Abstract
Scholars have seldom considered the native crop diversity in northwest Mexico and the U.S. Southwest as resources of the same cohesive ecological and cultural region. The term Aridoamerica is introduced to describe this overlooked center of plant domestication and diversification, which is distinct from centers of Mesoamerica and the Mississippi Valley. To understand why certain of its landraces are unique, the systematic relationships and gene-pool relations of crops found prehistorically and protohistorically in Aridoamerica are reviewed. Signifcant crop/ weed introgression continues where indigenous agriculture persists, but native fields are being rapidly abandoned or converted. In planning in situ and ex situ conservation efforts to maintain this diversity, both cultural factors and plant population genetics must be considered.
Similar content being viewed by others
Literature Cited
Bingham, S., and J. Bingham. 1979. Navajo Farming. Utah State University, Logan, UT, for Roughrock School, AZ.
Bretting, P. K. 1982. Morphological differentiation ofProboscidea parviflora ssp.parviflora (Martyniaceae) under domestication. Amer. J. Bot. 69: 1531–1537.
Calloway, D. H., R. D. Giauque, and F. P. Costa. 1974. The superior mineral content of some Indian foods in comparison to federally donated counterpart commodities. Ecol. Food. Nutr. 3: 203–211.
Carter, G. F. 1945. Plant geography and culture history in the American Southwest. Viking Fund Publ. Anthropol. 5: 1–141.
Davis, T., IV, and R. A. Bye, Jr. 1982. Ethnobotany and progressive domestication ofJaltomata (Solanaceae) in Mexico and Central America. Econ. Bot. 36: 225–241.
Doebley, J. F. 1984. “Seeds” of wild grasses: a major food of Southwestern Indians. Econ. Bot. 38: 52–64.
Dressler, R. L. 1953. The pre-Columbian cultivated plants of Mexico. Bot. Mus. Leafl. Harvard Univ. 16: 115–173.
Ehrenfeld, D. W. 1977. The conservation of non-resources. Amer. Sci. 64: 648–656.
Fish, S. K., P. R. Rish, C. Miksicek, and J. Madsen. In prep. Prehistoric agave cultivation in southern Arizona. Desert Plants.
Ford, R. I. 1981. Gardening and farming before A.D. 1000: patterns of prehistoric cultivation north of Mexico. J. Ethnobiol. 1: 6–27.
Harlan, J. 1975. Crops and Man. Amer. Soc. Agronomy. Madison, WI.
Hernandez X., E. 1981. Agroecosistemas de Mexico: Contribuciones a las ensenanzas, investigaciones y divulgacion agricola. Colegio de Postgraduados, Chapingo, Mexico.
Iltis, H. H. 1974. Freezing the genetic landscape-the preservation of diversity in cultivated plants as an urgent social responsibility of the plant geneticist and plant taxonomist. Maize Genet. Coop. Newslett. 48: 199–200.
Kirchhoff, P. 1954. Gatherers and farmers in the Greater Southwest: a problem in classification. Amer. Anthropol. 56: 529–560.
Leeds, A. R. 1981. Legume diets for diabetics? J. Pl. Foods 3: 219–223.
Leon, J. 1979. Crop Genetic Resources in Central America. CATIE/GTZ Program, Turrialba, Costa Rica.
Mackie, W. W. 1943. Origin, dispersal and variability ofPhaseolus lunatus. Hilgardia 15: 1–29.
Merrick, L. C. In prep. Biosystematics of theCucurbita sororia group.
— and G. P. Nabhan. 1984. Natural hybridization of wildCucurbita sororia group and domesticatedC. mixta in southern Sonora, Mexico. Cucurbit Genet. Coop. Newslett. 7: 73–75.
Miller, W. 1983. Uto-aztecan.In Alfonso Ortiz, ed, Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 10., p. 113–124. Smithsonian Inst., Washington, DC.
Nabhan, G. P. 1979a. Amaranth cultivation in the U.S. Southwest and northwest Mexico. 2nd Amaranth Conf. Proc., p. 129–133. Rodale Press, Emmaus, PA.
-. 1979b. Tepary Beans Domestication: Ecological and Nutritional Changes duringPhaseolus acutifolius Evolution. Unpubl. Master’s Thesis, Univ. Arizona, Tucson, AZ.
—, A. Whiting, H. Dobyns, R. Euler, and R. Hevly. 1981a. Devil’s claw domestication: evidence from Southwestern Indian fields. J. Ethnobiol. 1: 135–164.
—, C. Anson, M. Drees, and D. Lopez. 1981b. Kaicka: Seed Saving the Papago-Pima Way. Meals for Millions/Freedom from Hunger Foundation, Tucson, AZ.
-. 1983. Papago Fields: Arid Lands Ethnobotany and Agricultural Ecology. Unpubl. Ph.D. Diss., Univ. Arizona, Tucson.
