Tracking the Ancestry of Corn Back 9,000 Years

New York Times ^ | Monday, May 24, 2010 | Sean B. Carroll

[SunkenCiv]

Many botanists did not see any connection between maize and other living plants. Some concluded that the crop plant arose through the domestication by early agriculturalists of a wild maize that was now extinct, or at least undiscovered. However, a few scientists working during the first part of the 20th century uncovered evidence that they believed linked maize to what, at first glance, would seem to be a very unlikely parent, a Mexican grass called teosinte... George W. Beadle, while a graduate student at Cornell University in the early 1930s, found that maize and teosinte had very similar chromosomes. Moreover, he made fertile hybrids between maize and teosinte that looked like intermediates between the two plants. He even reported that he could get teosinte kernels to pop. Dr. Beadle concluded that the two plants were members of the same species, with maize being the domesticated form of teosinte. Dr. Beadle went on to make other, more fundamental discoveries in genetics for which he shared the Nobel Prize in 1958... botanists led by my colleague John Doebley of the University of Wisconsin... discovered that all maize was genetically most similar to a teosinte type from the tropical Central Balsas River Valley of southern Mexico, suggesting that this region was the "cradle" of maize evolution. Furthermore, by calculating the genetic distance between modern maize and Balsas teosinte, they estimated that domestication occurred about 9,000 years ago.

[allmendream]

Yes, and amid the crushing poverty of the Mexican peasant class, the richest individual in the world is a (Spanish descended) Mexican.

The more Spanish you look, the better looking, professional, educated, smart, wealthy, etc Mexicans assume you are.

A very racist culture.

I remember when my ex tried to talk to our “el Indio” gardener (once every other weekend to mow the lawn and trim the hedges) in Spanish, he looked at her strangely and said “I don't speak Spanish”. He spoke English and his native Amindian language. Had no interest in learning Spanish and didn't much care for Mexico or Mexican culture.

Can't say as how I blame him.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

We noticed this many times while traveling in Mexico.
At the Tech in Monterrey, the administrators are tall, light skinned Mexicans, some with red or light hair.
The grunts were almost always a foot shorter and dark.
Then, further south, you can run into African heritage (via the Bahamas.) The Indians won't have anything to do with them.

[colorado tanker]

I hate corn

You haven't tried Olathe Sweet. Slather it with butter and salt and eat with something off the summertime grill. That's good eats.

[colorado tanker]

Thanks!

[Nepeta]

You obviously have never had properly prepared sweet corn. Or freshly baked corn bread. [I make it with a little oregano baked in.]

Nothing bland or boring about either--and I am a fan of Indian and Tex-Mex food.

[colorado tanker]

The lovely, ordinary potato was once upon a time condemned by the aristocracy as unfit for their own consumption. :’)

I've been reading Macauley, who has, to say the least, strong opinions. One reason he offers for the English being superior to the benighted Irish is they eat bread while the Irish have to eat that tuber.

[dfwgator]

"Corn is niiiiiice!"

[Nepeta]

I've been reading Macauley, who has, to say the least, strong opinions. One reason he offers for the English being superior to the benighted Irish is they eat bread while the Irish have to eat that tuber.

I recall reading a similar sentiment about oats and Scots...

[colorado tanker]

Yep, and don't even get him started on Americans!

The Victorians were a confident bunch, at least the aristocrats. Mack was certain he was a member of the most advanced race, living in the most advanced civilization in the best governed nation in the world. :-))

[conservativeharleyguy]

You guys have hit upon one of the biggest fundamental problems with Mexico. The social divisions of Hidalgo/Gachupin (Spanish-born ruling class/Mexican-born of Spanish blood, lower status than Spaniards, but even the lowest/poorest still higher than natives), against the Indio (native born) classes have been fodder for revolt in Mexico for centuries.

Throughout Mexico's history, or at least since about 1700, one faction or another has traditionally gotten fed up and seized power by force of arms, oppressing either the general populace or the wealthy landowners respectively, and just generally plundering the country about every 60-70 years.

Then whichever group was on the outside would revolt, slaughter a bunch of regime supporters, and the whole crazy cycle would start over with a new crew of Kleptocrats, but pretty much always rotating between populist, Mestizo uprisings, and Hidalgos “recapturing the throne”.

Since the last great Mexican Revolution (~1910-1922), an essentially open border with the United States has pretty much served as the “safety valve” for the hardcore, corrupt, and utterly inept Socialist Elite Hidalgo cabal that seized power in the wake of the populist revolt's power vacuum, and which in spite of some back and forth political jockeying, has held on since the twenties.

They know they can plunder the country, and every time conditions get too bad at home, their disaffected Mestizo population just heads North. Mexico City encourages it because it furthers their leftist political goals as well.

They used to go home when things improved a bit. Now, mostly because of the drugs, it never does, and since there's so much more money (legal and illegal) for them here, they just come and stay.

In some ways, I can sort of understand that. If my choices were living under a Socialist/Narco dictatorship, letting my family starve (or worse), getting killed by drug runners, becoming a drug runner, or heading to Canada, I might pack a bag and start walking North too - although I'd probably stay and fight the drug runners, `cause I'm stubborn that way.

Ed Abby said it best when he suggested we meet every one of them at the border with a rifle and a box of bullets, and tell them to go home and fix their own problems. Then we can talk about being good neighbors.

[LadyDoc]

I haven’t eaten freeze dried corn, but here in the Philippines we have sweet corn pudding and sweet corn flavoured ice cream.

[SunkenCiv]

;’) Here’s your container of slaw.

[BroJoeK]

"Elephants not being overly common in Oklahoma, I wonder how they knew when to harvest it."

Corn that grows "as high as an elephant's eye" is putting a lot of its energy into the stalk. Most corn around here (central PA) is bred to grow shorter, and have more energy for its kernels.

Different breeds of corn have different growing seasons and resistance to drought. So farmers chose the corn they hope will do best for their own particular environments.

When field corn is "finished" the whole stalk turns brown. But farmers are paid for corn by weight, less the moisture content. That's why some let their corn stand long after it's ready for harvest, so that it will somewhat "field dry" and save them the cost of having it mechanically dried.

It doesn't hurt field corn just to stand there weeks or months after it's ready for harvest.

In some years a corn crop fails, due to drought or cold weather, etc., and farmers will give up on producing sale-able corn. At that point they harvest whatever they have while it's still green, chop it up into silage and feed the whole thing to their livestock.

That's the only time I know of when they harvest green field corn. But maybe out west they do things differently?

[Erasmus]

This day is not a total loss; I learnt something about corn.