Stephen B. Brush
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300100495
- eISBN:
- 9780300130140
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300100495.001.0001
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
This book defines the dimensions of crop diversity and questions surrounding it. Understanding the nature of crop diversity and its fate in the modern world is an international scientific enterprise ...
More
This book defines the dimensions of crop diversity and questions surrounding it. Understanding the nature of crop diversity and its fate in the modern world is an international scientific enterprise that draws scientists from many different disciplines—archaeology, geography, botany, genetics, anthropology, and economics. Since the mid-nineteenth century, many investigators have dealt with this topic and have defined an array of scientific, industrial, and political issues that reach far beyond the original investigations of botanists and natural historians. Geneticists and social scientists study diversity in agriculture for different reasons—for instance, to understand gene flow or the effect of the industrial seed industry. This book explains how human ecology came to the study of crop diversity, and describes the ways it has been used to address larger issues about human and agricultural evolution. It examines various ways of defining and measuring crop diversity, and introduces the three crops and farming regions: potatoes in the Peruvian Andes, maize in Mexico, and wheat in Turkey. The book describes the ethnobiology of Andean potatoes as an example of how anthropological research can contribute to an overall understanding of the ecology and evolution of a crop in its center of origin, and also examines the nature of farmer selection, using material from research on wheat diversity in Turkey.Less
This book defines the dimensions of crop diversity and questions surrounding it. Understanding the nature of crop diversity and its fate in the modern world is an international scientific enterprise that draws scientists from many different disciplines—archaeology, geography, botany, genetics, anthropology, and economics. Since the mid-nineteenth century, many investigators have dealt with this topic and have defined an array of scientific, industrial, and political issues that reach far beyond the original investigations of botanists and natural historians. Geneticists and social scientists study diversity in agriculture for different reasons—for instance, to understand gene flow or the effect of the industrial seed industry. This book explains how human ecology came to the study of crop diversity, and describes the ways it has been used to address larger issues about human and agricultural evolution. It examines various ways of defining and measuring crop diversity, and introduces the three crops and farming regions: potatoes in the Peruvian Andes, maize in Mexico, and wheat in Turkey. The book describes the ethnobiology of Andean potatoes as an example of how anthropological research can contribute to an overall understanding of the ecology and evolution of a crop in its center of origin, and also examines the nature of farmer selection, using material from research on wheat diversity in Turkey.
Stephen B. Brush
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300100495
- eISBN:
- 9780300130140
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300100495.003.0002
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
This chapter describes some of the ways in which crop diversity has been used to address larger issues about human and agricultural evolution. Recognition and management of crop varieties are part of ...
More
This chapter describes some of the ways in which crop diversity has been used to address larger issues about human and agricultural evolution. Recognition and management of crop varieties are part of a single continuum of using and caring for plant species and plant communities, a continuum that is most apparent in the amazing diversity of crops. This diversity is renewed yearly during seed selection, a human routine that has guided crop evolution. The chapter discusses how engagement with crop diversity is ubiquitous in agricultural societies because farmers everywhere are aware of the potential of new crops or crop varieties to solve problems. It also reveals how many different societies have organized the search for new crop varieties, and how this search has eventually led to scientific crop improvement programs based on conscious selection, crosses among different varieties, and genetic manipulation.Less
This chapter describes some of the ways in which crop diversity has been used to address larger issues about human and agricultural evolution. Recognition and management of crop varieties are part of a single continuum of using and caring for plant species and plant communities, a continuum that is most apparent in the amazing diversity of crops. This diversity is renewed yearly during seed selection, a human routine that has guided crop evolution. The chapter discusses how engagement with crop diversity is ubiquitous in agricultural societies because farmers everywhere are aware of the potential of new crops or crop varieties to solve problems. It also reveals how many different societies have organized the search for new crop varieties, and how this search has eventually led to scientific crop improvement programs based on conscious selection, crosses among different varieties, and genetic manipulation.
