AGRICULTURE OF PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA

The European encounter with the Americas ("discovery" is presumptuous and Eurocentric) -inspired by a shorter trade route to the spice-rich "Far East"-was probably the greatest event of the "Middle Ages." It marks a convenient beginning to Modern Times. The New World became the West Indies and the misnomer, a result of ignorance, is carried over to the present to refer to the islands of the Caribbean Sea.
In anticipation of the riches promised by Columbus, Pope Alexander VI had divided the Americas between Portugal and Spain. The line of demarcation, 1494, had been 1090 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. At the treaty of Tordesilla, January 24, 1506, the line was moved to 370 leagues west of this point, a miscalculation that gave Portugal rights to India and the Far East alone, but provided a toehold in Brazil, which by chance went over the longitudinal line.
During the first two decades after the "discovery" however, the Americas provided only false hopes. New foods and spices began to trickle out but the enormous riches in terms of gold, silver, and jewels–treasures that had been alluded to by Columbus for the ears of the greedy Spanish-did not readily materialize.
The Spanish confined themselves for 20 years to a small piece of the Isthmus of Panama and the Islands of the Antilles. No riches materialized and America was dismissed as another example of Spanish braggadocio. But on December 9, 1519, the first treasure ship (booty sent by Hernando Cortes, Conqueror of Mexico and Montezuma) arrived from Mexico and the world was changed. It soon became apparent that the New World was not a land of savages but the home of a great civilization.
Three great civilizations were found, known today as Aztec, Maya, and Inca. These were great monumental cultures-similar in many respects to the Egyptian civilization of 2000 BCE-with enormous temples in the form of pyramids, pictorial writing, a system of cities and government, a developed agriculture, a bewildering theology, and a magnificent art. It also had a dark side-slavery, constant warfare, the offering of living human hearts as sacrifice, and cannibalism.
The similarity to the ancient cultures and the mysterious presence led to speculation that the New World was populated by one of the lost tribes of Israel and the popular fantasy grew that the New World was connected to the old from biblical times. In fact, the Mormon religion is based on this assumption and much archaeological work is sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
Archaeological evidence indicated that the New and Old Worlds are connected-through the Bering Straits-and the peoples of the New World migrated about 50,000 years ago. This, in a way, is ironic for Columbus, in fact, did discover the peoples of the Far East.

AZTEC AGRICULTURE

Aztec (Spanish Azteca) is derived from Aztlan ("white land"), probably Northwest Mexico, where by tradition the tribe originated. It is also known as Tenocha (from Tenoch, patriarch), and gave name to Tenochtitlan ("stone rising in the water"), a city founded by the Aztecs on an island in Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico (now Mexico City). The Aztecs or Tenochas are also known as Mexica which came to be applied to the city of Tenochtitlan and eventually to the modern Mexican nation. The language was Nahua, still spoken by about a million people.
The Aztecs arrived late in Mexico, about 1168. They were the heirs of previous cultures, including:
Olmecs (800 BCE - 600 CE) Known for huge stone-carved heads. Name derives from olli (rubber)
Mayas (2000 BCE - 1697 CE)
Mixtecs (668 - 1521)
Toltec-Teotihuaca (200 BCE - 900 CE)
Xochicalo (700 - 1200)

The eastern part of Lake Texcoco was saline. Salts were kept from chinampas (built up "islands" for cultivation) by spring-fed fresh water; aqueducts brought in fresh water as the area enlarged; and dams and dikes to prevent flooding, leaving a fresh water lagoon. If the water flow was too high in an aqueduct, according to one Aztec chronicle, it could only be diminished when the emperor sacrificed some high officials and had their hearts thrown into it.
Aztec herbals (list of plants for therapeutic value) described hallucinogenic plants such as peyote.

