THE GIFT OF CORN

October 26, 2014
Zea Mays

KEYWORDS:  Corn, maize, teosinte, archaeology, native American, agriculture, history, pre-columbian, 4th-7th grade social studies.

Fig. 1 - Corn Mother
Modern Pueblo Sculpture
Offering Zea Mays to the World

Corn is the most significant contribution of the aboriginal people of the Western Hemisphere to the world. Corn is the product of human ingenuity and labor. It is a human made plant that without support from the farmer would soon disappear because it can't effectively reproduce. 

Corn is more than a source of food.  It is a civilizing force.  It is an anchor to the soil that gave independence from starvation to the primitive hunter-gatherers of this continent. It created the great early civilizations of Meso-America: Olmec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec. It led to greatness the cities of the Maya, Inca and Aztec.

             HISTORY OF CORN VIDEO

    

Fig. 2 - Mayan Corn God

The cultivation of corn began around 10,000 b. C. and gradually spread from a small region of middle America to the rest of the world. Nearly 500 years ago, Columbus found it in Cuba and took it to Europe. Together with tobacco, tomatoes, cocoa and chili, maize became a "western" commodity, and later an "oriental" and "African" staple. 

Fig. 3 - Map of the genetic sources of Zea Luxurians about 10,000 b. C.
a grass variety named Teosinte from which corn was developed

Fig. 4 - The Mayan God of Corn

The English Pilgrims that settled in Massachusetts a century later survived because of corn. Today, there are more corn tortilla chips consumed in the United States than any other salty snack. There are more tortillas produced in the United States than hamburger and hot-dog buns.

Corn by-products are in 42% of packaged foods. Corn is a major source of oil, starch, sugar, protein and fiber. Most chicken, beef and pork produced around the world is fed corn. Corn is a significant component of gasoline in the form of ethanol and it can be found in a great diversity of products, from plastics to makeup.

USES AND FACTS ABOUT CORN TODAY - read report

Corn is produced in every country in America. The United States, followed by Brazil and Argentina are the leading producers of corn in this continent. Other major producers around the world are China, Europe, Ukraine, India and South Africa. The United States and China are the largest producers of corn in the world.  Just in the U. S., corn planting represents around US $ 80 billion a year, and 100 million acres of land.

Fig. 5 - Zapotec corn urn

Fig. 6 - Mayan God of Corn atop Water God

How  and when did this important cultural change take place? Historians of antiquity tell us that ancient civilization began about 10,000 years ago in the biblical Fertile Crescent with the invention of agriculture. Simultaneously, it also happened along the Nile River which became the first agricultural "power". Regardless of the details, this model of cultural development needs to be revisited. 

Without doubt, science has proven that about the same time, a similar process was happening in the Western Hemisphere.  The oldest evidence of maize cultivation and food preparation was found in a cave in southern Mexico and dated about 9,000 b. C. By then it was already an on-going activity of the people that had settled in that area. Climate scientists are beginning to think that climate change around the world made the advent of agriculture possible around the globe at about the same time. 

            THE GENETICS OF CORN - read article

Fig. 7 - Map of Teosinte varieties at present

Genetic science has found the source and full explanation of the development of corn.  It all began with a variety of a tall grass called "Teosinte".  It produces seeds that fall out, are blown away or carried by birds and other animals to germinate in a new location. 

Paleo-Indian foragers, hunter-gatherers, no doubt discovered its nutritious value.  As a grass, it usually grows in concentrations, not in isolation. In the tropics, these places would be great for people to stop their nomadic habits and become sedentary.  Teosinte in abundance naturally leads to the next steps of seed selection and cultivation.

         ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF CORN - read article

Fig. 8 - A Teosinte clump at the botanical garden
in Oaxaca, Mexico

Fig. 9 - From Teosinte to Maize

Fig. 10 - Comparison between Teosinte and Maize-Corn
Not to scale.  Corn is about three to four times larger 

Gradually, Teosinte was genetically modified to create corn, a plant that has many more seeds than it needs to reproduce, except that they do not drop from the cob.  Each cluster of seeds is protected by several layers of husk, not only to keep them from dropping, but also from the action of bugs and birds.  The human hand is needed to harvest it, to pull it apart, and to plant it. Corn seeds -kernels- dry and preserve well.  Ceramic granaries full of grain have been found in dry-climate archaeological sites several thousands years old in the U. S. southwest and in Peru.  They are still fertile.

Fig. 11 - Teosinte seeds

Fig. 12 - Maize mature plant

Fig. 13 - Modern varieties of Indian Corn

Gradually, corn allowed the cultural evolution of Paleo-Indian and Archaic groups in Meso-America.  By trade, emigration or contact with other neighboring groups, corn traveled north and south, eventually making it to the Caribbean.  Civilization in the Americas spread with corn.

From the ancient Teosinte fields of the Meso-American area some 10,000 b. C., corn spread to the tropical lowlands.  9,000 years b. C. it is found in caves along the Rio Balsas in southern Mexico, 7,000 years b. C. it is generating the pre-Mayan people. 3,000 years b. C. it is firmly established in most of central Mexico and Central America, beginning to appear in South America. It reached the U. S. southwest around 1,000 b. C., and began spreading east around the beginning of our era.  It probably reached then the fertile and vast expanse of the Mississippi watershed creating the most significant Native American culture: the Mississippi Mound Builders. Their culture spread from the Canadian border to the Louisiana swamps, and from the mid-west river systems to the Allegheny mountains. By 1,000 A. D. it had reached the eastern woodlands. Five hundred years later it fed the starving Pilgrims. 

Fig. 14 - The first English Thanksgiving

In South America, maize paralleled the evolution of the potato and did not achieve the same widespread distribution as the most important staple, but it was considered of high value.  The Inca royal resort of Machu Picchu had corn planted in its stepped terraces. Only the Inca monarch consumed it as it was considered sacred. Control of corn gave the Inca tribe power to subdue other groups.

Fig. 15 - Machu Picchu, Inca resort

"For more than half a millenium before this shift (in climate) the high Andes had been miserable.  With the new dry-and-warm weather, starting around 1000 AD, a backwoods tribe, the Incas, put together the new climate and technology breakthroughs, and by 1500 AD had produced the world’s most go-ahead empire, heavily populated and larger, richer, healthier and better organized than Ming Dynasty China and the Ottoman Empire, its nearest contemporaries." Peruvian Times, June 30, 2011

ZEA MAYS (MAIZE)
The gift of corn to the world

Next: The New World Trinity:  corn, beans and squash.