https://bioone.org/journals/Economic-Botany/volume-61/issue-3/0013-0001(2007)61[303:HOMMAT]2.0.CO;2/Histories-of-Maize--Multidisciplinary-Approaches-to-the-Prehistory-Linguistics/10.1663/0013-0001(2007)61[303:HOMMAT]2.0.CO;2.pdf

Histories of Maize: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Prehistory, Linguistics, Biogeography, Domestication, and Evolution of Maize

The domestication of plants was a signature technology initiated by humans during the transition from hunting–gathering to agriculture, about 12 000 years ago. The initial phase of domestication represents a selection for increased adaptation to human cultivation, consumption, and utilization. Through multidisciplinary domestication research, a broad range of subjects is addressed, including the geographic and ecological origin of crop plants, the inheritance of domestication traits, the dispersal of crop plants from their centers of origin, and the timing and speed of domestication. With adaptation to changing human needs, domestication research has had a significant impact for continued crop improvement.

Domestication of Plants

Bones, boats and bison: Archeology and the first colonization of western North America

Milpas are rain-fed agroecosystems involving domesticated, semi-domesticated and tolerated plant species that combine maize with a large variety of other crop, tree or shrub species. Milpas are low input and low-tillage, yet highly productive agroecosystems, which have been maintained over millennia in indigenous communities in Mexico and other countries in Central America. Thus, milpas may retain ancient plant-microorganisms interactions, which could have been lost in modern high-tillage monocultures with large agrochemical input. In this work, we performed high-throughput 16S ribosomal DNA sequencing of soil adjacent to maize roots and bulk soil sampled at 30 cm from the base of the plants. We found that the bacterial communities of maize root soil had a lower alpha diversity, suggesting selection of microorganisms by maize-roots from the bulk-soil community. Beta diversity analysis confirmed that these environments harbor two distinct microbial communities; differences were driven by members of phyla Verrucomicrobia and Actinobacteria, as well as the order Burkholderiales (Betaproteobacteria), all of which had higher relative abundance in soil adjacent to the roots. Numerous studies have shown the influence of maize plants on bacterial communities found in soil attached tightly to the roots; here we further show that the influence of maize roots at milpas on bacterial communities is detectable even in plant-free soil collected nearby. We propose that members of Verrucomicrobia and other phyla found in the rhizosphere may establish beneficial plant-microbe interactions with maize roots in milpas, and propose to address their cultivation for future studies on ecology and potential use.

Enrichment of Verrucomicrobia, Actinobacteria and Burkholderiales drives selection of bacterial community from soil by maize roots in a traditional milpa agroecosystem.

Promoting traditional diets could potentially reduce the current high rates of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) globally. While the traditional Mexican diet (TMexD) could be specifically promoted in Mexico, a concise definition of the TMexD and evidence of its association with NCDs are needed before its promotion. To evaluate what constitutes this diet pattern, we aimed to systematically review, for the first time, how the TMexD has been described in the literature to date. A secondary aim was to examine whether the TMexD, as described by available definitions, is associated with NCD outcomes. We searched for records describing a whole TMexD up to July 2019 in 12 electronic databases, reference lists, a relevant journal, and by contacting experts on the topic. We reported the results using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. We included 61 records for the definition of the diet and six for the association with NCD outcomes. The food groups characterising the TMexD that were consistently mentioned in all the study subgroups were grains and tubers, legumes, and vegetables; specific foods included maize, beans, chile, squash, tomato, and onion. Other groups also mentioned, although with lesser frequency, were maize products, fruits, beverages, fish and seafood, meats, sweets and sweeteners, and herbs and condiments. Only a few studies reported on the frequency of consumption or the amounts in which these foods were consumed in the TMexD. It was not possible to reach strong conclusions for the association between adherence to the TMexD and NCD outcomes. The TMexD was weakly associated with developing breast cancer, not associated with triglyceride levels, and inconsistently associated with obesity and diabetes outcomes. However, results were limited by the small number of studies (n = 6), of which most were of observational nature and evaluated diets using different TMexD definitions. These findings provide systematically identified evidence of the characteristics of the TMexD. More studies are needed to ascertain the exact quantities by which foods were consumed in the TMexD in order to establish whether this dietary pattern is associated with health and should be promoted within the Mexican population.

