Environment's Impact On The Environment

Farmers in the middle east adapted certain wild grasses into domesticated grains called emmer wheat and barley. They also discovered that alternating the crops grains and pulses helped the soil keep its fertility. As domesticated plants from the Middle East spread to other regions, there were other places that independently rose agriculturally. The places that agriculture developed on its own is Mesopotamia (5500 BCE), Egypt (3300 BCE), Indus Valley (2300 BCE), China (2200 BCE), Andes (1500 BCE), and Central America (1250 BCE). The exchange of farming techniques happened between regions, but societies who had already settled borrowed more readily than newer

Farming is a common agriculture source of Native Americans. They farmed maize, beans and wheat. To improve their farming, both areas, created an elaborate irrigation system. Aztecs, Incas, Hohokams were remarkable for their irrigation system.

Maize was the basis of the feeding of pre-Columbian civilizations. It is very probable that these societies would not have developed without corn, because they supported and made possible the growth of its population in that cereal.

Mesoamerica had various influences on Native North America, corn being one of the most important and influential resources provided by Mesoamerica. Mesoamericans taught Native North Americans how to domesticate corn which essentially provided them an advantage in survival. Corn was used as a support system for Native North Americans providing them the ability to settle in one location and support themselves nutritionally. From the domestication of corn, Native North Americans could create and maintain large societies. Along with the domestication of corn, Native North Americans also implemented the Mesoamericans food sources in the way of domesticating beans, peanuts, squash, potatoes, and chocolate. Along with the adoption of food sources

Maize is a wild plant and was discovered by Indians. It belongs to the same grass family as barley, rye, rice, wheat, and oats. When the Pilgrims landed in North America in 1620, the Indians gave them maize to eat. They also showed the Pilgrims how to grow maize. The Pilgrims called the maize “corn”, which mean grains and Americans still call it corn today. The word corn has a different meaning depending on what country you are in. According to the Department of Agronomy at Iowa State University, corn in England means wheat and in Scotland and Ireland, it means barley or oats (www.agron.iastate.edu).   By drawing on documents and reports from the Pre Columbian American era, I plan to discuss how corn was discovered, the importance of it, and how it was used by Pre Columbian Americans.

Since North America has a vast expanse of environmental conditions, many native societies adapted in different ways from each other. A key part of adaptation for societies from present-day Mexico northward into the present-day American Southwest and beyond was maize cultivation. Maize cultivation happened to increase populations and the development of irrigation systems began, rather than depending on hunting and gathering. However, some native societies had to depend on hunting and gathering, such as those in the Great Plains, Great Basin, and the Northwest. Since the Great Plains was a grassy land and the Great Basin was a dry, flat area, the people could not depend on natural resources. Those in the Northwest and modern-day California especially

Native Americans that migrated from Mexico brought along corn to various parts of America. Therefore, maize dispersed into the southwestern regions of the United States and to Peru. In addition to this agricultural migration, corn managed to make its way across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. In an article written by Lance Gibson and Garren Benson of Iowa State University’s Department of Agronomy, corn was introduced to Europeans during

300 B.C. where founder populations were introduced into varying anthropogenic ecological niches,some with one or more human managed plant economies (e.g., wild rice) (See Hart and Lovis 2013 and Beales 2014 for a review). Maize did not become a focal resource until after A.D. 500, with local human populations remaining at least seasonally mobile. As maize became more productive and the cost of maintaining crops diminished relative to other food sources, human populations would have increased attention and management efforts ultimately resulting in a dramatic change to the landscape and settlement patterns. There has been a traditional correlation between the advent of maize based agriculture and the transition to settled village life in the northeast of North America (Ritchie 1969; Snow 1995a,b). Consumption of maize gradually increased until ca. A.D. 1000 when it became a primary dietary staple (Vogel and van der Merwe 1977; Harrison and Katzenberg 2003; Katzenberg 2006; Hart and Lovis 2013; Beales

Corn was domesticated in the Americas about 10,000 years ago in Mexico by their Native people. When Europeans colonized America the Native Americans taught them how to grow corn. Being introduced to Europe from the explorers, corn has spread throughout the world. Corn is scientifically referred to as “Zea Mays” and “Maize” in Spanish. The crop can be found in different colors from yellow to black. It is in high demand for how cheap and easy it is to grow. This is why it had transformed from a thanksgiving side to a battery you put in you remote.

To really understand how corn became a staple of American agriculture we must go back to the beginning. As America emerged victoriously from World War 2, they possessed an extremely large quantity of ammonium nitrate, a key component of conventional bombs, and decided to use the chemical as fertilizer for corn production (Pollan). The government chose corn as their crop due to its versatility and many uses; its versatility is

2) North American native peoples: The native peoples of North America were living in small, scattered, and impermanent settlements on the eve of the europeans’

Based on the research in Mexico, my theory is that the transition to agriculture in Mesoamerica began in the Rio Perdido Valley. There is not a lot of sufficient evidence, but what little evidence there is seems to suggest that the people in these sites (9 and 10) had a sedentary way of life and a rapid transition from having no domesticated late maize to having 40% late maize. It seems likely that this is where the transition to agriculture began, but again, it is difficult to tell based on the small amount of evidence that we have.

For at least fifteen thousand years, peoples of the Americas lived in isolation from the rest of the world and faced their own specific challenges. It has been suggested that they had fewer potential domestic work animals than the peoples of the Eastern Hemisphere and that the north-south orientation of the Americas made it more difficult for animals and technologies to travel. In the Mesoamerican and Andean regions the domestication of plants and animals and the development of trade and technology led to the rise of social and political complexity. In Mesoamerica, corn, beans, and squash produced dependable agricultural surpluses and enabled craft specialization and social stratification. Another development was the mining of important minerals

Mexico loves their corn, probably will die for it. No way Mexico will just turn over their most loved grown food, there’s too much history between the two. Scientists believe people living in central Mexico developed corn at least 7000 years ago. (fact,http://campsilos.org/mod3/students/c_history.shtml ) When I visited Mexico I loved eating soup, soup always came with corn like if it was an important ingredient. Corn can’t be grown in the wild, they need attention from human beings. (Fact,http://campsilos.org/mod3/students/c_history.shtml) About 1000 years ago, as Indian people migrated north to the eastern woodlands of present day North America,

Mesoamerican peoples developed communities and engineered ways to modify and utilize the geography of the land without inhibiting the nature of it. Farming became