In which region did the first centers of agriculture appear? Legacy of the Drunken Gods. centers of ancient agriculture

Hearths of ancient agriculture

The combination of all the above considerations provides an explanation for a number of strange features identified by the Soviet scientist Nikolai Vavilov during his study of the centers of ancient agriculture. For example, according to his research, wheat did not originate from one center, as historians claim, but has three independent places of origin for this culture. Syria and Palestine turned out to be the birthplace of “wild” wheat and einkorn wheat; Abyssinia (Ethiopia) - the birthplace of durum wheat; and the foothills of the Western Himalayas are the center of origin of soft varieties.

Rice. 68. Homeland of wheat according to N.I. Vavilov (1 - “wild” wheat and einkorn wheat; 2 - durum wheat varieties; 3 - soft wheat varieties.)

Moreover, it turned out that “wild” does not mean “ancestor” at all!..

“Contrary to usual assumptions, the main bases of the closest wild species... are not directly adjacent to the centers of concentration... of cultivated wheat, but are located at a considerable distance from them. Wild types of wheat, as research shows, are separated from cultivated wheat by the difficulty of crossing. These are undoubtedly special... species” (N. Vavilov, “Geographical localization of wheat genes on the globe”).

But his research was not limited to this most important result!.. In their process, it was discovered that the difference between wheat species lies at the deepest level: einkorn wheat has 14 chromosomes; “wild” and durum wheat - 28 chromosomes; soft wheat has 42 chromosomes. However, even between “wild” wheat and durum varieties with the same number of chromosomes there was a whole abyss.

As is known and as professional N. Vavilov confirms, achieving such a change in the number of chromosomes by “simple” selection is not so simple (if not almost impossible). If one chromosome split into two or, conversely, two merged into one, there would be no problems. After all, such a thing is quite common for natural mutations, from the point of view evolutionary theory. But to double and, especially, triple the entire chromosome set at once, methods and methods are needed that modern science is not always able to provide, since intervention is needed at the gene level!..

Rice. 69. Nikolay Vavilov

N. Vavilov comes to the conclusion that theoretically (we emphasize - only theoretically!!!) one cannot deny the possible relationship of, say, durum and soft wheat, but for this it is necessary to push back the dates of cultivated agriculture and targeted selection tens of thousands of years ago!!! And there are absolutely no archaeological prerequisites for this, since even the earliest finds do not exceed 15 thousand years in age, but already reveal a “ready-made” variety of wheat species...

However, the entire distribution of wheat varieties around the globe indicates that differences between them existed already at the earliest stages of agriculture! In other words, the most complex work on modifying wheat varieties (and in the shortest possible time!!!) had to be carried out by people with wooden hoes and primitive sickles with stone cutting teeth. Can you imagine the absurdity of such a picture?..

But for a highly developed civilization of gods, which clearly possessed genetic modification technologies (remember at least the legends and traditions about the creation of man using these technologies), obtaining the mentioned characteristics of different varieties of wheat is quite an ordinary matter...

Moreover. Vavilov found that a similar picture of the “isolation” of cultivated species from the regions of distribution of their “wild” forms is observed in a number of plants - barley, peas, chickpeas, flax, carrots, etc.

And even more than that. According to the research of N. Vavilov, the overwhelming majority of known cultivated plants originate from only seven very limited areas of the main foci.

Rice. 70. Centers of ancient agriculture according to N.I. Vavilov

(1 - South Mexican; 2 - Peruvian; 3 - Abyssinian; 4 - Western Asian; 5 - Central Asian; 6 - Indian; 7 - Chinese)

“The geographic localization of the primary centers of agriculture is very unique. All seven foci are confined primarily to mountainous tropical and subtropical regions. New world foci are confined to the tropical Andes, old world foci - to the Himalayas, Hindu Kush, mountainous Africa, mountainous regions of Mediterranean countries and mountainous China, occupying mainly foothill areas. In essence, only a narrow strip of land on the globe played a major role in the history of world agriculture" (N. Vavilov, The problem of the origin of agriculture in the light of modern research").

For example, in all of North America, the southern Mexican center of ancient agriculture occupies only about 1/40 of the entire territory of the vast continent. The Peruvian outbreak occupies approximately the same area in relation to the entire South America. The same can be said about most centers of the Old World. The process of the emergence of agriculture turns out to be downright “unnatural”, since with the exception of this narrow strip, nowhere (!!!) in the world there were even attempts to transition to agriculture!..

And one more important conclusion of Vavilov. His research showed that different centers of ancient agriculture, directly related to the emergence of the first human cultures, appeared virtually independently of each other!..

However, there is still a very strange detail. All these centers, which are, in fact, centers of ancient agriculture, have very similar climatic conditions of the tropics and subtropics. But…

“...tropics and subtropics represent optimal conditions for the development of the speciation process. The maximum species diversity of wild vegetation and fauna clearly gravitates towards the tropics. This can be especially clearly seen in North America, where southern Mexico and Central America, occupying a relatively insignificant area, include more types plants than the entire vast expanse of Canada, Alaska and the United States taken together (including California)” (ibid.).

This directly contradicts the theory of “scarcity of food supply” as a reason for the development of agriculture, since under these conditions there is not only a multiplicity of species potentially suitable for Agriculture and domestication, but also an abundance of generally edible species, which can fully provide for gatherers and hunters. There is a very strange and even paradoxical pattern: agriculture arose precisely in the most abundant regions of the Earth, where there were the least preconditions for famine. And vice versa: in regions where the reduction in the “food supply” could be most noticeable and should (by all logic) be a significant factor influencing human life, no agriculture appeared!..

In this regard, it was funny in Mexico - where one of the centers of ancient agriculture is located - to listen to the guides talk about what different parts of local edible cacti are used for. In addition to the possibility of preparing a lot of all kinds of dishes from these cacti (very tasty, by the way), from them you can extract (not even make, but just extract) something like paper, get needles for household needs, squeeze out nutritious juice from which local mash is prepared , And so on and so forth. You can simply live among these cacti, which require virtually no care, and not waste any time on the very troublesome cultivation of maize (i.e. corn) - a local grain crop, which, by the way, is also the result of very non-trivial selection and manipulation with the genes of their wild ancestors.

Rice. 71. Plantation of edible cacti

In the light of the considered features of the biochemistry of the gods, one can find a very rational, but also very prosaic explanation for both the fact that the centers of ancient agriculture were concentrated in a very narrow band, and the similarity of conditions in these centers. Of all the regions of the Earth, only in these centers there is a set of conditions that are optimal for the gods - representatives of an alien civilization.

