7- Chapter 8: Apples or Indians
There are three types of agricultural areas that lie at opposite extremes and are centers of independent domestication, each having an impact on food cultivation. The first region is part of Southwest Asia known as the Fertile Crescent. It appears to have been the earliest site for many developments such as cities, writing, empires, and civilization. Aside from this, the Fertile Crescent was also the earliest center of food production in the world. This included many of the modern world’s major crops and domesticated animals. Due to the Fertile Crescent’s flora and environment, it had several advantages over the other areas. Since it was within the Mediterranean zones, there was a great climatic variation from …show more content…
Their food production was good for the part besides the absence of domesticated cereals, pulses, and animals that resulted in a loss of protein in the highlands and limitations for root crops at high elevations. The final agricultural region was the eastern United States. They had rich soils and a suitable climate that was perfect for farming. No matter what was happening, the eastern United States never overlooked potential major crops among the wild species around them and therefore took advantage of the most promising wild plants. Even though they didn’t have domesticated animals, they appreciated wildlife and made great developments to all that they could. Overall, in all three areas food production was a huge success and rose greatly. It states in the text, “We found that these differences between the Fertile Crescent, New Guinea, and the eastern United States followed straightforwardly from the different suites of wild plant and animals species available for domestication, not from limitations of the peoples themselves” (Diamond 147). As it says, the people in each region were never a factor that affected food production. Some areas might have been able to begin faster than others, but eventually cultivation spread worldwide and people were able to
There are three types of agricultural areas that lie at opposite extremes and are centers of independent domestication, each having an impact on food cultivation. The first region is part of Southwest Asia known as the Fertile Crescent. It appears to have been the earliest site for many developments such as cities, writing, empires, and civilization. Aside from this, the Fertile Crescent was also the earliest center of food production in the world. This included many of the modern world’s major crops and domesticated animals. Due to the Fertile Crescent’s flora and environment, it had several advantages over the other areas. Since it was within the Mediterranean zones, there was a great climatic variation from …show more content…
Their food production was good for the part besides the absence of domesticated cereals, pulses, and animals that resulted in a loss of protein in the highlands and limitations for root crops at high elevations. The final agricultural region was the eastern United States. They had rich soils and a suitable climate that was perfect for farming. No matter what was happening, the eastern United States never overlooked potential major crops among the wild species around them and therefore took advantage of the most promising wild plants. Even though they didn’t have domesticated animals, they appreciated wildlife and made great developments to all that they could. Overall, in all three areas food production was a huge success and rose greatly. It states in the text, “We found that these differences between the Fertile Crescent, New Guinea, and the eastern United States followed straightforwardly from the different suites of wild plant and animals species available for domestication, not from limitations of the peoples themselves” (Diamond 147). As it says, the people in each region were never a factor that affected food production. Some areas might have been able to begin faster than others, but eventually cultivation spread worldwide and people were able to