Debates over cultural changes associated with the origins of agriculture have long been a core area of research for the anthropological sciences and a prominent topic of interest across both the biological and social sciences. In 2009, The Beginnings of Agriculture symposium brought together top scholars to discuss new perspectives in this debate. The event was a watershed moment for the field, and in the same year, Dorian Fuller published a statement claiming that a paradigm shift was underway.

2024 marks a decade and a half since that pivotal symposium, and the field has rapidly progressed, with a new generation of scholars engaging in the origins of agriculture debates. At the same time, geneticists and ecologists are rapidly outnumbering anthropologists in the ongoing discussions, and scholars from these three disparate disciplines rarely meet to share ideas.

Domesticating Earth brought together 50 scholars—half of whom focus on the origins of domestication debates and half working on the origins of cultivation—representing a mix of senior and junior scholarship with diverse global perspectives bridging anthropology, ecology, and genetics. The symposium was hosted at the Ringberg Castle in Bavaria, which boasts 50 guestrooms, massive dining and lecture halls, and catering facilities fully staffed and experienced in hosting large-scale academic events.

The cultural shifts that accompanied the gradual transitions from a predominantly foraging economy to one primarily focused on the cultivation of crops have long been a key topic of interest among anthropologists. Likewise, the evolutionary processes that led to the domestication of these crops have attracted scholars from across the archaeological sciences, along with geneticists and ecologists. Collectively, the beginnings of agriculture were one of the most influential phenomena that led humanity into the culturally modern world.

Over the past decade and a half, there have been large-scale reassessments of how these cultural and biological processes unfolded. By bringing together scholars from across the anthropological, biological, and ecological sciences, we broke down disciplinary barriers and ensured that the cultural aspects remained at the forefront of discussions.

The 2009 symposium concluded with an article, jointly published by Zeder and Smith, titled A Conversation on Agricultural Origins: Talking Past Each Other in a Crowded Room. The symposium brought together the world’s greatest minds on the origins of agriculture debates, and the culmination was an article stating that few points of consensus had been met. This profound event, probably more than any other, signaled the need for a change in rhetoric and perspective. It is clear that scientific inquiry has continued to advance rapidly, but it is less clear whether theory is keeping up with these debates. Many scholars remain entrenched in push or pull camps, and both are bogged down by one question – why did humans choose to do it? The prominence of humanist ideals in these debates, especially leading up to 2009, has framed intellectual progress. The 2009 symposium allowed scholars to break free of these constraints and to consider ideas previously avoided in mainstream discussions. Increasingly, scholars are setting aside models that rely on intentional human drivers and instead theorizing unconscious processes for domestication.

Researchers are diving into ecological studies of mutualistic relationships and further exploring how seed-dispersal systems function as ways to understand the role of humans in early domestication. Correlations between archaeological material culture, often with more precise dating, and genetic or phenotypic changes in plants and animals clarify how humans engaged in these mutualisms. Researchers engaging in these studies are spread worldwide and isolated in opposing academic departments. We gathered these scholars for talks and workshop sessions to build bridges across disciplines and between national and social divides.