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Early history of domesticated plants

            
            
             From the beginning as scientist have tried to figure out when and how people tried to domesticate plants. First of all plants just did not start off at once just becoming farmed once they found out that a particular plant is useful. Humans had to experiment and test out what plants are good to eat and what is not good to eat. It took years for humans to try and domesticate plants.
             One of the first ways that people used to find out what plants were good and what wasn't, was by their size of the fruit or thing that is edible and it the plant had a bitter taste to it. If the plant was big enough to eat from and didn't have much of a bitter taste then humans would use that plant more often to eat from and that caused them to try and find and make more of these plants. This caused natural selection for plants to start. For instance, we see much bigger strawberries that are about ten times bigger than they once were because it is obvious that you would pick the bigger strawberry than picking the smaller one. That would cause the smaller strawberries to have a harder time to grow with everyone always picking the bigger ones that caused the seeds to spread out and be more populated. By plants also having seeds that can be transported by birds feeding on it or by floating across the ocean it can give them a chance to try and grow other places where other animals might encounter this plant and like it. With having a hard and bitter taste to the seeds, the animal will know not to eat it or spit it back out so the seed will stay there and grow. Plants also mutate as it can travel from place to place. Plants have to try and mutate with a difference in the climate that surrounds them in order to survive. Also, some mutation involved the plants try and germinate in order to grow. An example is the peas. They were enclosed in a pod and in order to germinate they needed to get out of the pod.


Essays Related to Early history of domesticated plants

1. Lower Mesopotamia

With the concentrations of plants and animals being in specific areas these hunter-gatherers soon began to domesticate those plants and animals and a sedentary village farming pattern arose. ... This change from food collecting to food producing was one of the major transformations in human history. ... Domestication is the process of altering plants and animals so that they are no longer bound to the natural habitats of their wild ancestors. ... This process sometimes even includes changes in the genetics of the domesticated plant or animal. ... This may have forced some nomadic tribes to beg...

  • Word Count: 894
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

2. Lower Mesopotamia

With the concentrations of plants and animals being in specific areas these hunter-gatherers soon began to domesticate those plants and animals and a sedentary village farming pattern arose. ... This change from food collecting to food producing was one of the major transformations in human history. ... Domestication is the process of altering plants and animals so that they are no longer bound to the natural habitats of their wild ancestors. ... This process sometimes even includes changes in the genetics of the domesticated plant or animal. ... This may have forced some nomadic tribes to beg...

  • Word Count: 894
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

3. Mesoamerican Transition: From Nomads to Settlers

While this may have worked for communities during a greater period of history, the need for a more permanent style of living was evident. ... In order to transition away from a nomadic life style the Mesoamerican people domesticated both plants and animals, made significant changes in how and where they "farmed", and created food storage systems. ... (Pool, 2007) Plants were not the only things Mesoamerican people domesticated. ... The domestication of plants and animals helped future developments because it led to bigger species that was adapted for the surrounding agriculture....

  • Word Count: 1405
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

4. More than Meets the Eye (Taste in Disguise):

"It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man" -Henry David Thoreau The apple is one of the most interesting fruits or vegetables in the history of man. ... For a fruit with the history and adaptability of the apple, this seems very unjust. ... It has traveled only to be domesticated and changed, and then it was taken further away from its home to be re-domesticated. ... In the early 1800's was the time when apples began to shape the land of early America. ... Chapman planted so many trees that "most of us wrongly assume the plan...

  • Word Count: 2482
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Guns, Germs And Steel

There are four main themes, or differences, that Diamond discusses in Guns, Germs, And Steel: differences in plant and animal species available for domestication, rates of diffusion and migration within continents, rates of diffusion and migration between continents, and the different demographics of the continents. ... He then goes on to compare the extinction of big game in Australia and New Guinea to that in the Americas, then talks about early tools. ... Diamond uses the Polynesian Islands to give us an example of early human migration and diffusion of ideas, or the lack thereof. ... sa...

  • Word Count: 1597
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

6. The Plight Of The North American Indians

Archeological evidence indicates early Indian cultures existed 10,000 BC. But the questions that still remains, how did early Indians arrive on the North America continent. ... And as a direct result from the demands of domestication of plants and animals their daily lives became structured. ... Archeological evidence indicates early Indian cultures existed 10,000 BC. ... And as a direct result from the demands of domestication of plants and animals their daily lives became structured. ...

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7. Women in Paleolithic Times

But due to recent study and research of these times many archaeologists are discovering women played a much bigger role in history, and were in fact a major contribution to the growth of human society. ... Cloths can be dated and found as early as 9000 B.C.E. ... Domestication of plants and animals may also be thanks to women; when moving to new areas women most likely recognized the best soils to settle in and grow crops with. With all the evidence and recent discoveries, one can only imagine the true capacity of contributions given to us by women throughout prehistoric history, and wonde...

  • Word Count: 511
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

8. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas

1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus is a ground-breaking study of the early Americas and Native Americans. ... Something a reader could learn from this book is how racism shaped the way early America came to be- colonists separated from Great Britain in order to escape oppression, but then oppressed Native Americans. ... Instead of what Europeans were used to, Natives cultivated plants differently and intensely and did not have many domesticated large work animals. ... However, a question relating to to the book is: if what Mann is saying is correct, have our history books b...

  • Word Count: 547
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

9. Neanderthals

Also, it shows a lot of human arrogance to assume that early man could take an entire species that was stronger and almost as smart as them and fight it to extinction. ... In early human history, man has fought his own race for years to justly claim or protect what he considers his. ... It began with the end of the last glacial period over 10,000 years ago and evolved into the Neolithic period; this change involved the gradual domestication of plants and animals and the formation of settled communities at various times and places. ... This is a clear indication that human populations dev...

  • Word Count: 1368
  • Approx Pages: 5
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