First Farmers: the Origins of Agricultural Societies offers readers an understanding of the origins and histories of early agricultural populations in all parts of the world. * Uses data from archaeology, comparative linguistics, and biological anthropology to cover developments over the past 12,000 years * Examines the reasons for the multiple primary origins of agriculture * Focuses on agricultural origins in and dispersals out of the Middle East, central Africa, China, New Guinea, Mesoamerica and the northern Andes * Covers the origins and dispersals of major language families such as Indo–European, Austronesian, Sino–Tibetan, Niger–Congo and Uto–Aztecan