Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Origin of agriculture and plant domestication in West Mesoamerica

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Recent paleoecological, archaeobotanical and genetic-molecular data are used to develop a hypothesis on the where, when, how and whom of plant domestication and the origin of agriculture in west Mesoamerica, and the formation of the maize-bean-squash multicrop milpa system and agro-food system which formed the base for development of ancient complex societies in this area. It is highly likely that about 10,000 before present (BP) human groups specializing in plant gathering and small game hunting in the dry tropical forest of the Balsas-Jalisco biotic morphotectonic province began the process of plant domestication and agriculture, using fire as a tool. Sympatric distribution of the putative wild ancestral populations of maize, beans and squash indicate the extreme northwest Balsas-Jalisco region as a possible locus of domestication. Diffusion of these domesticates to the rest of Mesoamerica would have occurred via existing biological-cultural corridors. The milpa agro-food system would have been established between 7,000 and 4,400 calendar years (cal) BP. The complex food technology developed in the northwest Balsas-Jalisco region between 4,500 and 3,500 BP, much more complex than in other areas at the time, also suggests this area as the origin of the milpa agro-food system. Further archaeobotanical research is needed to confirm this hypothesis. Exploratory, collection and conservation efforts are needed in these putative source populations, as well as studies on their adaptation to climatic, edaphic and biotic factors, before they are displaced by the African grasses and pesticides forming part of the region’s growing cattle industry.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aceituno FJ, Castillo EN (2005) Mobility strategies in Colombia’s middle mountain range between the early and middle Holocene. Before farming 2005/2, Article 2. Available at www.waspress.co.uk/journals/beforefarming/journal_20052/abstracts/index.php

  • Aliphat FM (1980) La cuenca Zacoalco-Sayula: Ocupación humana durante el pleistoceno final en el occidente de México. In: González-Jácome A (ed) Orígenes del hombre americano. SEP, México, pp 145–176

    Google Scholar 

  • Austin DF (2006) Fox-tail millets (Setaria:Poaceae). Abandoned food in two hemispheres. Econ Bot 60(2):143–158

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benz B (1999) On origin, evolution and dispersal of maize. In: Blake M (ed) Pacific Latin America in prehistory: the evolution of Archaic and Formative cultures. Washington State University Press, Pullman, pp 25–38

    Google Scholar 

  • Benz B (2001) Archaeological evidence of teocintle domestication from Guila Naquitz, Oaxaca. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 98:2104–2106

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Benz B (2002) The origins of Mesoamerican agriculture: reconnaissance and testing in the Sayula-Zacoalco lake basin. www.famsi.org/reports/99074/section11.htm. Accessed 10 Nov 2009

  • Bruman HJ (2000) Alcohol in ancient Mexico. Univ of Utah Press, Salt Lake City

    Google Scholar 

  • Brush CF (1965) Pox pottery: earliest identified Mexican ceramic. Science 149:194–195

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Buckler ES, Goodman MM, Holstford TP, Doebley JF, Sánchez GJ (2006) Phylogeography of the wild subspecies of Zea mays. Maydica 51:123–134

    Google Scholar 

  • Callen EO (1967) Food habits of some Pre-Columbian Mexican Indians. Econ Bot 19(4):335–343

    Google Scholar 

  • Capra L, Macías JL (2002) The cohesive Naranjo debris-flow deposit (10 km3): a dam breakout floor derived from the Pleistocene debris-avalanche deposit of Nevado de Colima Volcano (Mexico). J Volcan Geotherm Res 117:213–235

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Colunga-GarcíaMarín P, Zizumbo-Villarreal D (1993) La evolución de las plantas bajo selección artificial y manejo agrícola. In: Leff E, Carabias J (eds) Cultura y manejo sustentable de los recursos naturales. CIIH-UNAM-Miguel Angel Porrúa, México, pp 123–163

    Google Scholar 

  • Colunga-GarcíaMarín P, Zizumbo-Villarreal D (2007) Tequila and other Agave spirits from west-central Mexico: current germplasm diversity, conservation and origin. Biodivers and Conserv 16:1653–1667

