Chapter 7
How to Make an Almond
Fleshy Fruits
• In nature, fruits are often fleshy to attract animals
• the seeds of fruit are often bitter and are dispersed (and fertilized) by passing through the animal.
• Domestication of plants by humans also may have started in such latrines.
Selection of Desired Qualities
• Eventually humans selected desired qualities:
– Size
– lack of bitterness
– fleshiness
– Oiliness
– fiber length in plants.
Traits Selected Unknowingly
• Dispersal mutations (peas that stayed in the pods, wheat that did not shatter)
• Early germination of planted seeds -- those that did not readily germinate were not selected for replanting (examples wheat, barley, peas)
• Reproductive biology to be selfing (plums, peaches apricots, cherries, grapes)
• Seed size: competition among planted seeds selects for qualities like seed size differently than in nature.
Difficulty of Domestication
• Wheat and peas easy to domesticate in Fertile Crescent (8,500 B.C.)
– grew wild
– annual
– easily stored
Difficulty of Domestication
• Fruit and nut trees harder to domesticate(4,000 B.C.) – long growing
season.
• Fruit trees that needed grafting took even longer
Pulses
• Cereals are low in protein, but the deficit is made up by pulses (beans, peas, lentils) in most food systems.
Sowing by Broadcast
• Grains in Eurasia were sown by broadcast, later in animal plowed fields to give monoculture.
Digging Sticks
• In new world, planting done by digging stick, (no plow animals domesticated), leading to mixed gardens.
Almonds and Oaks
• Almonds more easily domesticated:– faster growing– Only one gene for bitterness of seed.
• Oaks never domesticated:– slow growth– fast squirrels replant acorns– multiple genes controlling bitterness.
Chapter 8
Apples or Indians
Domesticated Plants
• There are 200,000 species of plants
• Only a dozen plants account for 80% of worlds production
80% of World’s Production:
• Wheat• Maize• Rice• Barley• Sorghum• Soybean• Potato• Cassava• Sweet potato• Sugar cane• Sugar beet• Banana
Major Domesticated Crops
• No new plants domesticated in modern times
• All of these domesticated thousands of years ago.
Domestication Requirements
• Several domesticable plants had large ranges, but domesticated only in one place.
• Why not in others? • Domestication required
settling down, and had to be worth it with several plants domesticated, not just one.
Fertile Crescent
Fertile Crescent Attributes
• Mediterranean climate.
• Abundant wild stands of wheat that needed little change to be domesticated.
• Hunter/gatherers settled down here before agriculture, living off grain
• High percentage of self pollinating plants -- easiest to domesticate.
Fertile Crescent Advantages
• Largest Mediterranean climate with highest diversity of species.
• High percentage of annual plants. Annuals produce seeds that dry down until rainy season.
• Of large seeded grass species of the world, 32 of 56 grow here.
Fertile Crescent Advantages
• Diversity of terrain and habitats: diversity of species to be domesticated.
• Big animals for domestication: goat, sheep, pig, cow.
Fertile Crescent Domestication
• Agriculture launched by domestication of 8 crops (founder crops): emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, barley, lentil, pea, chickpea, bitter vetch, flax.
• Wheat and pulses gave balanced carbohydrate and protein.
Fertile Crescent Domestication
• Hunter gathering eventually not too productive, easily giving way to agriculture.
• Domestication occurred from 9,000 B.C. to 6,000 B.C.
Meso America
• In Meso America, the only animals domesticated were turkey and dog
• Maize was slow to domesticate.
• Domestication occurred from 3,500 B.C. to 1,500 B.C.
Independent Domestication
• In New Guinea or USA, food also independently domesticated, but limited crops.
• Indigenous peoples usually walking encyclopedias about wild foods.
Independent Domestication
• Was it culture that rejected domesticated crops?
• Unlikely since imported crops readily adapted and then populations took off.
Independent Domestication
• Problem was in the plants available for domestication.
• Poor candidates for grain domestication
• No large animal domestication,
• Crops domesticated had limited calories and protein.
