A Different Timeline for Corn
Photo illustration: Humanizing History Visuals. Photos: Muséum de Toulouse, Rasbak, © Tomas Castelazo, www.tomascastelazo.com, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Welcome to Humanizing History™! Every month, we feature a central theme. Each week, we dive into different areas of focus.
This month’s theme: Land Shapes People & People Shape Land
This week’s focus: Racial Literacy 101, or facts we should know about race or culture, but likely weren’t taught – with a focus on STEAM
Today’s edition of Humanizing History™ is over 1300 words, an estimated 5-minute read.
The “Why” for This Week’s Topic
In last week’s newsletter, we discussed how civilization does not equal more “civilized,” and how the lens of geography may cultivate an antiracist approach to teaching world history.
This week, we’re examining a scientific innovation that emerged in the Americas — a dynamic topic that’s often overlooked in school curricula, especially in the United States.
A report released by Johns Hopkins Institute found that “87% of key topics in Latino history were either not covered in the evaluated books or mentioned in five or fewer sentences.”
There are countless ways we can expand the narrative, and today, we’ll begin by unraveling the remarkable story of corn.
Corn is Not the Same as Other Grains
Corn was not like other crops. Compared to other successfully domesticated cereal grains, corn would have a different timeline, and in many ways, that arguably makes its story more astonishing!
As mentioned last week, wheat is a self-pollinator; it can grow in abundance without much human intervention and can be harvested with basic tools like a sickle. A society with a surplus of wheat could feed a larger, sedentary population, which could accelerate its growth.
Corn was different. Starting off as a wild grass in the Americas, called teosinte, corn took thousands of years of human innovation, science, and discerning hands to develop into the edible and popular plant that it is today.
A plant that required and underwent the most change of any crop in all of history, corn shaped the timeline for societies in the Americas, just as much as Indigenous people shaped corn itself.
The Incredible Journey of Corn
Timeline estimates vary for when Indigenous people began to cultivate corn, or maize, but what remains constant is that the process to domesticate it was long and required incredible innovation.
According to the National Science Foundation, “Native Americans living in what is now Mexico began domesticating teosinte, or ‘grain of the gods,’ more than 6,000 years ago. By selectively breeding each generation, ancient farmers drastically changed teosinte's appearance, yield, grain quality and hardiness, culminating in today's corn.”
Some estimates push the date back even farther. A study in Nature suggests domestication began about 9,000 years ago. Utilizing paleoecological evidence — like pollen, phytoliths, and charcoal — and genetic data, this study suggests that maize exchanged numerous hands across the Americas: “Secondary improvement of maize occurred in South America where selection led to increased cob and seed size beyond the range of wild teosinte progenitor species.” That variety was likely reintroduced to Central America, where it continued to spread.
Future generations of corn eventually made its way to North America, reaching as far as current-day Maine. This paints the picture of a broad network of trade, spanning the Americas.
The transformation of teosinte is a marvel of scientific innovation.
Through thousands of years of development, teosinte would undergo dramatic change — impacting its structure, size, and productivity.
As described by Pat Byrne, Ph.D., teosinte evolved from a “short, bushy plant with many stems” or multiple branches, to the single-stemmed version of corn that we’re more familiar with today.
About the size of a quarter or two, the ears of teosinte were much smaller — holding no more than 2 rows of kernels, or a total of 6-12 kernels, which were enclosed in stone-hard cases.
Through a process of “selective breeding,” generation after generation, people modified teosinte so that it was easier to harvest and consume. The ears substantially increased in size; corn expanded to about 18 rows or more, and the kernels softened.
The length of time required for innovation had an impact. As noted by Jared Diamond: “Thousands of years of development still lay ahead before corn yielded enough grain to support cities or even villages.” He also notes that corn was “much harder to recognize as useful in the wild, harder to domesticate, and harder to use even after it was domesticated.”
Cynthia Brown, in Big History, describes the painstaking development of corn, and how geography created another challenge: “[Corn] had to adjust genetically to different day lengths in different climates before it could ripen with the seasons. The north-south axis of land in the Americas contrasted sharply with the east-west axis in Eurasia; it meant that crops could not spread at similar latitudes but had to adjust to the climatic conditions of different latitudes.”
And yet, corn and Indigenous people persevered. Even though the process of domestication took a long time — creating a different timeline for the development of cities and empires in the Americas — the scientific innovation produced in this region, or web, of the world may be considered awe-inspiring.
Scientific Innovation Flourishes
Other scientific innovations followed the path of corn, including accurate calendar systems, architectural feats, and additional food science.
The growing of maize was instrumental for the development of Mesoamerica, including the Olmec, and later societies like the Maya.
As written in National Geographic: “Maize cultivation dramatically changed the Maya’s trajectory, literally fueling the explosion of their society and culture.”
In this Smithsonian video, a Maya woman, who is unfortunately not named, describes how her ancestors were expert astronomers, skilled in agricultural science, and believed in the importance of cycles: “In the world of the Maya, the land and the sky provide natural connections between the cycles of the sun and the cycles of corn…[The Maya] designed a complex calendar system to give order to our lives… Ancient Maya architects were astronomers as well, and constructed their buildings and temples in alignment with the zenith passage of the sun.”
In fact, across Native American society at large, numerous structures were built in alignment with solar cycles and other celestial events, which helped track important dates, including agricultural systems.
Extremely skilled in astronomy, the Maya, would go on to develop one of the “most accurate calendar systems in human history.”
Indigenous people across Mesoamerica also developed a special food process called nixtamalization, which enhanced the nutritional value of corn, made it more digestible, removed toxins, and generated other health-promoting effects.
Corn as Central to Indigenous Life and Culture
Over time, corn became central to many Indigenous people’s agricultural practices, cultural identity, and spiritual beliefs.
Some Indigenous Americans believe(d) in a Maize God, or that humans come from corn; some view(ed) corn as a relative.
Agricultural methods have also been absorbed and honored as a part of cultural tradition. The practice of companion planting, or growing corn alongside other crops — such as beans, squash, and even sunflowers — is revered by many Native nations and communities to this day. Some refer to this practice as the “Three Sisters” companion method, where corn is grown alongside beans and squash, and some refer to it as the “Four Sisters” method, when sunflowers are also included.
Corn in the World Today, and Tomorrow
Corn has a significant history, and may very well play an integral role in our future, especially as we face growing climate change.
Native Americans domesticated more than a hundred plants, among them some of the world’s favorites: corn, potatoes, chile peppers, tomatoes, peanuts, tobacco, and cacao. It’s been estimated that more than half of the crops grown around the world have their origin in the Americas.
It’s important to also recognize that not all varieties of corn are the same. Some varieties are used to feed farm animals, some are used as biofuel. And some are heritage varieties that people, like Ojibwe Tribal Leader George Martin, are working hard to protect and preserve — as seen in this video by Great Big Story.
In fact, our collective future may rely on the efforts of scientists and keepers of Indigenous knowledge, as it may be these very crops — corn and potatoes (which we’ll learn about in a future newsletter), specifically the varieties that are resistant to events like droughts and floods — that will provide us with food to eat as we endure climate change.
Corn has already experienced such a long, impressive journey, and there may be an even longer story when we include the future of corn — and the powers locked deep within its kernels
Call to Action
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