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cortés A, Garduño-Monroy VH, Navarro-Ochoa C, Komorowski JC, Saucedo R, Macías JL, Gavilanes JC (2005) Geología del complejo volcánico Colima. Carta Geológica y Minera No. 10. Instituto de Geología UNAM. México

  • Cunniff J, Osborne CP, Ripley BS, Charles M, Jones G (2008) Response of wild C4 crop progenitors to subambient CO2 highlights a possible role in the origin of agriculture. Global Change Biol 14:576–587

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Degreef J, Rocha OJ, Vanderborght T, Baudoin JP (2002) Soil seed bank and seed dormancy in wild populations of lima bean (Fabaceae): considerations for in situ and ex situ conservation. Am J Bot 89(10):1644–1650

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dickau R, Ranere AJ, Cooke RG (2007) Starch grain evidence for the preceramic dispersals of maize and root crops into tropical dry and humid forest of Panama. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 104:3651–3656

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dixon EJ (1999) Bones, boats and bison. Archaeology and the first colonization of western North America. Univ of Utah Press, Salt Lake City

    Google Scholar 

  • Dixon EJ (2001) Human colonization of the Americas: timing, technology and process. Quarter Sci Rev 20:277–299

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Doebley JF (1984) “Seeds” of wild grasses: a major food for Southwestern Indians. Econ Bot 38(1):52–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Doebley JF (2004) The genetics of maize evolution. Ann Rev Genet 38:37–59

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Doebley JF (2006) Unfallen grains: how ancient farmers turned weeds into crops. Science 312:1318–1319

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dorweiler J, Stec A, Kermicle J, Doebley JF (1993) Teocintle glume architecture 1: a genetic locus controlling a key step in maize evolution. Science 262:233–235

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eubanks M (2001) The origin of maize: evidence for Tripsacum ancestry. Plant Breed Rev 20:15–66

    Google Scholar 

  • Eubanks M (2002) An interdisciplinary perspective on the origin of maize. Latin Am Antiquity 12:91–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrusquía-Villafranca I (1990) Provincias biogeográficas con base en rasgos morfotectónicos. Mapa IV8.10. Atlas Nacional de México, vol III. Instituto de Geografía, UNAM, México

    Google Scholar 

  • Flannery KV (1986) Guilá Naquitz. Academic Press, Orlando

    Google Scholar 

  • Flannery KV (1994) Early formative pottery of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Memoir No. 27. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

    Google Scholar 

  • Fukunaga K, Hill J, Vigouroux Y, Matsuoka Y, Sánchez J, Liu K, Buckler ES, Doebley J (2005) Genetic diversity and population structure of teocintle. Genetics 169:2241–2254

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gepts P (1988) Phaseolin as an evolutionary marker. In: Gepts P (ed) Genetic resources of Phaseolus beans. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 215–241

    Google Scholar 

  • Gepts P (2004) Crop domestication as a long-term selection experiment. Plant Breed Rev 24(Part 2):1–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Gepts P (2008) Tropical environments, biodiversity, and the origin of crops. In: Moore P, Ming R (eds) Genomics of tropical crop plants. Springer, New York, pp 1–20

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hammer K (1984) Das Domestikationssyndrom. Kulturpflanze 32:11–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harlan JR (1971) Agricultural origins: centers and non centers. Science 174:468–474

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Harlan JR (1992) Crops and man, 2nd edn. American Society of Agronomy and Crop Science Society, Madison

    Google Scholar 

  • Harlan JR (1995) The living fields. Cambridge Univ Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Houghton RA, Lefkowitz DS, Skole DL (1991) Changes in the landscape of Latin America between 1850–1985. I. Progressive loss of forest. For Ecol Manag 38:173–199

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iltis HH (2000) Homeotic sexual translocations and the origin of maize (Zea mays, Poaceae): a new look at an old problem. Econ Bot 54:7–42

    Google Scholar 

  • Irish DJ, Davis SD, Lobdell JE, Solórzano FA (2000) Prehistoric human remains from Jalisco, Mexico. Curr Res in the Pleistocene 17:95–96

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaenicke-Després V, Smith BD (2006) Ancient DNA and integration of archaeological and genetic approaches to study of maize domestication. In: Staller J, Tykot R, Benz B (eds) Histories of maize. Academic Press, San Diego, pp 83–95