New Guinea
• New Guinea crop was Taro:
• Low in protein, leading to eating of
– Spiders
– Frogs
– Mice
– Cannibalism
USA
• USA crops were squash, sunflower, sumpweed and goosefoot.
• Not enough of a crop package to sustain large populations without hunting and gathering, until Maize imported 2000 years later.
• Therefore it was the lack of an entire suite of animal and plants available for domestication that was responsible for the late start of food production in N. America.
Chapter 9
Zebras, etc
Big 5 Domesticated Animals
• Horse
• Cow
• Pig
• Sheep
• Goat
• All from Eurasia
Domesticated Animals
• Of the 14 large (over 100 lb) successful domesticated animal species in the world– 13 are from Eurasia, – one from South
America.
• Why the huge disparity?
• Why did Africa have none?
Large Animals
• Of 148 large herbivorous or omnivorous species in the world– Eurasia had 72– Africa 51– Americas 24– Australia 1
Not a Cultural Issue
• When the big 5 Eurasian domesticates were introduced into Africa and the Americas they were readily adopted.
• All peoples have experience taming wild animals, keeping pets.
• But not all tamed animals can become domesticated.
Not a Cultural Issue
• All major animal domestication occurred between 8,500-2,500 B.C. with almost none since then.
• Those of the 148 possible species capable of being domesticated were domesticated.
Why have 134 out of 148 big species not been domesticated?
• Diet too finicky (ex: koala)
• Growth rate too slow (ex: elephants, gorillas)
• Captive Breeding. Some animals have elaborate mating rituals that they won't do in captivity (ex: cheetah, vicuna)
Why have 134 out of 148 big species not been domesticated?
• Nasty Disposition. (ex: grizzly bear, African buffalo, onager, zebra, hippo, elk)
• Tendency to panic. (ex: deer, antelope, gazelles).
Why have 134 out of 148 big species not been domesticated?
• Social structure. – Need animals that live in
herds with hierarchy and have overlapping ranges
– Humans can then take over dominance position.
– Solitary animals hard to domesticate (only cats and ferrets have been).
Why have 134 out of 148 big species not been domesticated?
• Territorial animals hard to pen up with others (ex: Africa antelope, rhino).
• Animals without dominance structure are hard to herd (ex: deer, antelope.
Chapter 10
Spacious Skies and Tilted Axes
Easier to spread East-West
• It was easier for domestic plants and animals (later, technology like wheels, writing) to spread East-West in Eurasia than North- South in Americas.
Evidence
• Some crops domesticated independently in both S. America and Meso America due to slow spread– lima beans
– common beans
– chili peppers
Evidence
• Most crops in Eurasia domesticated only once.
• Rapid spread preempted same or similar domestication.
• Fertile Crescent crops spread to Egypt, N. Africa, Europe, India and eventually to China.
Africa
• East-West spread of plants, animals easier due to same day-length, similar seasonal variations.
• By contrast, spread of these crops stopped past Sahara due to tropical climate, and thus didn't reach temperate S. Africa until colonists came.
• Tropical crops spread West to East in Africa with Bantu culture, but did not cross to S. Africa due to climate.
Americas
• Distance between cool highlands of Mexico and Andes was only 1,200 miles but separated by low hot tropical region.
• Thus, no exchange of crops, animals, writing, wheel. – Only maize spread.
Americas
• It took 2,000 years for maize to cross 700 miles of desert to reach U.S.A.
• It took another 1000 years for maize to adapt to U.S.A. climate to be productive
Amber Waves of Grain
• Geographic barriers like mountains and deserts can also slow spread of crops East-West – agriculture spread from U.S.A.
southeast to southwest slowed by dry Texas and southern great plains
• Amber waves of grain did not stretch from sea to sea in N. America, but did in Eurasia.
Not a Cultural Issue
• Some species like cows, dogs, pigs independently domesticated in different parts of the world. These animals were well suited for domestication.
• Modern attempts to domesticate eland, elk, moose, musk ox, zebra, American Bison are only marginally successful.