The idea of being ‘native’ can be linked to particular ways in which space, place and belonging are understood to be configured. Synonyms include aboriginal, endemic, and indigenous. Often science is employed in ways to prove belonging, or to assign a being to a place. In the plant world this is tied to a sense of nativity – the idea of being born in and to a particular place conferring a familiarity and perhaps an acculturation to a place. For a plant, is acculturation meaning enmeshed in ecology, then, it must also mean a fluidity and movement and even a movement as in coconuts bobbing on waves or sycamore seeds spinning with the wind.
Centre of Biodiversity acknowledges that within a location that familial relations exist; that the being (plant, animal, fungi, etc) has kin and so there is a likelihood that in the region is where the being first emerged.
What are the implications of this sense of belonging though? To whom does it matter? As with so many scientific tropes, does it signify ownership and thus the potential to capture, gain authority over or seek dominion over?
‘It is already almost impossible to assemble meaningful information on the origin and evolution of certain crops as the evidence dims and fades away with each passing year’.
Jack R. Harlan, 1975 (also 1992)
‘Since the dawn of agriculture, seeds and crops have followed farmers and been exchanged between them over short and long distances. They have spread until they have met their environmental limits or were ousted by rival crops (Fowler and Mooney, 1990:38). Dispersal over long distances followed traders and explorers over land and sea. There was always an interest in new crops. Sumerians sent collectors to Asia Minor around 2500 B.C. in search of vines, figs and roses, and Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt sent an expedition to East Africa to collect incense trees in 1482 B.C. (Fowler 1994:4).These are only some few of many examples of wide distribution of crops in ancient time.’
The center of diversity of a species is defined as the geographic area wherein the plant species (or genus) exhibits the highest degree of genetic variation, that is, highest number of cultivated species (or subspecies) and wild relatives, as well as gene variants (alleles) exist in that region. The center of diversity often corresponds to the area where the plant has existed the longest and will thus have had a chance to have maximum diversity. It is based on the premise that genetic variation can be accumulated only over time. It must be considered that crop plant’s diversity may increase away from its center of origin due to environmental factors and human influence.
We started to explore this, linking historical and present human behaviour, extrapolating it into a why of plant belonging. This chart is what we came up with… (please subscribe to see more).
The Food Journey© 2014 -forever…
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