Disentangling Domestication from Food Production Systems in the Neotropics

Abstract

The Neolithic Revolution narrative associates early-mid Holocene domestications with the development of agriculture that fueled the rise of late Holocene civilizations. This narrative continues to be influential, even though it has been deconstructed by archaeologists and geneticists in its homeland. To further disentangle domestication from reliance on food production systems, such as agriculture, we revisit definitions of domestication and food production systems, review the late Pleistocene–early Holocene archaeobotanical record, and quantify the use, management and domestication of Neotropical plants to provide insights about the past. Neotropical plant domestication relies on common human behaviors (selection, accumulation and caring) within agroecological systems that focus on individual plants, rather than populations—as is typical of agriculture. The early archaeobotanical record includes numerous perennial and annual species, many of which later became domesticated. Some of this evidence identifies dispersal with probable cultivation, suggesting incipient domestication by 10,000 years ago. Since the Pleistocene, more than 6500, 1206 and 6261 native plant species have been used in Mesoamerica, the Central Andes and lowland South America, respectively. At least 1555, 428 and 742 are managed outside and inside food production systems, and at least 1148, 428 and 600 are cultivated, respectively, suggesting at least incipient domestication. Full native domesticates are more numerous in Mesoamerica (251) than the Andes (124) and the lowlands (45). This synthesis reveals that domestication is more common in the Neotropics than previously recognized and started much earlier than reliance on food production systems. Hundreds of ethnic groups had, and some still have, alternative strategies that do involve domestication, although they do not rely principally on food production systems, such as agriculture.

Extinction risk of Mesoamerican crop wild relatives

“…Mesoamerican people have been managing wild and cultivated plants for thousands of years using a diverse range of agricultural and in situ vegetation management techniques (Casas et al, 2007;Clement et al, 2021) G omez-Pompa & Kaus, 1999;Correa-Cano, 2004;Dalle et al, 2006;Dalle et al, 2011). If agricultural sustainability and food security are to be attained in Mesoamerica, innovation has to involve the return to and maximisation of traditional and more diverse and sustainable production systems (CONANP, 2019).…”

Natural and Cultural Processes Influencing Gene Flow Among Wild (atoq papa), Weedy (araq papa and k’ipa papa), and Crop Potatoes in the Andean Region of Southern Peru

“…The fair shows the high cultural and economic value of araq papas in the region; people go the fairs to obtain tubers of varieties from different areas, which contribute to increase variation of araq papas managed by households and potentiates the gene flow among distant populations. These forms of management are similar to those described for edible weeds of several species in Mesoamerica, Andes and Amazonia, which have been documented to involve processes of incipient domestication (Casas et al, 1996(Casas et al, , 2007Parra et al, 2010Parra et al, , 2012Clement et al, 2021). Management of wild and weedy potatoes offer therefore the opportunity to analyze parallel similar processes of domestication in three of the most important settings of domestication in the Americas.…”

“…The Andean region has been recognized as one of the areas with the earliest signs of food production in the Americas and the highest agrobiodiversity of the world (Harlan, 1975;Hawkes, 1983;Vavilov, 1992;Brush et al, 1995;Zimmerer, 2003Zimmerer, , 2016Brush, 2004;Brack and Bravo, 2006;Clement et al, 2021). Agrobiodiversity is a term commonly associated to genetic diversity of crops, but it is a concept that includes the general richness and diversity of species of plants, animals, macromycetes, lichens, and microorganisms (bacteria, cyanobacteria, and fungi) that interact with crops in agroecosystems, as well as the heterogeneity of ecosystems in agricultural landscapes (FAO, 2016;Casas and Vallejo, 2019).…”

The Taming of Psidium guajava: Natural and Cultural History of a Neotropical Fruit

“…Fruit trees were important resources for the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Neotropics ( Piperno and Pearsall, 1998 ; Clement et al, 2021 ). Along the Peruvian coast, archeological sites with guava macro-remains date back to 7.000 calibrated years before the present (cal.…”