In a message dated 7/26/02 5:13:56 PM, [log in to unmask] writes:

>Most of us associate Native Americans and corn. But,
>corn (maize) agriculture was a fairly late arrival,
>beating the arrival of Europeans by just a few
>centuries. Prior to that, most agriculture
>(permaculture) on this continent consisted of items we
>would consider very paleo. And even then agriculture
>was not nearly as widespread as in Europe and Asia.
>
A book I have, "Patterns in Prehistory" by Robert Wenke says that the
domestication/cultivation of maize occurred first in Tehuacan, Mexicon at
about 5000 BC; oddly enough the bean appears to have been cultivated a bit
earlier in peru at about 5500 BC. Maize appears to have moved rapidly through
meso and South American --- According to Jared Diamond (Gins, Germs and
Steel) North American eastern Indians had been cultivating some local plants
since 2500 BC but began to trade in their local crops for Mexico's trinity of
corn, beans and squash. Corn arrived from Mexico about 200 AD, but didn't
take firm route until about 900 AD. From what I can gather many/most
Indigenous North American people were not heavy into farming -- plains
Indians depended on the buffalo, Northwest on salmon, etc. and Calif Indians
on seafood and acorns etc. Jared says that Western US Indians didn't give up
hunting/gathering until modern times.

Interestingly Jared mentions that around 3000 BC the hunter-gatherers of
Sweden adopted farming based on SW Asian crops but abandoned it about 2700 BC
and went back to hunting for 400 years before taking up farming again.

Namaste, Liz
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