Firstly. All centers of ancient agriculture are concentrated in the foothills, where the atmospheric pressure is obviously lower than on the low plains (note that, according to N. Vavilov’s conclusions, there are only secondary centers in the Nile Delta and Mesopotamia).

Secondly. In the centers of ancient agriculture, the climatic conditions are most favorable for harvest, which completely contradicts official version about the transition of man to agriculture due to the need to provide food, since these regions are already the most abundant. But it ensures a high harvest of crops necessary for the gods.

And thirdly. It is in these hotbeds chemical composition soils are most favorable for plant organisms rich in copper and poor in iron. For example, all zones of podzolic and soddy-podzolic soils of the Northern Hemisphere, stretching across all of Eurasia, are characterized by increased acidity, which contributes to the strong leaching of copper ions, as a result of which these soils are greatly depleted in this element. And in these zones there is not a single (!) center of ancient agriculture. On the other hand, even the chernozem zone, rich in all the elements necessary for plants, was not included in the list of these centers - it is located in a low-lying area, that is, in an area of higher atmospheric pressure...

Agriculture is one of the main and essential elements of our civilization for the entire period of its existence known to us. It is with the beginning of agriculture and the transition to a sedentary lifestyle that the formation of what we understand by the terms “society” and “civilization” is associated.

Why did primitive people switch from hunting and gathering to cultivating the land? This issue is considered to have been resolved long ago and is included in such a science as political economy as a rather boring section.

The scientific view goes something like this: primitive hunter-gatherers were extremely dependent on their environment. All his life, ancient man waged a fierce struggle for existence, in which the lion's share of his time was spent searching for food. And as a result, all human progress was limited to a rather insignificant improvement in the means of obtaining food.

And then the population grew exponentially (fast in the sense of it), there was very little to eat, but there were still a lot of hungry people. Hunting and gathering could no longer feed all members of the primitive community. And the community had no choice but to master a new form of activity - agriculture, which required, in particular, a sedentary lifestyle. This transition to agriculture stimulated the development of tools, people mastered the construction of stationary housing, then social norms of social relations began to form, etc. and so on.

This scheme seems so logical and even obvious that everyone, somehow without saying a word, almost immediately accepted it as true.

But recently opponents of this theory have appeared. The first and, perhaps, the most serious “troublemakers” were ethnographers who discovered that the primitive tribes that had survived until recently did not fit into the harmonious picture painted by political economy. The patterns of behavior and life of these primitive communities not only turned out to be “unfortunate exceptions”, but fundamentally contradicted the pattern according to which a primitive society should have behaved.

First of all, the highest efficiency of gathering was revealed:

“Both ethnography and archeology have now accumulated a mass of data, from which it follows that the appropriating economy - hunting, gathering and fishing - often provides an even more stable existence than earlier forms of agriculture... The generalization of this kind of facts already at the beginning of our century led the Polish ethnographer L. Krishivitsky to the conclusion that “under normal conditions, primitive man there is more than enough food." Research in recent decades not only confirms this position, but also concretizes it with the help of comparisons, statistics, and measurements” (L. Vishnyatsky, “From Benefit to Benefit”).

The life of a “primitive” hunter and gatherer in general turned out to be very far from the all-consuming and harsh struggle for existence. But these are all arguments!

Beginning of farming

The art of agriculture is too difficult an art for a beginner, lacking experience, to achieve any serious success. Obviously that's why early farming is extremely difficult, and its efficiency is very, very low. In this case, cereals become the main crop.

The nutritional efficiency of cereal plants is not very high - how much grain will you get even if you sow a large field with it! “If the problem really were to find new sources of food, it would be natural to assume that agrotechnical experiments would begin with plants that have large fruits and produce large yields already in their wild forms.”

Even in an “uncultivated” state, tuber crops are ten or more times higher in yield than cereals and legumes, but for some reason ancient man suddenly ignored this fact, which was literally under his nose.

At the same time, the pioneer farmer for some reason believes that the additional difficulties he has shouldered are not enough for him, and he complicates his task even more by introducing the most complex crop processing that could be invented.

Grain is an extremely labor-intensive product, not only in terms of growing and harvesting, but also in terms of its culinary processing. First of all, we have to solve the problem of removing the grain from the strong and hard shell in which it is located. And this requires a special stone industry.

According to the official point of view of political economy, with the transition to agriculture, a person solves his “food problems” and becomes less dependent on the vagaries of the surrounding nature. But an objective and unbiased analysis categorically rejects this statement - life is only getting more complicated. In many ways, early agriculture worsens living conditions ancient man. In particular, by “tying” it to the ground and depriving it of freedom of maneuver in unfavorable conditions, it often leads to severe hunger strikes, practically unknown to hunters and gatherers.

Well, how logical and natural does the transition of our ancestors from hunting and gathering to agriculture now look?..

Ethnographers are again against

Ethnographers have long been convinced that the so-called “primitive” man is not at all so stupid as to plunge himself into such severe trials as arise on the “path to civilization.” But why on earth did free hunters and gatherers at the dawn of our history abandon traditional forms of self-sufficiency in food and take upon themselves the yoke of the hardest, exhausting labor that is agriculture?

Archaeological data indicate that an attempt to develop agriculture, for example, in the Middle East (X-XI millennium BC) took place under the consequences of a certain cataclysm on a global scale, accompanied by a sharp change in climatic conditions and mass extinction of representatives of the animal world. And although the catastrophic events directly took place in the 11th millennium BC, their “residual phenomena” can be traced by archaeologists for several millennia.

Firstly, of course, it is natural that in the context of a reduction in the “food supply,” a situation of acute shortage of food resources could well arise for our ancestors, who were forced as a result to develop new ways of providing themselves with food. But if a global catastrophe occurred, then, as the myths and legends that have reached us (and literally among all nations) testify, only a few survived the Flood. That is, both the food supply and the number of people have decreased.
Secondly, the natural reaction of primitive tribes engaged in hunting and gathering to a reduction in the “food supply” is, first of all, searching for new places rather than new ways of doing things, which is confirmed by numerous ethnographic studies.
Thirdly, even taking into account the climate changes that have occurred The “food supply shortage” could not last long. Nature does not tolerate a vacuum: the ecological niche of endangered animals is immediately occupied by others... But if the restoration of natural resources suddenly for some reason did not happen as quickly as it actually happens in nature, it still requires much less time than to master and develop an entire system of farming techniques (and also open it first!).
Fourthly, there is also no reason to believe that in the context of a reduction in the “food supply” there will be a sharp surge in the birth rate. Primitive tribes are close to the surrounding animal world, and therefore the natural mechanisms of self-regulation of numbers are more pronounced in them: an increase in the birth rate in conditions of depletion of natural resources also leads to an increase in mortality...