—, and K. L. Reichhardt. 1983. Hopi protection ofHelianthus anomalus, a rare sunflower. Southwestern Naturalist 28: 231–236.
— 1984. Evidence of gene flow between cultivatedCucurbita mixta and a field edge population of wildCucurbita at Onavas, Sonora. Cucurbit Genet. Coop. Newslett. 7: 76–77.
—, and J. M. J. de Wet. 1984.Panicum sonorum in Sonoran Desert agriculture. Econ. Bot. 38: 65–82.
—, C. W. Weber, and J. W. Berry. 1985. Variation in composition of Hopi Indian beans. Ecol. Food. Nutr. 16: 135–152.
-., and A. M. Rea. In press. Plant domestication and folk taxonomic change: the Northern Piman/devil's claw example. Amer. Anthropol.
Pennington, C. W. 1982. La cultura de los Eudeve del noroeste de Mexico. Noroeste de Mexico 6: 9–34.
Ramos, R. 1980. Una observation clinica sobre el efecto hopoglicemiante del nopal(Opuntia sp.). Med. Tradicional 3: 12–23.
Robertson, T. A., ed. 1972. My Life Among the Savage Nations of New Spain, by Perez de Ribas. Ward Ritchie Press, Los Angeles, CA.
Rogers, C. E., T. E. Thompson, and C. E. Seiler. 1982. Sunflower Species of the United States. National Sunflower Assoc, Bismarck, ND.
Romney, E. M., A. Wallace, and R. B. Hunter. 1978. Plant response to nitrogen fertilization in the northern Mohave Desert and its relation to water utilization.In N. E. West and J. Skukins, ed, Nitrogen in Desert Ecosystems, p. 232–242. Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross, Stroudsburg, PA.
Roos, E. E. 1980. Phsyiological, biochemical, and genetic changes in seed quality during storage. HortScience 15: 781–784.
— 1984. Report of the Storage Committee Working Group on ‘Effects of storage on genetic integrity’ 1980-1983. Seed Sci. Technol. 12: 255–260.
Rzedowski, J. 1978. Vegetacion de Mexico. Editorial Limusa, Mexico, D.F.
Sauer, J. 1977. The grain amaranths and their relatives: a revised taxonomic and geographic survey.In Amaranth Round-up, p. 13–24. Rodale Press, Emmaus, PA.
Spicer, E. H. 1971. Persistent cultural systems. Science 174: 795–800.
Tanksley, S. D. 1983. Introgression of genes from wild species.In S. D. Tanksley and T. J. Orton, ed, Isozymes in Plant Genetics and Breeding. Elsevier, New York.
Toledo, V., J. Carabias, C. Mapes, and C. Toledo. 1981. Critica de la ecologia politica. Nexos 4: 14–21.
U.S. Office of Technology Assessment. 1984. Water-related Technologies for Sustainable Agriculture in U.S. Arid/Semi-Arid Lands. U.S. Gov. Printing Office, Washington, DC.
Vavilov, N. I. 1951. The origin, variation, immunity and breeding of cultivated plants. Chron. Bot. 13: 1–136.
West, K. M. 1974. Diabetes in American Indians and other native populations of the New World. Diabetes 23: 10–18.
West, R. C. 1964. Natural regions of Middle America.In R. Wauchope, ed., Handbook of Middle American Indians. Vol. 1. Univ. Texas Press, Austin, TX.
Wilkes, H. G. 1970. Teosinte introgression in the maize of Nobogame Valley. Bot. Mus. Leaflets, Harvard Univ. 22: 297–311.
Wilkes, H. G. 1971. Too little gene exchange. Science 171: 955.
Wilson, H. D. 1981. DomesticatedChenopodium of the Ozark Bluff dwellers. Econ. Bot. 35: 233–239.
Winter, J. C. 1974. Aboriginal Agriculture in the Southwest and Great Basin. Unpubl. Ph.D. Diss., Univ. Utah, Salt Lake City, UT.
Woodbury, R., and E. Zubrow. 1979. Agricultural beginnings, 500 B.C. to A.D. 1000.In Alfonso Ortiz, ed, Handbook of the North American Indians. Vol. 9. Smithsonian Inst., Washington, DC.
Woosley, A. I. 1980. Agricultural diversity in the prehistoric Southwest. Kiva 45: 317–336.
Zeven, A. C., and J. M. J. de Wet. 1982. Dictionary of Cultivated Plants and Their Regions of Diversity. Center for Agricultural Publishing and Documentation, Wageningen, Netherlands.
Zhukovsky, P. M. 1975. World gene pool of plants for breeding. Mega-gene centers and endemic micro-gene centers. USSR Academy of Sciences, Leningrad.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nabhan, G.P. Native crop diversity in Aridoamerica: Conservation of regional gene pools. Econ Bot 39, 387–399 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02858746
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02858746