Reading 37: Both in what is now the eastern and the southwestern United States

Both in what is now the eastern and the southwestern United States, the peoples of the Archaic era (8,000–1,000 B.C.) were, in a way, already adapted to beginnings of cultivation through their intensive gathering and processing of wild plant foods. In both areas, there was a well-established ground stone tool technology, a method of pounding and grinding nuts and other plant foods, that could be adapted to newly cultivated foods. By the end of the Archaic era, people in eastern North America had domesticated certain native plants, including sunflowers; weeds called goosefoot, sumpweed, or marsh elder; and squash or gourds of some kind. These provided seeds that were important sources of carbohydrates and fat in the diet.

The earliest cultivation seems to have taken place along the river valleys of the Midwest and the Southeast, with experimentation beginning as early as 7,000 years ago and domestication beginning 4,000 to 2,000 years ago. Although the term “Neolithic” is not used in North American prehistory, these were the first steps toward the same major subsistence changes that took place during the Neolithic (8,000–2,000 B.C.) period elsewhere in the world.

Archaeologists debate the reasons for beginning cultivation in the eastern part of the continent. Although population and sedentary living were increasing at the time, there is little evidence that people lacked adequate wild food resources; the newly domesticated foods supplemented a continuing mixed subsistence of hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants. Increasing predictability of food supplies may have been a motive. It has been suggested that some early cultivation was for medicinal and ceremonial plants rather than for food. One archaeologist has pointed out that the early domesticated plants were all weedy species that do well in open, disturbed habitats, the kind that would form around human settlements where people cut down trees, trample the ground, deposit trash, and dig holes. It has been suggested that these plants almost domesticated themselves in that they thrived in human-disturbed habitats, so humans intensively collected them and began to control their distribution. Women in the Archaic communities were probably the main experimenters with cultivation, because ethnoarchaeological evidence tells us that women were the main collectors of plant food and had detailed knowledge of plants.

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Baik di wilayah timur maupun barat daya Amerika Serikat saat ini, masyarakat pada masa Arkaik (8.000–1.000 SM) sudah, dalam beberapa hal, beradaptasi dengan awal mula bercocok tanam melalui pengumpulan dan pengolahan intensif tanaman liar. Di kedua wilayah tersebut, terdapat teknologi perkakas batu yang sudah mapan, yaitu metode menumbuk dan menggiling kacang-kacangan serta makanan nabati lain, yang kemudian dapat disesuaikan untuk makanan hasil budidaya. Menjelang akhir masa Arkaik, masyarakat di Amerika Utara bagian timur telah menjinakkan beberapa tanaman asli, termasuk bunga matahari; gulma yang disebut goosefoot, sumpweed, atau marsh elder; serta labu atau jenis labu lainnya. Tanaman ini menyediakan biji-bijian yang menjadi sumber penting karbohidrat dan lemak dalam makanan.

Budidaya paling awal tampaknya terjadi di sepanjang lembah sungai di wilayah Midwest dan Tenggara, dengan percobaan yang dimulai sejak 7.000 tahun lalu dan domestikasi berlangsung sekitar 4.000 hingga 2.000 tahun lalu. Meskipun istilah “Neolitik” tidak digunakan dalam prasejarah Amerika Utara, periode ini merupakan langkah awal menuju perubahan besar dalam pola subsistensi yang juga terjadi pada masa Neolitik (8.000–2.000 SM) di belahan dunia lain.

Para arkeolog memperdebatkan alasan dimulainya budidaya di bagian timur benua. Walaupun populasi dan kehidupan menetap semakin meningkat pada waktu itu, hanya sedikit bukti bahwa masyarakat kekurangan sumber makanan liar yang memadai; makanan baru hasil domestikasi melengkapi pola subsistensi campuran berupa berburu, menangkap ikan, dan mengumpulkan tanaman liar. Peningkatan kepastian pasokan makanan mungkin menjadi salah satu motivasi. Ada yang berpendapat bahwa sebagian budidaya awal ditujukan untuk tanaman obat dan upacara, bukan untuk makanan. Seorang arkeolog menunjukkan bahwa tanaman awal yang didomestikasi semuanya adalah jenis gulma yang tumbuh baik di habitat terbuka dan terganggu, yakni lingkungan yang terbentuk di sekitar permukiman manusia ketika mereka menebang pohon, menginjak tanah, membuang sampah, dan menggali lubang. Ada dugaan bahwa tanaman ini hampir menjinakkan dirinya sendiri karena tumbuh subur di habitat yang terganggu manusia, sehingga manusia mengumpulkannya secara intensif dan mulai mengendalikan penyebarannya. Perempuan dalam komunitas Arkaik kemungkinan besar menjadi pelaku utama percobaan budidaya, karena bukti etnoarkeologi menunjukkan bahwa perempuan adalah pengumpul utama makanan nabati dan memiliki pengetahuan rinci tentang tanaman.