And therefore, although the idea of the determining role of population growth in the development of agriculture and the development of culture is far from new, ethnographers still do not accept it: they have enough factual grounds for serious doubts...

Thus, the theory of the “population explosion” as a reason for the transition to agriculture also does not stand up to criticism. And its only argument remains the fact of the combination of agriculture with a high population density.

The geography of ancient agriculture casts even more doubt on the fact that our ancestors were prompted to switch to it by a sharp and sudden reduction in the “food supply.”

About grains and cereals

The Soviet scientist N. Vavilov at one time developed and substantiated a method by which it turned out to be possible to determine the centers of origin of plant crops. According to his research, it turned out that the vast majority of known cultivated plants originate from just eight very limited areas of the main foci.

Centers of ancient agriculture (according to N. Vavilov) 1 - South Mexican center; 2 - Peruvian focus; 3 - Mediterranean focus; 4 - Abyssinian focus; 5 - Western Asian focus; 6 - Central Asian focus; 7 - Indian hearth; 8 - Chinese hearth

All these centers, which are, in fact, centers of ancient agriculture, have very similar climatic conditions of the tropics and subtropics.

But " The tropics and subtropics represent the optimal conditions for the development of the speciation process. The maximum species diversity of wild vegetation and fauna clearly gravitates towards the tropics. This can be especially clearly seen in North America, where southern Mexico and Central America, occupying a relatively insignificant area, contain more plant species than the entire vast expanse of Canada, Alaska and the United States taken together (including California)"(ibid.).

This definitely contradicts the theory of “scarcity of food supply” as a reason for the development of agriculture, since under these conditions there is not only a multiplicity of species potentially suitable for agriculture and cultivation, but also an abundance of edible species in general, which can fully provide for gatherers and hunters... By the way, N. Vavilov also noticed this:

« Until now, in Central America and Mexico, also in mountainous tropical Asia, people use many wild plants. It is not always easy to distinguish cultivated plants from their corresponding wild ones."(ibid.).

Thus, a very strange and even paradoxical pattern emerges: for some reason, agriculture arose precisely in the most abundant regions of the Earth, where there were the least prerequisites for famine. And vice versa: in regions where the reduction in the “food supply” could be most noticeable and should (by all logic) be a significant factor influencing human life, no agriculture arose!!!

Another “detail”: now, according to the official version, a narrow strip skirting the Mesopotamian lowland appears as the generally recognized homeland of wheat (as one of the main grain crops) on our planet. And from there the wheat is believed to have spread throughout the Earth. However, in this point of view there is a certain “cheating” or manipulation of data (as you prefer).

The fact is that this region (according to N. Vavilov’s research) is really the homeland of that group of wheats that is called “wild”. In addition to it, there are two more main groups on Earth: durum wheat and soft wheat. But it turns out that “wild” does not mean “ancestor” at all.

As a result of global research various types wheat N.Vavilov established whole three foci independent from each other distribution (read: places of origin) of this culture. Syria and Palestine turned out to be the birthplace of “wild” wheat and einkorn wheat; Abyssinia (Ethiopia) is the birthplace of durum wheat; and the foothills of the Western Himalayas are the center of origin of soft wheat varieties.

Regions of origin of various types of wheat according to N. Vavilov 1 - durum varieties; 2 - “wild” and einkorn wheat; 3 - soft varieties

The difference between wheat species lies at the deepest level: Einkorn wheat has 14 chromosomes; “wild” and durum wheat - 28 chromosomes; soft wheat has 42 chromosomes. But even between “wild” wheat and durum varieties with the same number of chromosomes there was a whole gulf. And moreover, a similar picture of the “isolation” of cultivated species from the regions of distribution of their “wild” forms is observed in a number of plants (peas, chickpeas, flax, carrots, etc.)!!!

So, what's the end result?..

From the point of view of providing food resources, the transition of ancient hunters and gatherers to agriculture is extremely unprofitable, but they still make it.
Agriculture originates precisely in the most abundant regions, where there are completely no natural prerequisites for abandoning hunting and gathering.
The transition to agriculture is carried out in grain farming, its most labor-intensive version.
The centers of ancient agriculture are geographically separated and very limited. The difference in the plants cultivated in them indicates the complete independence of these foci from each other.
The varietal diversity of some of the major grain crops is found in the earliest stages of agriculture, in the absence of any trace of "intermediate" selection.
For some reason, ancient centers of cultivation of a number of cultivated plant forms turned out to be geographically remote from the localities of their “wild” relatives.

A detailed analysis of stone upon stone does not leave the “logical and clear” official point of view, and the question of the emergence of agriculture on our planet moves from the boring section of political economy among the most mysterious pages of our history. And it is enough to plunge at least a little into its details to understand the incredibleness of what happened.

Let's take a paradoxical route: let's try explain an incredible event through reasons that may seem even more incredible. And for this we will interrogate the witnesses who carried out the actual transition to agriculture. Moreover, we have nowhere to go, since the only other point of view at the moment, different from the official version, is only the one that our ancient ancestors adhered to and which can be traced in myths and legends that have come down to us from those distant times.

Our ancestors were absolutely sure that everything happened according to the will of the gods who descended from heaven. It was they (these gods) who laid the foundation for civilizations as such, provided man with agricultural crops and taught farming techniques.

HERE! So there are Gods!

Quite remarkable is the fact that given point The view of the connection between the origin of agriculture and the Gods prevails in absolutely all known areas of the origin of ancient civilizations.

The great god Quetzalcoatl brought corn to Mexico.
The god Viracocha taught agriculture to people in the Peruvian Andes.
Osiris gave the culture of agriculture to the peoples of Ethiopia (i.e. Abyssinia) and Egypt.
The Sumerians were introduced to agriculture by Enki and Enlil, the gods who descended from heaven and brought them seeds of wheat and barley.
The Chinese were helped in the development of agriculture by the “Heavenly Geniuses”.
And the “Lords of Wisdom” brought fruits and grains to Tibet, previously unknown on Earth.

The second remarkable fact: nowhere, in any myths and legends, does a person even try to give himself or his ancestors credit for the development of agriculture!!!

First of all: the entire above comparative analysis of agriculture quite convincingly indicates that humanity did not have any “natural” reasons or prerequisites for the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture.

Secondly, mythology perfectly explains the fact, revealed by biologists and mentioned above, about the “strange” multiplicity of unrelated cultivated species of the main grains in the ancient centers of agriculture and the remoteness of cultural forms from their “wild” relatives: the gods gave people already cultivated plants.