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Jaenicke-Després V, Buckler ES, Smith BD, Gilbert TM, Cooper A, Doebley J, Paabo S (2003) Early allelic selection in maize as revealed by ancient DNA. Science 302:1206–1208

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Janzen DH (1988) Tropical dry forest. The most endangered major tropical ecosystem. In: Wilson EO (ed) Biodiversity. National Academy Press, Washington, pp 130–137

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan L, Lynch TE (1999) Phaseolus (Fabaceae) in archaeology: AMS radiocarbon dates and their significance for pre-Colombian agriculture. Econ Bot 53:261–272

    Google Scholar 

  • Kauffman JB, Steele MD, Cummings DL, Jaramillo VJ (2003) Biomass dynamic associated with deforestation, fire, and conversion to cattle pasture in Mexican tropical dry forest. For Ecol Manag 176:1–12

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly I (1980) Ceramic sequence in Colima: capacha, an early phase. Anthropological papers No 37. Univ of Arizona Press, Tucson

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirchhoff P (1943) Mesoamerica. Acta Americana. Revista de la Sociedad de Antropología y Geografía 1:92–107

    Google Scholar 

  • Koinange EMK, Singh SP, Gepts P (1996) Genetic control of the domestication syndrome in common bean. Crop Sci 36:1037–1045

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kwak M, Kami J, Gepts P (2009) The putative Mesoamerican center of domestication of Phaseolus vulgaris L. is located in the Rio Lerma-Santiago basin of Mexico. Crop Sci 49:554–563

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leonard JA, Wayne RK, Wheeler J, Valadez R, Gullen S, Vila C (2002) Ancient DNA evidence for Old World origin of New World dogs. Science 298:1613–1616

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis HT (1972) The role of fire in the domestication of plants and animals in Southwest Asia: a hypothesis. Man (Lond) 7:195–222

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorenzo JL, Mirabell L (1986) Tlapacoya: 35, 000 años de historia en el Lago de Chalco, Colección Científica, Serie Prehistoria. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México

    Google Scholar 

  • MacNeish RS (1964) Ancient Mesoamerica civilization. Science 143:531–537

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • MacNeish RS (1967a) A summary of the subsistence. In: Byers S (ed) Environment and subsistence, Vol. 1: the prehistory of the Tehuacán Valley. Univ Texas Press, Austin, pp 290–309

    Google Scholar 

  • MacNeish RS (1967b) Mesoamerican archaeology. Bienn Rev Anthropol 5:306–331

    Google Scholar 

  • MacNeish RS, Eubanks EM (2000) Comparative analysis of the Rio Balsas and Tehuacan models for the origin of maize. Latin Am Antiq 11(1):3–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacNeish RS, Peterson FA (1962) The Santa Marta Rock Shelter, Ocozocoautla, Chiapas, Mexico. Papers of the New World Archaeological Foundation 14. Brigham Young Univ, Provo

    Google Scholar 

  • Matsuoka Y, Vigouroux Y, Goodman MM, Sánchez GJ, Buckler E, Doebley J (2002) A single domestication for maize shown by multilocus microsatellite genotyping. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 99:6080–6084

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Metcalfe SE (2006) Late quaternary environments of the northern deserts and central transvolcanic belt of Mexico. Ann Missouri Bot Gar 93:258–273

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller PM (1999) Effects of deforestation on seed banks in a tropical deciduous forest of western Mexico. J Trop Ecol 15:179–188

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller PM, Kauffman JB (1998) Seedling and sprout response to slash and burn agriculture in tropical deciduous forest. Biotropica 30:538–546

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mountjoy JM (2006) Excavation of two middle formative cemeteries in the Mascota Valley of Jalisco, Mexico. Available at www.famsi.org/reports/03009/index.html. Accessed 12 Nov 2009

  • Mountjoy JB, Taylor RE, Feldman LH (1972) Matanchén complex: new radiocarbon dates on early coastal adaptation in west Mexico. Science 175:1242–1243

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Niederberger C (1979) Early sedentary economy in the basin of Mexico. Science 203:131–142

