CHAPTER 11
CHANGING THE CEREALS
here were two stages in the creation of civilizations.
First came the domestication of plants and animals.
This occurred shortly after the end of the last ice age.
Radio carbon datings show that maize, or corn, was
being cultivated in the Olmec-Maya area about 8,000
to 9,000 years ago.
There is, apparently, much argument but no proof yet as to what wild
plant was used from which to develop corn. Corn was altered so that
it could no longer propagate itself without the intervention of humans.
We know that wheat and barley, for example, were domesticated
in the Near East around the foothills area of what is Iraq today, by
about 6,750 BCE (Before Christian Era), say 8,750 BP. In the case
of wheat this was no simple transformation. The chromosomes were
first doubled from 14 to 28 and then increased to 42. This wheat is
still used for bread wheat today. The 'rachis' or stem was altered so
that wheat could no longer propagate by itself. It needs planting by
humans now, to grow, as the grains can no longer disperse over a
distance.
According to one famous prehistorian the prehistory of rice
cultivation is very obscure. He thinks it probably began earlier in
India than in China. He also tells us that the origin of the humped
bull (a universally domesticated ox to this day in India) is obscure, no
wild species is known.
With such evidence as we have for crop and animal domestications,
it seems reasonable to say that at about 8,000 to 9,000 years ago
domesticated cereals, fruits and vegetables, and domesticated
animals (goats, sheep and oxen) were being produced in Central
America, the Near East and the Far East, in at least some cases
involving changes in genetic structure, nearly all of which have
remained unchanged since then. These changes were made to wild
things shortly after the end of the last ice age and in widely
separated parts of the world.
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