Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVolume II
- The Cambridge World History
- A World with Agriculture, 12,000 bce–500 ce
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Archaeogenetics
- 3 Agricultural origins
- 4 What did agriculture do for us?
- 5 Communities
- 6 Pastoralism
- 7 Agriculture and urbanism
- 8 Early agriculture in Southwest Asia
- 9 ’Ain Ghazal, Jordan
- 10 Early agriculture in South Asia
- 11 Mehrgarh, Pakistan
- 12 Early agriculture in China
- 13 Xinglonggou, China
- 14 Early agriculture in Japan
- 15 The Nara basin paddies, Japan
- 16 Early agriculture in Southeast Asia and the Pacific
- 17 Swamp cultivators at Kuk, New Guinea
- 18 Early agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa to c. 500 ce
- 19 The Tichitt tradition in the West African Sahel
- 20 Early agriculture in the Americas
- 21 Nanchoc valley, Peru
- 22 Early agricultural society in Europe
- 23 Pioneer farmers at Brześć Kujawski, Poland
- Index
- References
20 - Early agriculture in the Americas
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015
Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVolume II
- The Cambridge World History
- A World with Agriculture, 12,000 bce–500 ce
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Archaeogenetics
- 3 Agricultural origins
- 4 What did agriculture do for us?
- 5 Communities
- 6 Pastoralism
- 7 Agriculture and urbanism
- 8 Early agriculture in Southwest Asia
- 9 ’Ain Ghazal, Jordan
- 10 Early agriculture in South Asia
- 11 Mehrgarh, Pakistan
- 12 Early agriculture in China
- 13 Xinglonggou, China
- 14 Early agriculture in Japan
- 15 The Nara basin paddies, Japan
- 16 Early agriculture in Southeast Asia and the Pacific
- 17 Swamp cultivators at Kuk, New Guinea
- 18 Early agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa to c. 500 ce
- 19 The Tichitt tradition in the West African Sahel
- 20 Early agriculture in the Americas
- 21 Nanchoc valley, Peru
- 22 Early agricultural society in Europe
- 23 Pioneer farmers at Brześć Kujawski, Poland
- Index
- References
Summary
Seasonal environments, especially forests and forest fringes, were key habitats for domestication in the Americas. Based on available data, plant domestication in the Americas was characterized by multiple, independent domestications of species in useful genera in North, Central, and South America. This chapter considers this pattern for pseudocereals, legumes, chiles, squashes, tobacco, cotton and a number of fruit trees. Plants needed for nutritionally balanced meals were domesticated multiple times in diverse settings. The early history of plant domestication begins in lower Central America and northwestern South America and is known in large part from microfossil evidence. Agriculture led to landscape transformations in the Americas, the scale of which varied across time and place. Fire was an important, early management tool. Other practices that changed landscapes include management of water and soil. Native agriculturalists in the Americas also practise crop rotation, sequential planting and fallowing.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge World History , pp. 514 - 538Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
References
Further reading
Bermejo, J.E.H. and León, J. (eds.). Neglected Crops: 1492 from a Different Perspective. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 1994.Google Scholar
Blake, M. and Neff, H.. ‘Evidence for the diversity of late Archaic and early Formative plant use in the Soconusco region of Mexico and Guatemala.’ In Lesure, R.G. (ed.), Early Mesoamerican Social Transformations: Archaic and Formative Lifeways in the Soconusco Region. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011. 47–66.Google Scholar
Boyd, M., Varney, T., Surette, C., and Surette, J.. ‘Reassessing the northern limit of maize consumption in North America: stable isotope, plant microfossil, and trace element content of carbonized food residue.’ Journal of Archaeological Science, 35 (2008), 2545–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byers, D.S. (ed.). The Prehistory of the Tehuacan Valley, vol. i: Environment and Subsistence. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1967.Google Scholar
Chandler-Ezell, K., Pearsall, D.M., and Zeidler, J.A.. ‘Root and tuber phytoliths and starch grains document manioc (Manihot esculenta), arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea), and llerén (Calathea sp.) at the Real Alto site, Ecuador.’ Economic Botany, 60 (2006), 103–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, J.E., Gibson, J.L., and Zeidler, J.. ‘First towns in the Americas: searching for agriculture, population growth, and other enabling conditions.’ In Bandy, M.S. and Fox, J.R. (eds.), Becoming Villagers: Comparing Early Village Societies. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2010. 205–45.Google Scholar
