Maize: Origin, Domestication, and its Role in the Development of Culture

12
Maize: Origin, Domestication, and Its Role in the Development of Culture
1.1. A sample of modern maize specimens. The small cob on the right is of the Confite Puntiagudo
race (see Grobman et al., 1961: 149–154), and the big one on the left is of the Cuzco Gigante race (see
Grobman et al., 1961: 295–299).
Pickersgill (1969: 58) has shown that there is a controversy regarding whether
the pod corns found in South America are the same as the early pod-popcorns
that gave rise to cultivated maize. Weatherwax (1954: 160–170) claims that
the current pod corns are “monstrous” forms similar to other known maize
mutants and are therefore irrelevant in a discussion of this plant’s domestication.
Very ancient maizes have vestigial glumes of pod corns or are “half-tunicate.”
Popcorns clearly are primitive types, but Pickersgill (1969) points out that it is
hard to accept that Peruvian popcorns are more primitive than Mexican ones.
But Pickersgill said this when Peruvian preceramic popcorns were still unknown,
and she based her work on current ones.
In the 1970s Wilkes made a comparative analysis of Mexican and Andean
races and came to a conclusion that is extremely interesting. Of the 32 races
found in Mexico, 7 have a counterpart in Guatemala, 6 in Colombia, 5 in Peru,
and 2 in Brazil. But even more important, 20 of the 32, that is, 62.5%, Mexican