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The Origins of American Agriculture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

R. S. MacNeish
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Extract

When prehistoric cultural developments in the Old and New World are compared, one difference is outstanding. The American Indian domesticated an inordinately large number of plants. This is even more remarkable when one considers that the prehistoric population of the Americas was very much less than that of the Old World and, also, that the development of American civilization began very much later.

During the last 25 years, archaeological investigations in the New World have revealed considerable information about prehistoric plant domestication and agriculture. Although this data is far from complete, it is now possible to establish some hypotheses, not only about the origin and spread of several American domesticates, but also about the effect of plant domestication, and later agriculture, upon cultural development and process in the New World.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 39 , Issue 154 , June 1965 , pp. 87 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1965

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References

Notes

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