Anthropology 2100 Lecture Notes - Ocean Current, Huaca Prieta, Shark Attack
Document Summary
New world domesticates include maize, beans, squash, chilli peppers, , sunflower, marsh elder, goosefoot, tobacco, peanuts, cotton, quinoa, gourds, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, llama, alpaca, guinea pig (south. Centres of domestication were mesoamerica, the central andes, and the tropical south america/central america including panama, columbia, ecuador, and peru which had domesticated squash by 10,000 -8,000 ya. These were likely domesticated unintentionally through seedbed selection where smaller seed sprouts are thinned out leading to artificial selection of more productive plants. Dry caves investigated by scotty macneish show a 12,000 year occupation and stable isotope analysis shows that plant foods became important early and increased through time and the diet was 90% plant food by 6500 ya. There are preserved corn cobs from coxcatlan, purron and san marcos caves show evolution of maize and it is dated to ca. Maize depletes the soil of nitrogen but beans return nitrogen to the soil.