Third, the version of the “gift of a developed civilization” can also explain some “strange” archaeological finds that do not fit into the general official theory of the origin of agriculture.

In particular, in America: “...research has shown that in this region in ancient times, someone carried out amazing complex analyzes of the chemical composition of many poisonous alpine plants and their tubers. Moreover, these analyzes were combined with developing technology to detoxify potentially edible vegetables to make them harmless. Until now, “there is no satisfactory explanation of the path the developers of this technology took,” admits David Browman, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Washington” (G. Hancock, “Traces of the Gods”).

And what else attracts attention is that it was precisely in the places where centers of agriculture arose that religions were then born... Was it not the Gods who sowed not only grains among people, but also religion? But this is a separate topic, but for now that’s enough!

source http://www.tvoyhram.ru/stati/st45.html

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Page 22 of 27

Hearths of ancient agriculture

The combination of all the above considerations provides an explanation for a number of strange features identified by the Soviet scientist Nikolai Vavilov during his study of the centers of ancient agriculture. For example, according to his research, wheat did not originate from one center, as historians claim, but has three independent places of origin for this culture. Syria and Palestine turned out to be the birthplace of “wild” wheat and einkorn wheat; Abyssinia (Ethiopia) is the birthplace of durum wheat; and the foothills of the Western Himalayas are the center of origin of soft varieties.

Rice. 68. Homeland of wheat according to N.I. Vavilov

1 – “wild” wheat and einkorn wheat;

2 – durum wheat varieties; 3 – soft wheat varieties.

Moreover, it turned out that “wild” does not mean “ancestor” at all!..

“Contrary to usual assumptions, the main bases of the nearest wild species... are not directly adjacent to the centers of concentration... of cultivated wheat, but are located at a considerable distance from them. Wild types of wheat, as research shows, are separated from cultivated wheat by the difficulty of crossing. These are undoubtedly special... species” (N. Vavilov, “Geographical localization of wheat genes on the globe”).

But his research was not limited to this most important result!.. In their process, it was discovered that the difference between wheat species lies at the deepest level: einkorn wheat has 14 chromosomes; “wild” and durum wheat – 28 chromosomes; soft wheat has 42 chromosomes. However, even between “wild” wheat and durum varieties with the same number of chromosomes there was a whole abyss.

As is known and as professional N. Vavilov confirms, achieving such a change in the number of chromosomes by “simple” selection is not so easy (if not almost impossible). If one chromosome split into two or, conversely, two merged into one, there would be no problems. After all, this is quite common for natural mutations, from the point of view of evolutionary theory. But to double and, especially, triple the entire chromosome set at once, methods and methods are needed that modern science is not always able to provide, since intervention is needed at the gene level!..

Rice. 69. Nikolay Vavilov

N. Vavilov comes to the conclusion that theoretically (we emphasize - only theoretically!!!) it is impossible to deny the possible relationship of, say, durum and soft wheat, but for this it is necessary to push back the dates of cultivated agriculture and targeted selection tens of thousands of years ago!!! And there are absolutely no archaeological prerequisites for this, since even the earliest finds do not exceed 15 thousand years in age, but already reveal a “ready-made” variety of wheat species...

Moreover. Vavilov found that a similar picture of “isolation” of cultivated species from the regions of distribution of their “wild” forms is observed in a number of plants - barley, peas, chickpeas, flax, carrots, etc.

And even more than that. According to the research of N. Vavilov, the overwhelming majority of known cultivated plants originate from only seven very limited areas of the main foci.

Rice. 70. Centers of ancient agriculture according to N.I. Vavilov

(1 – Southern Mexican; 2 – Peruvian; 3 – Abyssinian; 4 – Western Asian; 5 – Central Asian; 6 – Indian; 7 – Chinese)

For example, in all of North America, the southern Mexican center of ancient agriculture occupies only about 1/40 of the entire territory of the vast continent. The Peruvian outbreak occupies approximately the same area in relation to all of South America. The same can be said about most centers of the Old World. The process of the emergence of agriculture turns out to be downright “unnatural”, since with the exception of this narrow strip, nowhere (!!!) in the world there were even attempts to transition to agriculture!..

However, there is still a very strange detail. All these centers, which are, in fact, centers of ancient agriculture, have very similar climatic conditions of the tropics and subtropics. But…

“...tropics and subtropics represent optimal conditions for the development of the speciation process. The maximum species diversity of wild vegetation and fauna clearly gravitates towards the tropics. This can be seen especially clearly in North America, where southern Mexico and Central America, occupying a relatively insignificant area, contain more plant species than the entire vast expanse of Canada, Alaska and the United States taken together (including California)” (ibid.).

This directly contradicts the theory of “scarcity of food supply” as a reason for the development of agriculture, since under these conditions there is not only a multiplicity of species potentially suitable for agriculture and cultivation, but also an abundance of generally edible species that can fully provide for gatherers and hunters. There is a very strange and even paradoxical pattern: agriculture arose precisely in the most abundant regions of the Earth, where there were the least preconditions for famine. And vice versa: in regions where the reduction in the “food supply” could be most noticeable and should (by all logic) be a significant factor influencing human life, no agriculture appeared!..

Rice. 71. Plantation of edible cacti

Secondly. The centers of ancient agriculture have the most favorable climatic conditions for harvest, which completely contradicts the official version of the transition of man to agriculture due to the need to provide food, since these regions are already the most abundant. But it ensures a high harvest of crops necessary for the gods.

And thirdly. It is in these areas that the chemical composition of the soil is most favorable for plant organisms rich in copper and poor in iron. For example, all zones of podzolic and soddy-podzolic soils of the Northern Hemisphere, stretching across all of Eurasia, are characterized by increased acidity, which contributes to the strong leaching of copper ions, as a result of which these soils are greatly depleted in this element. And in these zones there is not a single (!) center of ancient agriculture. On the other hand, even the chernozem zone, rich in all the elements necessary for plants, was not included in the list of these centers - it is located in a low-lying area, that is, in an area of higher atmospheric pressure...

The World History. Volume 1. Stone Age Badak Alexander Nikolaevich

The emergence of agriculture and cattle breeding

For the tribes that, back in the Stone Age, using the favorable natural conditions surrounding them, moved from gathering to agriculture and from hunting wild animals to cattle breeding, life turned out completely differently. New forms of economy soon radically changed the conditions of existence of these tribes and moved them far ahead in comparison with hunters, gatherers and fishermen.

Of course, these tribes experienced the cruel consequences of the vagaries of nature. And it is not surprising, because they still did not know metal, and were still limited in their technology to Mesolithic and Neolithic techniques for processing stone and bone. Often they did not even know how to make clay pots.

