Agricultural Origins: Centers and Noncenters

Abstract

I propose the theory that agriculture originated independently in three different areas and that, in each case, there was a system composed of a center of origin and a noncenter, in which activities of domestication were dispersed over a span of 5,000 to 10,000 kilometers. One system includes a definable Near East center and a noncenter in Africa; another system includes a North Chinese center and a noncenter in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific; the third system includes a Mesoamerican center and a South American noncenter. There are suggestions that, in each case, the center and noncenter interact with each other. Crops did not necessarily originate in centers (in any conventional concept of the term), nor did agriculture necessarily develop in a geographical "center."

Genetic diversity and population structure of Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.): synopsis of the past two decades of analysis and implications for crop improvement programmes

“…The Vavilov (1926) concept of crops domestication is based on the theory that the centre of domestication is tightly linked to the location where diverse relatives including ancestral relatives (its immediate wild relatives) are found. In recent times, the opinion that centre of domestication and centre of diversity could be mutually exclusive has gained some level of acceptance (Harlan 1971). From a breeding perspective, centres of diversity are of more of 'economic values' than centres of domestication.…”

The genome sequence of African rice (Oryza glaberrima) and evidence for independent domestication

“…The geographical origins of crop domestication in Africa have been seen through two lenses-centric and noncentric 19 . Portères (1962) 20 first proposed that O. glaberrima was domesticated in the inland delta of the upper Niger river and diffused to two secondary centers of diversification, one along the Senegambian coast and the other in the interior Guinea highlands.…”

Genetic relatedness between cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) and M. flabellifolia and M. Peruviana based on both RAPD and AFLP markers

“…According to Rogers and Appan (1973), the genus Manihot contains 98 species, one fifth of which are native to North America, while the remaining four fifths occur in South America. Harlan (1971) and Nassar (1978) identified the central region of Brazil as the main center of diversity for Manihot species, followed by two other centers in southern Mexico and northeastern Brazil. Manihot species are classified as sporadically distributed colonizing perennials commonly found in semi-arid regions or disturbed zones of humid regions (Rogers and Appan, 1973).…”