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Parker C (2002) Fire in Pre-European lowlands of the American Southwest. In: Vale TR (ed) Western wilderness: fire, native peoples, and the natural landscape. Island Press, Washington, pp 101–141

    Google Scholar 

  • Perry L, Dickau R, Zarrillo S, Holst I, Persall DM, Piperno D, Berman JM, Cooke GR, Rademaker K et al (2007) Starch fossils and the domestication and dispersal of chili peppers (Capsicum spp. L.) in the Americas. Science 315:986–988

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Piperno DR (2006) Quaternary environmental history and agricultural impact on vegetation in Central America. Ann Missouri Bot Gar 93:274–296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piperno DR, Flannery KV (2001) The earliest archaeological maize (Zea mays L.) from highland Mexico: new accelerator mass spectrometry dates and their implications. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 98:2101–2103

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Piperno DR, Pearsall DM (1998) The origins of agriculture in the lowland neotropics. Academic Press, San Diego

    Google Scholar 

  • Piperno DR, Holst I, Wessel-Beaver L, Andres TC (2002) Evidence for the control of phytolith formation in Cucurbita fruits by the hard rind (Hr) genetic locus: archaeological and ecological implications. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 99:10923–10928

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Piperno DR, Moreno JE, Iriarte J, Holst I, Lachniet M, Jones G, Ranere AJ, Castazo R (2007) Late pleistocene and holocene environmental history of the Iguala Valley, central Balsas watershed of Mexico. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 104:11874–11881

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Piperno DR, Ranere AJ, Holst I, Dickau R, Iriarte J (2009) Starch grain and phytolith evidence for early ninth millennium B.P. maize in the central Balsas River valley, Mexico. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 106:5019–5024

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pohl ME, Pope KO, Jones JG, Jacob JS, Piperno DR, France SD, Lentz DL, Gifford JA, Danford ME, Josserand JK (1996) Early agriculture in the Maya Lowlands. Lat Am Antiq 7:355–372

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pohl ME, Piperno DR, Pope KO, Jones JG (2007) Microfossil evidence for pre-Columbian maize dispersal in the Neotropics from San Andres, Tabasco, Mexico. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 104:6870–6875

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Poinar HK, Kuch M, Sobolik DK, Barnes I, Stankiewicz AB, Kuder T, Spaulding WG, Bryent VM, Cooper A, Paabo S (2001) A molecular analysis of dietary diversity for three archaic Native Americans. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 98:4317–4322

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ranere AJ, Piperno DR, Holst I, Dickau R, Iriarte J (2009) The cultural and chronological context of early Holocene maize and squash domestication in the central Balsas River Valley, Mexico. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 106:5014–5018

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rolston P (1978) Water impermeable seed dormancy. The Bot Rev 44(3):365–396

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sage SR (1995) Was low atmospheric CO2 during the Pleistocene a limiting factor for the origin of agriculture? Glob Change Biol 1:93–106

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sánchez-Velázquez LR, Ezcurra E, Martínez-Ramos M, Alvarez Buylla E, Lorente R (2002) Population dynamics of Zea diploperennis, an endangered perennial herb: effect of slash and burn practice. J Ecol 90:684–692

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sanjur OI, Piperno DR, Andrés TC, Wessel-Beaver (2002) Phylogenetic relationships among domesticated and wild species of Cucurbita (Cucurbitaceae) inferred from a mitochondrial gene: implications for crop plant evolution and areas of origin. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99:535–540

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sauer CO (1952) Agricultural origins and dispersal. American Geographical Society, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Sluyter A, Domínguez G (2006) Early maize (Zea mays L.) cultivation in Mexico: dating sedimentary pollen records and its implications. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 103:1147–1151

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Smalley S, Blake M (2003) Sweet beginnings: stalk sugar and domestication of maize. Curr Antropol 44:675–703

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith CE (1986) Preceramic plant remains from Guilá Naquitz. In: Flannery KV (ed) Guila Naquitz. Academic Press, Orlando, pp 265–274

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith BD (2005) Reassessing Coxcatlan cave and the early history of domesticated plants in Mesoamerica. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 102:9438–9445