But of fundamental importance for their lives was the fact that they could already look ahead, think about the future and provide themselves with sources of subsistence in advance, and produce their own food.

Undoubtedly, this was the most important step of primitive man along the path from powerlessness in the fight against nature to power over its forces. This was the impetus for many other progressive changes, causing profound changes in a person’s lifestyle, in his worldview and psyche, in the development of social relations.

The work of the first farmers was very hard. To be convinced of this, it is enough to look at those crude tools that were discovered in the most ancient agricultural settlements. They speak convincingly of how much physical effort, how much grueling labor was required to dig up the ground with simple wooden sticks or heavy hoes, to cut the tough stalks of cereals - ear after ear, bunch after bunch - with sickles and flint blades, so that, finally, grind the grains on a stone slab - a grain grater.

However, this work was necessary, it was compensated by its results. Moreover, the scope of work activity has expanded over time, and its very nature has changed qualitatively.

It is especially necessary to note that the enormous achievement of mankind during the period of the primitive communal system was the development of almost all currently known agricultural crops and the domestication of the most important animal species.

As mentioned above, the first animal that man managed to domesticate was a dog. Its domestication most likely occurred during the Upper Paleolithic period and was associated with the development of hunting.

When agriculture began to develop, man tamed sheep, goats, pigs, and cows. Later, man domesticated the horse and camel.

Unfortunately, oldest traces breeding livestock can only be established with great difficulty, and even then very conditionally.

The most important source for studying the issue is bone remains, but a lot of time had to pass before, as a result of changes in living conditions, the structure of the skeleton of domesticated animals, in contrast to wild ones, would change noticeably.

And yet, it can be considered proven that cows, sheep, goats, and pigs were bred in Neolithic Egypt (VI-V millennium BC), Western and Central Asia, as well as in India (V-IV millennium BC). BC), in China, as well as in Europe (III millennium BC). Much later, reindeer were tamed in the Sayan-Altai Highlands (around the beginning of our era), as well as the llama (guanaco) in Central America, where Apart from this animal and the dog, which appeared here along with all the immigrants from Asia, there were no other animals suitable for domestication.

Along with domesticated animals, domesticated animals continued to play a certain role in the economy and life - for example, elephants.

As a rule, the first farmers of Asia, Europe, and Africa initially used meat, skins and wool of domestic animals. After some time, they began to use milk.

After some time, animals began to be used as pack and horse-drawn transport, as well as draft power in plow farming.

Thus, the development of cattle breeding in turn contributed to progress in agriculture.

However, that's not all. It should be noted that the introduction of agriculture and cattle breeding contributed to population growth. After all, now a person could expand his sources of livelihood, using the developed lands more and more efficiently and developing more and more of its spaces.

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Geographic differentiation

centers of ancient agriculture

Of the centers of ancient agriculture, six lie in the tropics (two American, two in southeast Asia, two African). But the main cultivated plants not only of the tropics were born in them. Many of the annual crops of these centers and perennial crops that can be cultivated as annual crops have gone further beyond the tropical zone and began to be successfully grown in temperate countries. In the mountains of the tropics at significant altitudes the climate approaches temperate. And the stock of cultivated plants from here migrated all the more easily to the north and south of the tropics. There are especially many such plants, common in the temperate zone, in Ethiopia (wheat, flax, castor bean, barley). They are also typical for Peru (potatoes, tomatoes, American cotton - Sealand, India (rice, cucumber, eggplant, citrus fruits), Mexico (maize, Upland cotton, red pepper). Indonesia and the west of Sudan are poorer in them. The other four centers of ancient agriculture : Western Asia, Central Asia, the Mediterranean and northern China - lie entirely in the temperate zone. From here came the main funds of cultivated plants of the temperate zone, and especially wintering deciduous cultivated plants of the woody type and herbaceous plants of a perennial crop. Tropical plants hardly withstand wintering in more or less high latitudes and in long-term culture do not extend beyond the subtropics.

An interesting fact is that only the agricultural peoples of Asia, Europe, North America and Ethiopia learned in ancient times to use a plow to cultivate the soil. From here they developed field farming and field crops. The agriculture of the Americanoids and Sudanese Negroids in ancient times did not know the plow and was hoe farming with individual care for each plant, which corresponds to the methods of vegetable gardening in Eurasia. These peoples did not know the typical extensive field farming, which was reflected in ecological character their cultivated plants. Growing them requires intensive culture. In the field they can only be cultivated as row crops. These are maize, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, tobacco. It is interesting to note in this regard that during the migration of maize, after the Columbus expedition, to Europe, its development here was hampered by the fact that the Europeans sowed it in continuous sowing on a plowed field, like wheat, barley, oats, with a corresponding high seeding density, and this was extremely unfavorable for this garden plant in terms of ecology.

Chapter II

CULTURAL-HISTORICAL
AND ETHNOGRAPHIC FACTORS
IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF CROPS

Cultivated plants are created by agricultural culture. The development of their habitats and settlement around the globe are associated primarily with the development of productive forces and economic ties within human society.

The cultivation of individual cultivated plants arose and began to spread when the necessary economic prerequisites for this were created, and in nature there was material suitable for cultivation. By comparing the ranges of the original wild species and the geographical location of areas where the economy was favorable for the cultivation of the corresponding plants, three main types of their relationships can be observed.

In the first case, when a wild plant taken into cultivation in one of the countries lying within its natural range, having turned into a cultivated one, is cultivated throughout the area of distribution of the original wild species and goes beyond its borders. Thus, figs, which grow wild in the Mediterranean countries and southwestern Asia, are now cultivated in all these countries and, as a cultivated plant, have gone beyond their borders to the south and moved far to the east, reaching here the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The reason for the expansion of the range of individual species in cultivation is, on the one hand, the economic need for them in areas outside the range of the original wild species, and on the other hand, the possibility of their growth outside the range of the original wild forms, due to human influence. Culture eliminates competition with cultivated plants of wild flora, which limits their natural habitat, often far from the line where the direct limiting effect occurs climatic factors.

In other cases, a wild species, becoming cultivated in one of the countries lying within its natural range, is cultivated only in part of the countries of its natural distribution in nature, i.e. the area of its cultivation turns out to be narrower than its distribution in the wild. A good example of this is red clover, which is common in nature in the south of Central Asia and North America. Its cultivation is limited only to the northwestern part, which lies predominantly in the forest zone of the wild red clover habitat. It is not cultivated further south, probably due to the greater economic value of the world's best forage grass, alfalfa. Chicory, which covers almost all of Europe, Western Siberia, Western and Central Asia and northern Africa with its natural habitat, became a cultivated plant only in the countries of Western Europe and then spread east to European Russia inclusive.

