History to blame for slow crop taming, study shows
Monday, May 5, 2014 - 18:32
in Paleontology & Archaeology
It's been about 10,000 years since our ancestors began farming, but crop domestication has taken much longer than expected -- a delay caused less by genetics and more by culture and history, according to a new study. The new paper digs at the roots not just of crop domestication but of civilization itself: How did humans get food? Without domestication -- without food -- it's hard for populations to settle down," the lead researcher said. "Domestication was the key for all subsequent human civilization."