Denevan, W.M. Cultivated Landscapes of Native Amazonia and the Andes. Oxford University Press, 2001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denham, T.P., Iriarte, J., and Vrydaghs, L. (eds.). Rethinking Agriculture: Archaeological and Ethnoarchaeological Perspectives. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Dillehay, T.D., Rossen, J., Andres, T.C., and Williams, D.E.. ‘Preceramic adoption of peanut, squash, and cotton in northern Peru.’ Science, 316 (2007), 1890–3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Donkin, R.A. Agricultural Terracing in the Aboriginal New World. Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology 56. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Erickson, C.L. ‘The dating of raised-field agriculture in the Lake Titicaca basin, Peru.’ In Denevan, W.M., Mathewson, K., and Knapp, G. (eds.), Pre-Hispanic Agricultural Fields in the Andean Region. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1987. 373–84.Google Scholar
Hard, R.J. and Roney, J.R.. ‘The transition to farming on the Rio Casas Grandes and in the southern Jornada Mogollon region.’ In Vierra, B.J. (ed.), The Late Archaic across the Borderlands: From Foraging to Farming. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005. 141–86.Google Scholar
Harlan, J.R. Crops and Man. 2nd edn. Madison, WI: American Society of Agronomy, 1992.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawkes, J.G. The Potato: Evolution, Biodiversity, and Genetic Resources. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Huckell, L.W. and Toll, M.S.. ‘Wild plant use in the North American Southwest.’ In Minnis, P.E. (ed.), People and Plants in Ancient Western North America. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2004. 37–114.Google Scholar
MacNeish, R.S., Fowler, M.L., Garcia Cook, A., et al. (eds.). The Prehistory of the Tehuacan Valley, vol. v: Excavations and Reconnaissance. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1972.Google Scholar
Minnis, P.E. (ed.). People and Plants in Ancient Eastern North America. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Motley, T.J., Zerega, N., and Cross, H. (eds.). Darwin’s Harvest: New Approaches to the Origins, Evolution, and Conservation of Crops. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006. 67–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearsall, D.M. Plants and People in Ancient Ecuador: The Ethnobotany of the Jama River Valley. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2004.Google Scholar
Pearsall, D.M. and Stahl, P.W.. ‘The origins and spread of early agriculture and domestication: environmental and cultural considerations.’ In Matthews, J.A. (ed.), The Sage Handbook of Environmental Change. 2 vols. Los Angeles: Sage, 2012. vol. ii, 328–54.Google Scholar
Piperno, D.R. and Dillehay, T.D.. ‘Starch grains on human teeth reveal early broad crop diet in northern Peru.’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105 (2008), 19622–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Piperno, D.R. and Pearsall, D.M.. The Origins of Agriculture in the Lowland Neotropics. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Piperno, D.R., Ranere, A.J., Holst, I., Iriarte, J., and Dickau, R.. ‘Starch grain and phytolith evidence for early ninth millennium bp maize from the central Balsas River valley, Mexico.’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106 (2009), 5020–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Raymond, J.S. and Burger, R.L. (eds.). Archaeology of Formative Ecuador. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2003.Google Scholar
Sauer, J.D. Historical Geography of Crop Plants: A Select Roster. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Silverman, H. and Isbell, W.H. (eds.). Handbook of South American Archaeology. New York: Springer, 2008. 157–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmonds, N.W. and Smartt, J. (eds.). Evolution of Crop Plants. 2nd edn. Essex: Longman Scientific & Technical, 1995. 383–8.Google Scholar
Stone, D. (ed.). Pre-Columbian Plant Migration. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 76. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Webster, L.D., McBrinn, M.E., and Carrera, E.G. (eds.). Archaeology Without Borders: Contact, Commerce, and Change in the US Southwest and Northwestern Mexico. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2008.Google Scholar
- 1
- Cited by