Ancient South American Foodways Essay examples -- Domestication, Plant

Ancient South American FoodwaysDomestication of plants and animals has long been indicated as a main causational factor for population increase and socio-political complexity. Evidence of domestication of plants in South America has been said of have initially occurred 8000 BC, evidence of squash in Ecuador (Pearsall 2008107), and 500 years earlier lima beans and chili peppers be being exploited (Lynch 1983125-6). However, it took several millennia for intensive manipulation of plants to become standard practice for subsistence. The Archaic transition occurred around 3000 BC was identifiable for its broadly found subsistence, experimental agriculture, seasonal nomadism giving way to sedentism, and technological proliferation (Lynch 198391). By the end of the Paleo-Indian times the shift to agriculture and cultivation came to a head during Pre-ceramic 2500 BC quinoa, maize, gourd, squash, potato, beans and lucuma were instantly utilized for agricultural domesticationthe Formative stage according the Lynch (198391) ca. 2000 BC had intensive agriculture, full sedentism, class systems, corporate labor projects, and temple-based religions.Before and go along through the advent of irrigation agriculture, South Americans diets and main source of protein was marine based. Fishing is very nearly as old in the new world as the presence of humansseafood not just agriculture underwrote the first formation of Andean Civilization (Isbell, Sandweiss, Silver 2008147). Small sea villages eventually provided a rough-cut trade system for larger complex townsexchange of maritime resources for agricultural products. The advent of irrigation agriculture was vital in the formation of complex villages. The trajectory of irrigation in Sou... ...ithin and without the temple precincts, Chavin possessed elements which were to became standard in later Andean cities (Bruhns, 1994131). Also, Chiripa located near the Southern end of Lake Titicaca (600-100 BC), because a model for late r temple structures oddly the Kidder Temple at Pucara. The site consisted of orthogonal buildings around a central patio and each site in the complex housed a sunken rectangular temple. Consistencies across Nazca settlement patterns indicate urban planning strategies and monitoring systems. The Incan culture derived from Tiwanaku. Incan empire expanded from its core, Cuzco in the Cuzco Valley. Incans cleverness to cultivate and harvest resulting in techniques for food storage that could last from 3-7 years. Incas took the crops of those conquered nations and cultivated them ensuring seasonality differentiation abundance.