There are known cases when the transition wild plant into culture occurs outside its natural range. This is due to the fact that the level of economic development of countries where a certain wild species is found does not yet push them to cultivate it, while the peoples of countries outside the range of a given useful wild species, knowing about its use in the wild, strive to cultivate it to obtain the desired them imported plant product. It is difficult to say how often such cases occurred in ancient times, but we cannot exclude them completely, since there are known cases of expeditions of more cultured ancient peoples into areas that were more backward at that time, which allows for the introduction during such expeditions of individual wild useful plants from some countries to others and introducing them into culture outside their natural habitats. The world's main source of rubber is the Brazilian Hevea, which grows wild in the Amazon, and the cinchona tree in the high-mountain forests of the tropical Andes. The cultivation of both of these plants originated and developed in Indonesia, Malaysia and India - advanced countries of tropical agriculture, and not in their homeland. In the same way, wild Mexican guayule was first cultivated as a source of rubber in Arizona and New Mexico. American wild sunflower gave rise to cultivated oilseed sunflower, which emerged in the 19th century. as a national plant of Russians and Ukrainians. Hungarian wild clover (Trifolium expansum W.K.), having been brought to the United States by one of the emigrants, entered into culture here and, as a cultivated plant, became known as American clover.

The concept of agronomic
and economic area

Cultivated plants, which arose as a result of changes in wild species under the influence of their cultivation, were originally associated in their distribution with the tribes that began to cultivate them. Therefore, the most ancient type of distribution of individual cultivated plants was an area limited by the limits of settlement of individual relatively narrow groups of the agricultural population, related by tribal kinship and surrounded by more backward, non-agricultural tribes. Of course, such a distribution of cultivated plants could not in the vast majority of cases persist for long, since the more backward tribes surrounding the agricultural focus gradually became accustomed to agriculture and the areas of cultivated plants of the primary focus passed to new tribes and covered new areas of expanding agriculture. However, in some cases, these types of cultivated plant habitats have survived to this day. This is due to the fact that the living areas of the creators of certain cultural species coincided with the agronomic boundaries of the cultural species, i.e. with lines beyond which the production of a given plant no longer sufficiently pays for the labor expended on its cultivation, and this stopped the further spread of the crop taken. The age-old habit of certain cultures of the peoples who created them also played a role here. Therefore, their cultivation remains in the areas of their origin even when more productive crops of the same or similar type of use are invaded from other areas. The preservation of the primary habitat can now be observed in the Andean potato, the distribution of which in the tropical part of the Andes approximately coincides with the settlement of the ancient mountain farming tribes of the future Inca state. The spread of this potato to lower vertical zones is hampered by the higher temperatures of the foothills, which are unfavorable for its development, and by the competition of corn that came from Mexico. Within the ancient primary range in areas adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea, the olive retains its main distribution. Its progress from here to the north is hampered by the increasing severity of winters, and to the south and east by deserts.

The oilseed sunflower culture created by the Russians and Ukrainians did not go beyond the settlement of these peoples in the steppe regions of the European part of the USSR until 1880. Rubber Hevea and Cinchona still have their main cultivation range where their wild ancestors began to be cultivated. The tung tree (Aleurites fordii Hemsl.) recently entered into cultivation at the beginning of the 20th century. was cultivated only in southwestern China, where this species was introduced into culture. Relatively recently emerging cultures of American blueberry (Vaccinlum corymbosum L.) and large-fruited cranberry (Oxycoccus macrocarpon Ait.) until the middle of the twentieth century. developed almost exclusively within those US states where cultivation of these species originated.

The cultural and ethnic isolation of large racial groups persisted even in cases where, as a result of relocations, the ethnic composition of past domains of the main races partially changed. The newcomers perceived the culture of the main inhabitants and their connections within certain national groups. Of course, cultural and economic ties between peoples of different cultural and ethnic complexes gradually strengthened, but this process took place over the course of ancient and average history walked very slowly, and only in the 16th century. sea voyages of Europeans put an end to the cultural isolation of America and connected the countries of Europe, Asia and Africa with busy sea routes. But until the 16th century. the relative isolation of individual cultural and ethnic groups of humanity is still clearly preserved, and its traces can be observed in subsequent centuries until the twentieth century.

To this day, we can observe in the distribution of cultivated plants traces of the existence of five large, relatively isolated cultural and ethnic groups of humanity.

I. The first of them consisted of the Americanoids, almost completely isolated from other groups of humanity until the end of the 15th century. America has created cultivated maize, potatoes, cassava, sweet potato, groundnut, beans, pumpkin, tomato, papaya, pineapple, cocoa, American cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L., G. barbadense L.), red pepper, tobacco and shag, quinoa, coca bush.

II. The second such cultural-ethnic complex consisted of the Caucasians of Western and Central Asia, Europe and North Africa. Mountain ranges and deserts isolated this group from Chinese culture in the east, the tropical regions of India and the Indochina Peninsula in the southeast and the Negroid peoples of Africa in the southwest. A complex of its own cultivated plants has been created here, including wheat, barley, oats, rye, olives, figs, grapes, peas, lentils, apple trees, pears, cabbage, and beets. This group of plants became the basis of agriculture in the extratropical regions of Western and Central Asia and Europe. In the south of Western Asia and northern Africa, the date palm became the main cultivated plant along with bread.

III. In tropical Africa, a third cultural-ethnic complex of cultivated plants was created. Here, later than their northern neighbors, they switched to agriculture and could borrow ready-made cultivated plants from them already during the very period of the formation of their agriculture. But nevertheless, this complex has specificity both in its autochthonous cultivated species (oil palm, kola nut, Liberian coffee) and in the peculiar selection of foreign cultivated plants. The Negroid domain is an ancient area of hoe farming, while the farming of the Caucasian domain was based on the plough. Therefore, Negroids very willingly adopted crops such as taro, yam, banana, and after the discovery of America - corn and groundnuts, which were most convenient for hoeing, and avoided the grain plants typical of Caucasians (wheat, barley, oats), which were more adapted to plowing. soil treatment.

IV. The tropical regions of eastern Asia were from ancient times the domain of the Australoid peoples, although they were subsequently invaded by the Mongoloids (in the east) and Caucasians (in the west). However, the peculiarities of the tropical climate of these regions, with their relative isolation by mountain ranges from those lying to the north, have long preserved and continue to preserve the specific features of this domain of the ancient agricultural culture of the Australoids. Among the Australoids of India, the Indochina Peninsula and Indonesia, agriculture arose earlier, and subsequently the plow began to be used for cultivating the soil, while in Oceania until the 16th century. the soil was cultivated only with a spade. The main indigenous crops here are rice, sorghum, taro, yam, banana, coconut palm, sugar cane, breadfruit, citrus fruits, and Indian cotton (Gossypium arboreum L.). Grain, relatively intensive field crops here gravitate towards the South Asian region of plow farming, and extensive crop plants, such as breadfruit, coconut palm, and taro, are most characteristic of Oceania with its cultivation of the land with a spade.