Milpa (Maize Fields)

Aztec life revolved around the cultivation of maize (milpa). This single grain, maize, made settled life (and civilization) possible. (Maize is the Arawak-Carib name for our "Indian corn.") Milpa culture remained unchanged for 3000 years. Milpas were 2-15 miles from dwellings. Forest were cleared, trees burned, large trees rotted. The earth turned over with a digging stick (coa). The maize was planted in March in holes 4 to 5 inches deep. Milpa cultivation was operated as a collective but was not as advanced as Inca agriculture. No fertilizer was used except human feces. [The Incas had bird manure (guano), llama offal, and limited irrigation.]
In temperate zones, beans and squash were put in the same hole-the maize acted as support for the climbing beans. Note: maize and beans complement to form a complete protein; maize alone causes deficiencies in the essential amino acid lysine and beans alone are deficient in the sulfur-containing amino acids (cysteine and methionine). The mixture of beans and tortillas (corn pancakes) make a complete protein food. Beans and maize also complement agriculturally with maize providing a support for beans, and beans, a N-fixing plant providing added nitrogen to the soil.
In April, rains come, prompted by human sacrifice. The Aztecs had little irrigation technology, and thus depended on rain. Unfortunately, the good will of the rain god could only be appeased by his diet of human hearts–requiring prisoners taken in battle. A long peace was a disaster.
Other crops included: sweet potato (warmer valleys), tomato, chili pepper, amaranth (pigweed), pineapple, avocado (ahuacatl), chicle-zapote (chewing gum tree + edible fruit), chocolate (perfumed with vanilla). Chocolate was the drink of the gods (hence its Latin name Theobroma) and was so valuable it was used as currency.

Chinampas System

The Chinampas system predated the Aztecs and became the basis of their agriculture. Maize produced several crops a year. The system maintains fertility for centuries. Note the term "floating gardens," a misnomer, is a land reclamation scheme involving drainage. It is a system of canals, where mud is used to build up peninsular-like islands. Lake Xochimilco is fed by springs which flow into Lake Texcoco. Each chinampa was 300' × 15' to 20' and a few feet higher than the surrounding water.
Before planting, the chinampero (chinampa worker) scoops rich mud from the bottom, loads it in a canoe, and "fertilizes the field." The chinampa eventually gets too high and must be lowered.
Seed nurseries are near the end of the canal. Mud is spread over water weeds and cut into blocks (chapines). A planting hole is "dibbled" in and (human) manure is added. The block is eventually transplanted.
Today, chinampas get 7 crops per plot per year. Two are maize, others may be beans, chile, tomato, amaranth.

Agricultural Deities and Garden Terms
Xilonon - goddess of red corn; festival coincided with ripening harvest of grain.
Centeotl-yellow corn god, worshipped by special priests, old men vowed to silence
Note: Xoch = flower
Xochizuetzal - goddess of fertility and flowers
Xochipilli - god of flowers
Xochitla - flower place
Xochichevancalli - humble garden
Xochhitecpanc - walled garden

There are many agricultural deities for which flower offerings and sacrifices were made: e.g. for rain, growing plants, soils. In the fasting month of Tozoztentli, no one was supposed to sniff flowers.
There were a number of flower festivals:
Rainy season - farmers and florists cooperated in a feast of the earth mother
August - festival of wild flowers
October - farewell to flowers (preceded by 4 days of fasting)
There were elaborate gardens and ceremonies. Cortez was welcomed by chieftains bearing bouquets of various kinds of floral ornament-baskets of flowers woven in the form of a shield, long garlands worn around head and neck, a choice flower at the end of a stick. Dancers pelted each other with balls of flowers.

MAYAN AGRICULTURE

Maize was the basis of Mayan civilization. Yum Kaax, the maize god, was illustrated as a youth wearing maize in his headdress.