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Definition of the Traditional Mexican Diet and Its Role in Health: A Systematic Review

The Archaic Diet in Mesoamerica: Incentive for Milpa Development and Species Domestication. One of the central questions in the development of Mesoamerican civilization is how the alimentary, agronomic, and ecological complementarities were achieved within the milpa agroecosystem, which is one of its more important and distinctive cultural elements. In the Mesoamerican center of origin of agriculture and domestication of plants, located in western Mexico, we inquired among Nahuatl communities about the ancient dishes prepared with wild plants that are part of their ancient foodways, and the tools and technology used to prepare them. We found that the wild progenitors of Agave spp., Zea mays L, Cucurbita argyrosperma Hort. Ex L.H. Bayley, Phaseolus spp., Capsicum annum L., Solanum lycopersicum L., Physalis phyladelphica Lam, Spondias purpurea L., Persea americana Mill., and Hyptis suaveolens (L.) Poit are consumed in dishes that remain in the present food culture of the poor peasants, and are prepared with techniques and tools that were available in the Archaic period: Sun drying, roasting, toasting, baking, cracking, grinding, crushing, fermenting, and soaking in plain water or in water with ash, using three–stone fireplaces, stone toasters, crushers, grinders, rock pits, and three types of earth ovens. A remarkable finding was that beans could be incorporated into the diet without boiling, but just by toasting, stone grinding, and baking in corn dough tamales. Results obtained suggest that the basic Mesoamerican diet could have been shaped before the species involved were domesticated. Its nutritional complementarity since the Archaic period could have been one of the incentives for the development of the milpa system and the domestication of its species, achieving in this way also their ecological and agronomical complementarity.

The Archaic Diet in Mesoamerica: Incentive for Milpa Development and Species Domestication

The Food System during the Formative Period in West Mesoamerica How was the food system structured in West Mesoamerica during the Formative Period (2400 BCE–100 CE)? The answer is important to understanding the high cultural development accomplished by the Mesoamerican civilizations throughout the Early Classic Period (100–400 CE) In the same native communities of Nahuatl origins for which we previously reconstructed their putative pre–ceramic food system, we investigated the ancient dishes that could have been developed in the Formative Period; we cooked using wild, cultivated, and domesticated native plants; and we employed ceramic technologies from that time We also recorded the ceramic objects from the Formative Period and Early Classic Period exhibited in local museums that had representations of plants, animals, and foods We found that the Formative Period food system could have included more than 66 dishes and drinks with 29 cultivated and domesticated native plants Compared with the putative Archaic Period food system, its nucleus continued to be composed by Zea mays, Phaseolus spp, Cucurbita argyrosperma, Solanum lycopersicum var cerasiforme, Physalis philadelphica, Capsicum annum, Hyptis suaveolens, and Spondias purpurea These plants probably had more variants than in the pre–ceramic period, and maize gained greater relevance The most important innovations were cooking in water and vapor, nixtamalization (soaking and cooking with water that contains lime), and possibly distillation The elaboration of food using ceramics could have facilitated the transformation of the ingredients, raised their quality and the number of dishes, and introduced new selective pressures on the cultivated plants, all of which probably had an impact on their diversification, domestication and productivity, and on the complexity of the agro–food system

The Food System during the Formative Period in West Mesoamerica 1

The west of the biogeographic region Balsas-Jalisco is considered a center of agricultural origin and plant domestication in the New World; in this region, a complex agro-alimentary system could have generated as far back as the Archaic Period (10000–4400 BP). To date, we ignore the structure and evolution of the system found there by the Europeans in 1522; however, this knowledge is fundamental to understand the high cultural development of the area and to measure the changes produced by the conquest and the subsequent cultural subjugation. We compiled the dishes that could have been elaborated during the Post-Classic Period (900–1521 CE), incorporating archaeological, ethnographic, and ethnobotanical information. The results indicate that the food system in 1522 could have been structured with close to a hundred dishes elaborated with at least 75 wild plants, 19 domesticated or cultivated natives, 12 domesticated ones introduced from other regions, and 6 wild edible mushrooms. Some of these dishes included meat, obtained from at least 19 wild animals and 4 domesticated ones. Spirits possibly were among the major dishes of this time. The nucleus of the system was made up by the same species listed since the Archaic Period, produced in the milpa agro-ecosystem. The changes recorded in the food system and the diet, induced by the conquest and heightened in the last 60 years, could partly explain the high levels of decalcification, cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity among the human population native to the study area.

Alondra Flores-Silva

Papers

The Archaic Diet in Mesoamerica: Incentive for Milpa Development and Species Domestication

The Food System during the Formative Period in West Mesoamerica 1

Pre-Columbian Food System in West Mesoamerica