V. The last cultural-ethnic area of agriculture is the domain of the northern Mongoloids, where Chinese agriculture created such cultivated plants as millet, buckwheat, soybeans, and rope grass. This is an area of plow farming, but extremely intensive farming, which was reflected in the ecological and genetic characteristics of the cultural flora of China and the peoples of Chinese culture.

Centers of primary ancient agriculture

The primary ancient centers of agriculture arose in the zone lying mainly between the Tropic of Capricorn and 45 0 N latitude. By the 16th century agriculture reached the Arctic Circle (in Scandinavia), and in the southern hemisphere it went above 45 0 south latitude. (in New Zealand). The distribution of cultivated plants was subject to the influence of climatic factors, which were not the same throughout the entire area of settlement of individual ethnic groups. Latitudinal and altitudinal boundaries for the cultivation of individual cultivated plants and boundaries of the competitive nature of plants of similar or similar use common in the domain were created.

When the isolation of cultural and ethnic domains ceased to directly restrict the spread of cultivated plants, the most valuable of them entered the world stage, receiving zonal areas covering the entire Earth and limited by climatic and economic conditions. However, the habit of farmers to their ancient cultivated plants continues to play a significant role in the spread of many cultivated plants, especially those of secondary economic importance, which have not received wide distribution throughout the world.

Cultural and ethnic factors in the distribution of cultivated plants are echoes of past history. They reflect the past isolation of peoples and are weakened with the development of international relations and the creation of an international human culture. However, the imprint it left on the geography of cultivated plants is so deep that it is reflected even in the distribution of such cultivated plants that have long since become global. The main areas of rice crops are still concentrated in southeast Asia, and maize remains a cereal plant primarily in America.

More centuries and millennia will pass before this imprint is completely smoothed out. Some glimpses of something new in this regard are already emerging. The coffee tree, introduced into culture by the Ethiopians and spreading since ancient times in southern Arabia, is now the main area of its cultivation in Brazil. The Mexican chocolate tree is cultivated most widely in western Africa (Ghana and its neighboring territories). This is a signal that in the future, individual cultivated plants will be cultivated mainly where there are more favorable economic conditions for this, regardless of their historical past, and physical-geographical and economic factors will play a much greater role in the distribution of individual cultural species in the future. role than it was in the past and is observed now.

Chapter III

THE TEACHING OF N. I. VAVILOV ABOUT THE CENTERS OF ORIGIN OF CULTURED PLANTS

The need for source material for the selection and improvement of varieties of cultivated plants led to the creation of the doctrine of their centers of origin. The teaching was based on Charles Darwin's idea of the existence of geographical centers of origin of biological species. The geographical areas of origin of the most important cultivated plants were first described in 1880 by the Swiss botanist A. Decandolle. According to his ideas, they covered quite vast territories, including entire continents. The most important research in this direction, half a century later, was carried out by the remarkable Russian geneticist and botanical geographer N.I. Vavilov (1887-1943), who studied the centers of origin of cultivated plants on a scientific basis.

N.I. Vavilov proposed a new method, which he called differentiated, for establishing the initial center of origin of cultivated plants, which consists in the following. A collection of the plant of interest collected from all places of cultivation is studied using morphological, physiological and genetic methods. Thus, the area of concentration of the maximum diversity of forms, characteristics and varieties of a given species is determined. Ultimately, it is possible to establish centers of introduction into culture of a particular species, which may not coincide with the territory of its widespread cultivation, but be located at significant distances (several thousand kilometers) from it. Moreover, the centers of origin of cultivated plants currently cultivated on the plains of temperate latitudes are in mountainous regions.

Striving to put genetics and selection to work National economy countries, N.I. Vavilov and his associates during numerous expeditions in 1926-1939. collected a collection of about 250 thousand specimens of cultivated plants. As the scientist emphasized, he was interested mainly in plants of temperate zones, since the enormous plant wealth of South Asia, Tropical Africa, Central America and Brazil, unfortunately, is only in on a limited scale can be used in our country.

An important theoretical generalization of N.I.’s research. Vavilov is developed by him doctrine of homological series(from the Greek homologos - corresponding). According to the law of homological ranges of hereditary variability formulated by him, not only genetically close species, but also genera of plants form homological series of forms, i.e. There is a certain parallelism in the genetic variability of species and genera. Closely related species, due to the great similarity of their genotypes (almost the same set of genes), have similar hereditary variability. If all known variations of characters in a well-studied species are placed in a certain order, then almost all the same variations in character variability can be found in other related species. For example, the variability of ear spinality is approximately the same in soft, durum wheat and barley.

The law of homological series of hereditary variability makes it possible to find the necessary characteristics and variants in the almost infinite variety of forms of various species of both cultivated plants and domestic animals, and their wild relatives. It makes it possible to successfully search for new varieties of cultivated plants and breeds of domestic animals with certain required characteristics. This is a huge practical significance laws for crop production, livestock breeding and breeding. Its role in the geography of cultivated plants is comparable to the role Periodic table elements D.I. Mendeleev in chemistry. By applying the law of homological series, it is possible to establish the center of origin of plants according to related species with similar characteristics and forms, which probably develop in the same geographical and ecological environment.

For the emergence of a large source of origin of cultivated plants, N.I. Vavilov believed a necessary condition In addition to the wealth of wild flora and species suitable for cultivation, there is the presence of an ancient agricultural civilization.

Centers of origin of cultivated plants

according to N.I. Vavilov

Scientist N.I. Vavilov came to the conclusion that the vast majority of cultivated plants are associated with seven main geographical centers of their origin: South Asian tropical, East Asian, South-West Asian, Mediterranean, Ethiopian, Central American and Andean (Fig. 2). Outside these centers there was a significant territory that required further study in order to identify new centers of domestication of the most valuable representatives of wild

flora. Followers of N.I. Vavilova - A.I. Kuptsov and A.M. Zhukovsky continued research into the study of the centers of cultivated plants (Fig. 2). Ultimately, the number of centers and the territory they covered increased significantly. Let's give brief characteristics each of the centers.

