germanische Altertumskunde Online'', formerly called ''Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde'', is a German encyclopedia of the study of Germanic history and cultures, as well as the cultures that were in close contact with them. The first ...
'' (ed. Johannes Hoops, Straßburg 1911–1919), vol. 1, 17. * Eduard Hahn: "Hackbau". In: ''Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte'' (ed. Max Ebert, Berlin, 1924–1932) vol. 5, 12-13. * Emil Werth: ''Grabstock, Hacke und Pflug''. Ludwigsburg, 1954. * {{cite book , last=Ziller , first=Reinhart , title=Der Pflug. Geschichtliche Entwicklung und praktische Anwendung he plough. Historical development and practical application", location=Stuttgart , year=1974 , language=German , format=PDF , url=http://www.schulgarten.ch/texte/Pflug.pdf , ref=Zil74 , access-date=2008-07-11 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929125642/http://schulgarten.ch/texte/Pflug.pdf , archive-date=2007-09-29 , url-status=dead " History of agriculture Prehistoric agriculture Neolithic Agricultural revolutions Tropical agriculture