> domestication/cultivation of maize occurred first in
> Tehuacan, Mexicon at
> about 5000 BC; oddly enough the bean appears to have

You're right, of course. I should have prefaced my
statements that I was talking about 'North American'
Native Americans.

> Steel) North American eastern Indians had been
> cultivating some local plants

Which makes a lot of sense. Why go out and gather in
the field when you can gather right around your own
home?

> Corn arrived from Mexico
> about 200 AD, but didn't
> take firm route until about 900 AD.

You know, now that I think about it, wild rice is
probably a far older 'cultivated' grain on this
continent than corn.

> Jared says that Western
> US Indians didn't give up
> hunting/gathering until modern times.

Most of the Natives in the American west were nomadic
hunter gatherers. That is, until the introduction of
the horse. Suddenly it was no longer necessary to
migrate all year long.

> 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.

I find that fascinating. I wonder which Asian crops
they tried to grow?

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