1. THE ORIGINS OF AGRICULTURE Hunter-Gatherers to Agrarians

2. Agriculture from Mexico???  Maize (corn)  Beans

3. Weeds or Healthy Treats?  Sumpweed  Goosefoot  Sunflower  Little Barley  Erect knotweed  Maygrass

4. Was it better to be a nomad?  Taller  Healthier  No Disease  Greater Age

5. HOW???

6. Did Agriculture Spread?

7. Or Develop Separately in Separate Places?

8. “Undisputed” origins of Agriculture

9. DOMESTICATION  Ancient peoples unintentionally provided the origin of modern plants  Natural Selection (the strong shall not survive)  Weak plants had difficulty surviving  Desires for taste and size

10. DOMESTICATION THE BEGINNINGS OF CLONING Propagation of Cuttings Grafting

11. Weeds or New Healthy Treats?  Rye  Oats  Turnips  Beets  Leeks  Lettuce

12. “Famine Foods”  Or “second-line”resources  Food not usually consumed on “normal” or prosperous periods

13. “Low-level Food Production” A mixture of hunting and gathering and small-scale agriculture

14. NECESSITIES  Agriculture means that people must remain in the same place to tend crops  This means higher birth rates with less recovery times  Larger population necessitates greater amounts of food

16. MAIZE  Arrived from Mexico about 200 AD  Not part of the daily diet until 650 – 850 AD  Used for religious and ceremonial purposes  Mississippian culture

17. ALABAMA?!  The oldest kernel of corn from the Eastern Woodlands was found near Lake Shelby in Southern Alabama

18. OLD, or GOLD???  Some maize kernels found have been dated to over 4,000 years ago.  In 1999, Archaeologists from UCBerkeley and the University of NM found a corn kernel in Arizona that dates to 3,690 years old  New radio-carbon dating methods

20. SOURCES Gremillion, Kristen J, “Seed Processing and the Origins of Food production in North America”, American Antiquity, v. 69, n. 2, 2004, pp. 215-233 http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/dept/d10/asb/anthro2003/lifewa ys/hg_ag/quiet_revolution.htmlhttp://www.mc.maricopa.edu/dept/d10/asb/anthro2003/lifewa ys/hg_ag/quiet_revolution.html http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC12/Gilman3.htm http://www.primalseeds.org/agricult/htm http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/99legacy/2- 17-1999.htmlhttp://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/99legacy/2- 17-1999.html