35. Agricultural Origins and Diffusions

Plant and Animal domestication

  • domestication refers to the long-term process through which humans selectively breed, protect, and care for unique plants and animals taken from wild populations

  • creates genetically distinct species (called domesticates)

  • domestication is ongoing trial and error

    • occured over thousands of years from close ties between hunters/gatherers and their land

  • advances in domestication made over thousands of years led to the First Agricultural Revolution

  • Plant domestication

    • evidence suggests humans domesticated plants before they did animals

    • domesticated plant = plants humans deliberately plant, protect, and care for

      • first step = realizing a plant is beneficial

    • Teosinte

      • prior to domestication, teosinte produced maize less than 1 inch long

      • maize was favored among mesoamerica and its usefulness led to the cultivation of its seeds

      • over time, teosinte became a single stalk with few maize ears on each plant

      • the domestication led to fewer ears being produced, but the ears were bigger

    • domesticated plants are ALMOST ALWAYS genetically distinct from their ancestors

      • meaning: domesticates are bigger than wild species

    • prehistoric women likely played a larger role in the domestication of plants because they had primary daily contact with plant species

    • Carl Sauer: theorized domestication was independetly developed at different times and locations, then diffused outward

      • people said the desperate search for food led prehistoric people to experiment with domestication

      • Sauer said starving people must spend too much time searching for food, so they won’t have enough time to experiment with domestication

      • Sauer concluded domestication toook place among those who had a settlement, time, and enough resources to experiment (first farmers were likely sedentary folk)

    • Second part of Sauer’s theory

      • Grasslands contain vast amounts of thick sod

        • Sauer posited that domestication likely did not begin in grasslands or river floodplains due to challenges like thick sod in grasslands and frequent flooding in floodplains

    • Third part of Sauer’s theory

      • original areas of domestication must’ve been regions with rich biodiversity statistics

        • places with many plants

        • abundant vegetative material

        • vast resources for cross-breeding

      • hilly districts, differing sun exposure, elevation

  • Animal Domestication

  • domesticated animals depend on people for food, care, shelter

  • differs from its ancestor species in looks and behaviors due to close contact w/ humans

    • dog’s close nature with humans seems to be more ancient than the domestication of plants and form due to hunting reasons

  • recent research theorizes interactions between humans and animals were mutually beneficial

  • important animal domesticates: horses, pigs, goats, sheep, cattle

    • llamas are regionally important to groups in the andes mountains for producing wool

    • water buffalo are regionally important to areas with rice paddies to help labor efforts

Ancient Hearths of Domestication

  • Hearths refers to center where new practices develop and from which they are spread

  • the earliest domestication of plants began ~14,000 years ago

  • several different regions can act as hearths to domestication

    • Southwest Asia

      • fertile crescent (mesopotamia) and the indus river valley

        • introduced wheat, barley, rice, oats

        • domesticated cattle

        • mixed crop/livestock farming

        • used oxen to pull plow

        • housed the sumerian/mesopatomian and harappan civlization

        • home to domesticated grapes and olives

    • China

      • domesticated rice, sugarcane, soybeans

    • South and Southeast Asia

      • root crops may have been domesticated here (theorized by Sauer)

        • root crops grow underground

        • crops are renewed by replanting roots back into the group

    • Malaysia

    • Africa

      • East and west domesticated peanuts, yams, and coffee, and sorghum

      • cattle domestication

        • african stock of cattle later mixed with the stock from the Indus Rivery Valley

    • Americas

      • Mesoamerica: modern day ~ Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Belize, Costa Rica

        • domesticated maize, tomatoes, beans, and sqaush

        • based around larger lakes

Diffusion of Domesticated Plants and Animals

  • domestication and domesticates used to primarily spread through expansion diffusion

  • Columbian Exchange

    • named for christopher columbus

    • spread of ideas, disease, crops, and culture between the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia

    • fifteenth and sixteenth centuries

    • process of relocation diffusion through the movement of explorers

    • hearth areas were mesoamerica and the middle east

  • Modern Diffusions

    • uses multidirectional diffusion

    • acceptances of new crops

    • spanish missionaries bringing olves, grapes, and date palm to present-day california

    • eastern hemisphere crops being seen in the americas

    • continues to process set in place by prehistoric diffusion of domestication and domesticates