Sino-Japanese. World crop production owes the origin of many cultivated species to East Asia. Among them are rice, multi-row and hulless barley, millet, chumiza, hulless oats, beans, soybeans, radishes, many types of apple trees, pears and onions, apricots, very valuable types of plums, oriental persimmon, possibly orange, mulberry tree, sugar cane Chinese, tea tree, short-staple cotton.

Indonesian-Indochine. This is the center of many cultivated plants - some varieties of rice, bananas, breadfruit, coconut and sugar palms, sugar cane, yams, Manila hemp, the largest and tallest types of bamboo, etc.

Australian. The flora of Australia gave the world the fastest growing woody plants - eucalyptus and acacia. 9 wild cotton species, 21 wild tobacco species and several types of rice have also been identified here. In general, the flora of this continent is poor in wild edible plants, especially those with succulent fruits. Currently, crop production in Australia almost entirely uses crops of foreign origin.

Hindustan. The Hindustan Peninsula was of great importance in the development of crop production in ancient Egypt, Sumer and Assyria. This is the birthplace of common wheat, an Indian subspecies of rice, some varieties of beans, eggplant, cucumber, jute, sugar cane, Indian hemp, etc. Wild species of apple, tea tree and banana are common in the mountain forests of the Himalayas. The Indo-Gangetic plain is a huge plantation of cultivated plants of world importance - rice, sugarcane, jute, peanuts, tobacco, tea, coffee, banana, pineapple, coconut palm, oil flax, etc. The Deccan plateau is famous for the cultivation of orange and lemon.

Central Asian. On the territory of the center - from the Persian Gulf, the Hindustan Peninsula and the Himalayas in the south to the Caspian and Aral seas, lake. Balkhash in the north, including the Turan Lowland, fruit trees are of particular importance. Since ancient times, apricots, walnuts, pistachios, oleaster, almonds, pomegranates, figs, peach, grapes, and wild apple trees have been cultivated here. Some varieties of wheat, onions, primary types of carrots and small-seeded forms of legumes (peas, lentils, fava beans) also arose here. The ancient inhabitants of Sogdiana (modern Tajikistan) developed high-sugar varieties of apricots and grapes. Wild apricot still grows in abundance in the mountains of Central Asia. The varieties of melons bred in Central Asia are the best in the world, especially the Chardzhou ones, which remain in limbo throughout the year.

Near Asian. The center includes Transcaucasia, Asia Minor (except for the coast), the historical region of Western Asia Palestine and the Arabian Peninsula. From here come wheat, two-row barley, oats, the primary crop of peas, cultivated forms of flax and leeks, some types of alfalfa and melons. It is the primary center of the date palm, home to quince, cherry plum, plum, cherry and dogwood. Nowhere in the world is there such an abundance of wild wheat species. In Transcaucasia, the process of the origin of cultivated rye from field weeds, which still infests wheat crops, has been completed. As wheat moved north, winter rye, as a more winter-hardy and unpretentious plant, became a pure crop.

Mediterranean. This center includes the territory of Spain, Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece and the entire northern coast of Africa. The Western and Eastern Mediterranean is the birthplace of wild grapes and the primary center of its culture. Wheat, legumes, flax, and oats evolved here (the oats Avena strigosa, with stable immunity to fungal diseases, survived in the wild in Spain on sandy soils). In the Mediterranean, the cultivation of lupine, flax, and clover began. A typical element of the flora was the olive tree, which became a crop in ancient Palestine and Egypt.

African. It is characterized by diversity natural conditions from moist evergreen forests to savannas and deserts. At first, only local species were used in crop production, and then those introduced from America and Asia. Africa is the birthplace of all types of watermelon, the center of cultivation of rice and millet, yams, some types of coffee, oil and date palms, cotton and other cultivated plants. The origin of the tableware pumpkin kulebasa, cultivated everywhere in Africa, but unknown in the wild, raises questions. A special role in the evolution of wheat, barley and other grain plants belongs to Ethiopia, on whose territory their wild ancestors did not exist. All of them were borrowed by farmers already cultivated from other centers.

European-Siberian. It covers the territory of all of Europe, except the Iberian Peninsula, the British Isles and the tundra zone; in Asia it reaches the lake. Baikal. The emergence of sugar beet crops, red and white clovers, and northern, yellow and blue alfalfa is associated with it. The main significance of the center lies in the fact that European and Siberian apple trees, pears, cherries, forest grapes, blackberries, strawberries, currants and gooseberries were cultivated here, the wild relatives of which are still common in local forests.

Central American. It occupies the territory of North America, bounded by the northern borders of Mexico, California and the Isthmus of Panama. In ancient Mexico, intensive crop production developed with the main food crops being corn and some types of beans. Pumpkin, sweet potato, cocoa, pepper, sunflower, Jerusalem artichoke, shag and agave were also cultivated here. Nowadays, wild potato species are found in the center.

South American. Its main territory is concentrated in the Andes mountain system with rich volcanic soils. The Andes are the birthplace of ancient Indian varieties of potatoes and various types of tomatoes, peanuts, melon trees, cinchona, pineapple, rubber plant Hevea, Chilean strawberries, etc. In ancient Araucania, the potato (Solanum tuberosum) was cultivated, probably originating from the island of Chiloe. Neither the Peruvian nor the Chilean potatoes are known to exist in the wild and their origins are unknown. Long-staple cotton originated in South America. There are many wild types of tobacco here.

North American. Its territory coincides with the territory of the United States. It is especially interesting primarily as a center large number species of wild grapes, many of which are resistant to phylloxera and fungal diseases. The center is home to over 50 wild herbaceous species of sunflower and the same number of species of lupine, about 15 species of plums, large-fruited cranberries and highbush blueberries have been cultivated, the first plantations of which have recently appeared in Belarus.

The problem of the origin of cultivated plants is quite complex, since sometimes it is impossible to establish their homeland and wild ancestors.

Chapter IV

PHYSICAL-GEOGRAPHICAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORSDISTRIBUTIONSCULTURALPLANTS

Soil and climatic differences within the territorially limited main centers of ancient agriculture played a subordinate role in the differentiation of cultivated plants here. Spreading in latitudinal, longitudinal and altitudinal directions, cultivated plants, without even leaving the framework of individual cultural and ethnic domains, stopped at their agronomic limits. The boundaries beyond which the labor costs for their cultivation became economically inexpedient, regardless of the competition of other crops. But the economic boundaries in the ranges of individual cultivated species also reflect, to a certain extent, climatic conditions. Individual cultivated plants, being out of competition or, conversely, lacking sufficient competitiveness in some climatic conditions, become less or more productive when entering others.

culturalplants like science. Goals, objectives, meaning geographyculturalplants in the system of geographical...