Stephen Carmody, University of the South & the Sewanee Environmental Institute
Bryn Mawr College of Anthropology, Provost Office, and Environmental Studies (Bryn Mawr, PA)
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: Dalton 300, Bryn Mawr College, 101 N. Merion Avenue, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, 19010
Refreshments served.
Research on the origins of domestication and agriculture remains as relevant today as ever. Current research provides conclusive evidence to include Eastern North America as one of only eight global centers of indigenous plant domestication. Although the timing of domestication events and the plants involved are well understood, several questions remain unanswered. My work shows that wide-spread climatic shifts favoring evolutionary changes in plant communities were active in both developing riverine and upland settings. Importantly, I explain how the decision-making processes of small groups of forager-horticulturalists, not solely geography or environmental shifts alone, resulted in plant genomic changes and the development of pre-Columbian farming. In addition, I utilize results from archaeological research to discuss how decisions made thousands of years ago have shaped modern societies and explore how indigenous agricultural systems provide sustainable, local-level alternatives to the large-scale mono-crop systems dominant today.