THE ORIGINS OF AGRICULTURE

Hunter-Gatherers to Agrarians

Agriculture from Mexico???

Maize (corn)Beans

Weeds or Healthy Treats?

SumpweedGoosefootSunflowerLittle BarleyErect knotweedMaygrass

Was it better to be a nomad?

TallerHealthierNo DiseaseGreater Age

HOW???

Did Agriculture Spread?

Or Develop Separately in Separate Places?

“Undisputed” origins of Agriculture

DOMESTICATION

Ancient peoples unintentionally provided the origin of modern plants

Natural Selection (the strong shall not survive)

Weak plants had difficulty survivingDesires for taste and size

DOMESTICATION

THE BEGINNINGS OF CLONING

Propagation of Cuttings

Grafting

Weeds or New Healthy Treats?

RyeOatsTurnipsBeetsLeeksLettuce

“Famine Foods”

Or “second-line”resources

Food not usually consumed on “normal” or prosperous periods

“Low-level Food Production”

A mixture of hunting and gathering and small-scale

agriculture

NECESSITIES

Agriculture means that people must remain in the same place to tend crops

This means higher birth rates with less recovery times

Larger population necessitates greater amounts of food

MAIZEArrived from Mexico about 200

ADNot part of the daily diet until

650 – 850 ADUsed for religious and

ceremonial purposesMississippian culture

ALABAMA?!The oldest kernel of corn from the Eastern Woodlands was found near Lake Shelby in Southern Alabama

OLD, or GOLD???Some maize kernels found have been

dated to over 4,000 years ago. In 1999, Archaeologists from

UCBerkeley and the University of NM found a corn kernel in Arizona that dates to 3,690 years old

New radio-carbon dating methods

SOURCES• Gremillion, Kristen J, “Seed Processing and the Origins of

Food production in North America”, American Antiquity, v. 69, n. 2, 2004, pp. 215-233

• http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/dept/d10/asb/anthro2003/lifeways/hg_ag/quiet_revolution.html

• http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC12/Gilman3.htm• http://www.primalseeds.org/agricult/htm• http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/99legacy/2-17

-1999.html

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