Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Domestication
Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and
Steel
Why Farm?
• Hunting and gathering can supply a day’s
calories with a couple of hours’ work
• Many early farmers less well off than
hunter-gatherers
• Line between hunter-gatherers and farmers
is fuzzy
– In rich environments, hunter-gatherers may
have permanent settlements (Pacific
Northwest)
– May practice some agriculture along with
hunting and gathering (Apaches)
The Ice Age and Agriculture
• Sea level rise stops about 7000 years ago
• Agriculture spreads widely roughly same
time
• Stable coastal plain and river valley
environments
• Warm, dry climate favors spread of wild
grains
• Extinction of megafauna (and
domestication candidates?)
Mediterranean Climate
• Dry Summer, Rainy Winter
• Favors plants with seeds that can survive
long dry periods
• These seeds can be stored for extended
periods
• Will not spoil or germinate while dry
• Eurasian Mediterranean is world’s largest
zone, greatest ecological diversity in small
areas
The Fertile Crescent
Large Seed Grasses
• 56 species, <1% of total grass species
• Eurasian Mediterranean 32 species
• Rest of Eurasia 7 species
• Sub-Saharan Africa 4 species
• North America 4 species
• Mesoamerica 5 species
• South America 2 species
• Australia 2 species
Human Plant Environments
• Select desirable plants in wild
• Some seeds, fruits scattered at habitation
site
• Other seeds deposited in wastes
• Eventually have desirable plants growing
close-by
• Protection from foragers
• Seed collection
Plant Domestication
• More than just planting seeds or
transplanting
• Most plants inedible or otherwise unusable
• Most plants unsuited for primitive
domestication
• Not every locality has abundant plants
suitable for human use
• Need nutritional balance
• Requires changes in plant characteristics
Highland New Guinea
• Simple agriculture for thousands of years
• Active experimentation and inquiry
• Chronic protein deficiency
• Introduction of sweet potato (South America via
Philippines) caused population boom
• These people knew their environment as well as
any people on earth
• If any local plants could have been successfully
domesticated, they would have found them
Five Levels of Domestication
• Unconscious selection of plants for
desirable traits (9000 BC)
• Conscious cultivation of plants with desired
traits (BC)
• Deliberate breeding to improve traits
(1700)
• Scientific breeding: genetic mechanism
known and exploited (1900)
• Direct genetic manipulation (2000)
Reversing Natural Selection
Seed Scattering
• Non-bursting pods (peas)
• Non-shattering heads (grains)
• Fruits without seeds
Germination Inhibition
• Nature: favors seeds that germinate slowly
and over time
• Agriculture: favors seeds that germinate
quickly all at once
Reversing Natural Selection
Deterrents
• Loss of Toxicity (Almonds)
Changes in Reproduction
• Asexual Reproduction
• Self-Fertilization (Hermaphrodites)
Annuals favored: would evolve more quickly
under artificial selection
Plant Domestication
• Single Mutation
– Chance of getting multiple favorable mutations
very slim
• Self-Pollinated or Asexual Reproduction
– Pollination from elsewhere would negate
mutation
Some Non-Domesticates
Oaks
• Food Source in Many Places
• Grow Slowly
• Bitterness Controlled By Many Genes
• Seed Dispersal by Animals
Berries
• Seed Dispersal by Animals
• Domesticated only after greenhouses
invented
Fertile Crescent Founder Crops
• Emmer Wheat
• Einkorn Wheat
• Barley
• Lentil
• Pea
• Chickpea
• Bitter Vetch
• Flax
North American Crops
• Gourds
• Sunflower
• Sumpweed (seed crop)
• Goosefoot (leaf crop)
• Corn (from Mexico)
• Beans (from Mexico)
• Squash (from Mexico)
Agriculture and Civilization
Why the Link?
• Need for organization, surveying, record-
keeping
• Surpluses allow development of specialist
classes
• Protection?
– Grain stores susceptible to raiding
Animal Domestication
• Genetic change that makes animal more
amenable to human control
• Not the same as:
– Taming
– Training
– Captive Breeding
• A lot more complicated than just capturing
and taming animals
Animal Domestication
Happy families are all alike. Every unhappy
family is unhappy in its own way.
--Tolstoy, Anna Karenina