Evolution
of crop cultivation
When man builds shelter under a tree that provides shade as
well as food, you may say that he was hot in the sun, or you may say
that he was hungry; but when he stays and builds his village, you must
say that there are a least two reasons for this to be a good spot. The
problem with making the move from Hunter/Gatherer to Farmer
is not so
much an intellectual one as logistics. When you are under a tree it
is
quite easy to see the seed falling
every year and it is quite easy to see small seedling
trees pop out of the ground
every year.
But if the incentives to keep moving such as weather or competition
for
this spot, are even slight, it could still make a lot of sense to let
nature
do
the
planting. Find a crop that has some value in
protecting a particular spot from your competition -and- voila! Now you
can stay on the farm. The Woodland Black Cap
makes a good
planting for the perimeter of the village which will provide an excellent
food as well as discourage, with the plant's thorns,
any
animals from passing through.
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So
the question arises of whether the crop or the village was planted
first. Probably the original Hunter/Gatherers simply
camped near
the best foraging opportunities. When the advantages of
these natural occurring plants was realized, the carry and
replanting of
these valuable crops seems a pretty easy jump. My farm in the Midwest
of North
America which has an abundance of "naturally
occurring" Woodland Black Caps is at the edge of an old Adena
village
site which was clearly located for the advantages given by the
congruence of The Sugar Creek and The White River
in East Central
Indiana. Even the entrance ways to the village and location
of
'gates' in the perimeter mounds indicates that the water
ways were the key geographical features and cause of
this town's
location. The
Black Caps, if not brought in, were at the very least protected,
cultivated, and strategically placed. In fact, while evidence of who
was growing beans and squash from seed is continually searched and
debated, the simple transplanting of your favorite fruit when you
relocate requires seed only in thought. These fruits that are so
easily propagated by splitting and replanting were highly likely among
the first food crops under cultivation in North America. The
roots of
this plant are shallow growing and it is easy as pie (ha) to
pull up a
young plant for relocation. Now when we look at the map from our
sky view, our current source of Black Caps is most obviously from the
distribution and work of the Adena people that it almost begs
to show
that 'Antioxidants' and 'Vitamin C' could have been
in the vocabulary
of the Adena people.
by: C. Rich
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