Maize Origin

Nine thousand years ago here in the Balsas River basin, in Xihuatoxtla, maize (corn) was domesticated. You can read Sean B Carroll in the NYT today.

I am not happy to report that the descendants of those benefactors of humanity live in very precarious conditions nowadays.

Shame on us!

You can read from Prof. Carroll's NYT article:

"The most impressive aspect of the maize story is what it tells us about the capabilities of agriculturalists 9,000 years ago. These people were living in small groups and shifting their settlements seasonally. Yet they were able to transform a grass with many inconvenient, unwanted features into a high-yielding, easily harvested food crop. The domestication process must have occurred in many stages over a considerable length of time as many different, independent characteristics of the plant were modified.

The most crucial step was freeing the teosinte kernels from their stony cases. Another step was developing plants where the kernels remained intact on the cobs, unlike the teosinte ears, which shatter into individual kernels. Early cultivators had to notice among their stands of plants variants in which the nutritious kernels were at least partially exposed, or whose ears held together better, or that had more rows of kernels, and they had to selectively breed them. It is estimated that the initial domestication process that produced the basic maize form required at least several hundred to perhaps a few thousand years.

Every August, I thank these pioneer geneticists for their skill and patience."

I recently went to Oxtotitlán where the paintings in the first link above are located; all I can write now is that place is out of this world. Far surpassing any imagery you migh have had watching the whole TV series, LOST.

We seem to be lost on our own Earth, that is to our peril. Somehow I feel that if we do not talk to the Native Americans, our days on this Earth are counted.