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stewart OC, Lewis TH, Anderson MK (2002) Forgotten fires: Native Americans and the transient wilderness. Univ of Oklahoma Press, Norman

    Google Scholar 

  • Tolstoy P, Fish SK, Boksenbaum MW, Vaughan KB, Smith EC (1977) Early sedentary communities of the Basin of Mexico. J Field Archaeol 4:91–106

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trejo I, Dirzo R (2000) Deforestation of seasonally dry tropical forest: a national and local analysis in Mexico. Biol Conserv 94:133–142

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ville-Calzada JP, Martínez de la Vega O, Hernández-Guzmán G, Ibarra-Laclette E, Alvarez-Mejía C, Vega-Arreguín JC, Jiménez-Moraila B, Fernández Cortés A, Corona-Aramenta G, Herrera-Estrella L, Herrera-Estrella A (2009) The palomero genome suggests metal effects on domestication. Science 326:1078

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Voorhies B, Kennet DJ, Jones GJ, Wake TA (2002) A middle archaic archaeological site on the west coast of Mexico. Latin Am Antiq 13:179–200

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang H, Nussbaum-Waller B, Li Q, Zhao Q, Vigouroux Y, Faller M, Bomblies K, Lunkens L, Doebley J (2005) The origin of the naked grains of maize. Nature 436:714–719

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wayne R, Leonard JA, Vila C (2006) Genetic analysis of dog domestication. In: Zeder MA et al (eds) Documenting domestication: new genetic and archaeological paradigms. Univ of California Press, Berkley, pp 279–293

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkes G (2004) Maize, strange and marvelous: but is a definitive origin known? In: Smith C (ed) Maize: origin, history, technology and production. Willey, New York, pp 3–63

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkes G (2007) Urgent notice to all maize researchers: disappearance and extinction of the last wild teocintle population is more than half completed. A modest proposal for teocintle evolution and conservation in situ: The Balsas, Guerrero, México. Maydica 52:49–58

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams GW (2003) References on the American Indian use of fire in ecosystems. USDA Forest Service. Washington, DC. Available at www.wildlandfire.com/docs/biblio_indianfire.htm Accessed 12 Nov 2009

  • Willis WH (1995) Archaic foraging and the beginning of food production in the American Southwest. In: Price TD, Gebauer AB (eds) Last hunters, first farmers. School of American Research, Santa Fe, pp 215–242

    Google Scholar 

  • Zarrillo S, Pearsall DM, Raymond JS, Tisdale MA, Quon DJ (2008) Directly dated starch residues document early formative maize (Zea mays L.) in tropical Ecuador. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 105:5006–5011

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zizumbo-Villarreal D, Papa R, Hufford M, Repinski S, Gepts P (2009a) Identification of a new wild population of Phaseolus vulgaris L. in western Jalisco, Mexico, near the Mesoamerican domestication center of common bean. BIC 52:24-25. (Bean Improvement Cooperative USA)

    Google Scholar 

  • Zizumbo-Villarreal D, González-Zozaya F, Olay-Barrientos A, Almendros-López L, Colunga-GarcíaMarín P (2009b) Distillation in western Mesoamerica before European contact. Econ Bot 63(4):413–426

    Google Scholar 

  • Zong Y, Chen Z, Innes JB, Chen C, Wang Z, Wang H (2007) Fire and flood management of coastal swamps enabled first rice paddy cultivation in east China. Nature 449:459–462

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the CONACYT and CICY for sabbatical scholarships and P. Gepts for his hospitality at UC-Davis.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unidad de Recursos Naturales, Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán, Calle 43 No 130. Col. Chuburná de Hidalgo, 97200, Mérida, Yucatán, México

    Daniel Zizumbo-Villarreal & Patricia Colunga-GarcíaMarín

Authors
  1. Daniel Zizumbo-Villarreal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Patricia Colunga-GarcíaMarín
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel Zizumbo-Villarreal.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Zizumbo-Villarreal, D., Colunga-GarcíaMarín, P. Origin of agriculture and plant domestication in West Mesoamerica. Genet Resour Crop Evol 57, 813–825 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-009-9521-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-009-9521-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation