Histories of Maize in the Americas: Multidisciplinary Approaches (original) (raw)

Introduction to the Histories of Maize in Mesoamerica

Histories of Maize in Mesoamerica, 2016

The goal of the editors of this volume on maize science was to bring together contributions that would individually incorporate and collectively assemble a comprehensive multidisciplinary set of data that developed particular lines or types of evidence from specific time periods (and regions) throughout the pre-Columbian geographic range of maize cultivation in Mesoamerica 1. Another primary goal in organizing this volume was to be holistic, and include research from the social, biological and earth sciences. The abridged volume on Mesoamerica is organized into four sections dealing with different aspects and regions of research on maize. The scope and breadth of the research takes into account recent methodological and technological innovations from the physical, biological and social sciences. These recently developed technical and methodological approaches provide ever-increasing detail and direct evidence on the antiquity, evolution, cultural importance and role of maize in ancient Mesoamerica. We believe that more recent methodologies and approaches such as isotope analysis regarding paleodiet and DNA analysis have essentially transformed our understanding of the origins, economic roles, and importance of maize as well as other domesticates to sociocultural developments in prehistory. My colleagues Robert H. Tykot, Bruce F. Benz and I hope that the readers of this volume agree that the research presented herein have established this to be the case. One of our two European contributors observed that such a book could never have been realized had it been organized and published outside of North America (see Chapter 1). Rather it would have been broken up into several books specialized on the respective scientific discipline and specialization concerned. These volumes would have presumably included research that was specifically geared to the interested specialists in those fields. Archaeological research on the domestication of grains in the Old World have generally developed within competing models that consider the spread of agriculture through 'acculturation' or 'waves of advance,' while in the Americas they have been predominantly couched within foraging/farming dichotomies that are specific and distinct to different regions of the hemisphere and their associated time periods [see 4, 9, versus 5, 6, 12, 19, 23]. Although the Old World approaches on the spread of agriculture and domestication lend themselves well to models used or tested by human geneticists and linguists, they have not worked as well for archaeologists and ethnobotanists in the Americas. In the Old World, emphasis has been placed upon initial causes or events, while in the Americas, archaeologists and ethnobotanists have mainly focused upon earliest presence, as well as the developmental and/or evolutionary processes associated with plant domestication and maize agriculture [3. 10, 13]. The Old World emphasis on migration and diffusion of plant domestication also takes away from the general focus upon the distinctions that important cultigens had to different regions and time-periods, while in the Americas such concerns have been clearly evident in methodological approaches to understanding the archaeological record (1, 3, see e.g., Chapters 1, 7, and 10). Despite differences in theoretical and methodological approaches to plant domestication in general and economic plants (mainly grains) in particular, the assumption that maize, like wheat and barley in the Old World, provided the economic basis for the development of civilization has been a central thesis among archaeologists in both hemispheres as well as Latin America [8, 13]. Remarkably, many of the contributions in this volume challenge those basic assumptions. Although the chapters in this volume appear to support the contention that maize was a major economic staple, some contributions indicate that when and why this occurred is dramatically different than had been previously suggested in the literature [20]. Other contributors present evidence to suggest that the way maize affected sociocultural processes is in fact far more complex and varied than had been originally assumed. One of the primary themes that run through many of

The Antiquity, Biogeography and Culture History of Maize in Mesoamerica.

Histories of Maize in Mesoamerica: Multidisciplinary Approaches., 2010

Domestication genetic change in population due to interaction with humans that leads to a dependence relation. Agriculture the mutual dependence of crop plant and humans Anagenesis the persistence of one or a suite of biological traits that over time leads to varietal divergence Cladogenesis the development of evolutionary novelty through the extinction of preexisting forms Dietary reliance subsistent dependence on a specific crop or trophic level.

An Introduction to the Histories of Maize in the Americas

Histories of Maize: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Prehistory, Linguistics, Biogeography, Domestication, and Evolution of Maize. edited by John E. Staller, Robert H. Tykot and Bruce F. Benz., pp. xxi-xxv. Elsevier/Academic Press, Copyright 2015. Taylor & Francis Grp., NY: Routledge., 2006

The Italian explorer Girolamo Benzoni (c. 1541-55) recorded the steps involved in processing husked corn to make fresh dough. First the kernels were ground with a mano and metate and then patted into small cakes and finally cooked on a comal or griddle (from Girolamo Benzoni, La historia del mondo nvovo di M. Girolamo Benzoni Milanese, Venetia, F. Rampazeto. 1565. p. 56, verso). Images such as this woodcut and accounts from various chroniclers who came to the New World emphasized the role of maize as a primary staple, the staff of life, essentially synonymous to Old World wheat and barley. These early descriptions and the later role of maize as one of the world's primary economic staples predisposed many scholars to emphasize and, in some instances, assert that Zea mays L. was the catalyst to the development of civilization in this hemisphere. The contributions in this volume demonstrate that its role was more complex and varied than had been previously assumed. These histories of maize show that in some cases its symbolic role to Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier

The Antiquity, Biogeography, and Culture History of Maize in the Americas.

In Histories of Maize: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Prehistory, Linguistics, Biogeography, Domestication, and Evolution of Maize., edited by John E. Staller, Robert H. Tykot, and Bruce F. Benz., pp. 665-673. , 2006

A N T H R O P O L O G Y Early isotopic evidence for maize as a staple grain in the Americas

Maize is a cultigen of global economic importance, but when it first became a staple grain in the Americas, was unknown and contested. Here, we report direct isotopic dietary evidence from 52 radiocarbon-dated human skeletons from two remarkably well-preserved rock-shelter contexts in the Maya Mountains of Belize spanning the past 10,000 years. Individuals dating before ~4700 calendar years before present (cal B.P.) show no clear evidence for the consumption of maize. Evidence for substantial maize consumption (~30% of total diet) appears in some individuals between 4700 and 4000 cal B.P. Isotopic evidence after 4000 cal B.P. indicates that maize became a persistently used staple grain comparable in dietary significance to later maize agriculturalists in the region (>70% of total diet). These data provide the earliest definitive evidence for maize as a staple grain in the Americas.

The origin and diversity of maize in the american continent

Maize is the cereal of the peoples and cultures in the American continent. The most ancient civilizations in America –from the Olmecs and Teotihuacans in Mesoamerica to the Incas and Quechuans in the Andean region of South America- flourished accompanied with this plant. This link between culture and agriculture had motivated the humanists and scientists to ask: which is the origin of this cereal? How was the evolution of maize once the different human groups adopted and cultivated it for their own profit? These questions had led them to explore the past, and nowadays -thanks to the technological and scientific development- led them to unravel several enigmas which surround the domestication of this crop. Although not all the details that allow us to explain its origin and domestication had been found, the scientists reached a consensus: the direct ancestor of maize is the teosinte. Nevertheless, during more than 70 years and before reaching such conclusion, there was a deep debate which contributed to the advancement of knowledge in several areas of the scientific endeavor. So is it that some of the greatest scientists of the 20th century studied maize, its origins and diversification. For example, in 1983 the American researcher Barbara McClintock was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology due to her discovery of the mobile genetic elements1 in the chromosomes of maize. Maize is the cereal which has had more importance in the economy sector worldwide during all the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. In the industrialized countries, maize is mainly used as forage, raw material for the production of processed foods and, recently, for ethanol production. On the other hand, in some Latin American countries and increasingly more in Africa, a great percentage of maize produced or imported is used for human consumption. In this sense, maize had been and still is a key factor for the survival of farmers and indigenous people who live in most of the countries of the American continent. It is paradoxical that, even with each time less and less economic resources allocated for the inhabitants of the poorest communities, they are the stewards of maize diversity. Such situation is putting at risk valuable seeds: the researches and studies conducted throughout several years from the point of view of scientific and humanistic disciplines, have proved that the role of the farmer is of uttermost importance for the preservation and diversification of maize. However, the research and development programs for in situ conservation of maize are very restricted and had not been generalized to important regions with great concentration of ethnic and farming groups. Nowadays, keeping maize germplasm banks, or ex situ conservation, is the dominant strategy because it is linked to the technological path of the developed countries and also because the in situ conservation in several less developed countries is not supported due to financial restrictions. It is foreseen that within a few years, the lack of care and attention to these rural communities where the mayor percentage of native germplasm is, will have a negative impact on maize diversity. It is also foreseen that the public policies that promote the intensive capital technologies which move the jobs towards urban areas or towards foreign countries, will determine the rate of extinction of genetic resources of maize. The risk of loosing genetic diversity of maize is very high. The economic conditions of poverty and marginalization faced by the farmers, as is already evident in several regions of America, will lead to a generalized extinction of maize diversity. One way to alleviate this situation is to re-value the crop through the knowledge of its origin and diversification in the American Continent. This document aims to recover the history of the scientific research and socio-cultural aspects related to the origin and diversity of native maize, in order to allow the peoples of America rescue the plant which is a symbol of the American continent and its culture.