Cultivation system

Trees were felled and burned, and the earth was turned over with digging stick (fire hardened). Each person was allotted plots (land was communal property) which was hand weeded. Stalks were bent at harvest to deter birds, grain was preserved in storage bins and underground granaries (chultunes). Water was provided from reservoirs and wells, but there was no wheel and, thus, no efficient way of raising water. There were no beasts of burden.
The yield was deduced from present day statistics for subsistence agriculture: 12 acres/farmer = 168 bushels (14 bu = 784 lb./acre). Consumer uses of 6.6 lb./maize/year for a family of 5 plus some livestock = 43 bu/year. Thus 190 days of labor gives 125 bushel surplus. Ancient Mayans had less land per farmer but no livestock. The surplus built temple cities.
Other Mayan crops: beans, squash, pumpkin, chili pepper, sweet potato (pale), sweet cassava, chicham (turnip-like), papaya, avocado, achiote (source of food color), gourds for bowls, balche (strong alkaloid for mead), hemp for fiber, cotton, sapodilla (chewing gum tree, also used for blowguns, adhesives), copal, Brazil wood, palms, cacao.
Drought was the great impediment. Rainfall was abundant in some zones but the soil is porous. During a drought, cities were abandoned (some suspect a virus disease of maize may also have been a factor). Deep wells could have been the solution. In 1464, a disaster occurred including drought, followed by locust swarms (so thick that the weight broke off tree limbs), followed by hurricane.

INCA (ANDEAN) AGRICULTURE

Refer Prescott's 'History of the Conquest of Peru'. In 1531, Pizarro with 180 men and a few horses (3) and cannon took Atahualpa prisoner. He was ransomed for gold but eventually killed. This was one of the most terrifying sagas of the encounter between the conquistadors and the New World Civilizations.
The basis of society was the farmer-soldier (as in Rome). First fruits were given as a religious offering to the local shrine (huaca). The seasonal working of Inca farmlands is illustrated in a series of monthly drawings by a Peruvian of Indian-Spanish descent, who sent the drawings to the King of Spain in the 1580s as part of a treatise on Inca life. It begins in August (late winter) and is labeled with a mixture of Spanish and Quechuan words.
Many of the local crops can be identified in pottery. Staples include potato (Solanum tuberosum) and maize. Peru is the center of origin for potato. Tubers were preserved to a freeze dried product (chuñu) by continued freezing combined with squeezing the tubers by walking on them.

Maize was called sara by Incas. The many types included:
sweet corn = choclo
parching corn = kollo sara
fermentation (chicha) = saraaka
hominy = mote
Note: the large kernel corn of the popular "Corn Nuts" is a variety of Inca maize from Cuzco.

Quinoa, a chenopod, is a spinach-like plant where the dry seed is consumed as a grain (as it not a grass, it is considered a pseudocereal.) It is still consumed in South America and is now being reconsidered in the United States and Europe and may have industrial prospects because of its unique starch properties.
Amaranth, another pseudo-cereal, is now having a revival in the United States. Because of a religious association, the Spanish prohibited the culture of amaranth but it was introduced into India and is now a substantial crop there.
Many other fruits and vegetables included: chili pepper, tomato, beans (Lima and Phaseolus), squash, pumpkins, wild gherkins, papaya, avocado, cherimoya, guava, granadilla (passion fruit), chocolate, peanut, manioc, pineapple, soursop, sweet potato.

Cultivation was based on deep valleys.

Terracing-still exists after more than 500 years
Irrigation-highly developed, based on diverting streams, canals, water reservoirs
Implement: digging stick or "foot plow" called taclla (Fig. 14-10), sometimes bronze-tipped

Pest Control: boys disguised with wolf skins scared away predators with noise makers and sling shots.

References

Leonard, J.N. 1973. First farmers. Time Life Books. New York.
Smith, B.D. 1995, The Emergence of Agriculture. W.H. Freeman and Co., New York.
Smith, M.E.  1996, The Aztecs. Blackwell, Oxford, UK.
von Hagen, V.W. 1957. Ancient Sun Kingdoms of the Americas, The World Publishing Company, Ohio

By Jules Janick, Purdue University in http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/ edited to be posted by Leopoldo Costa