1492 and the loss of amazonian crop genetic resources. I. The relation between domestication and human population decline

摘要: There may have been 4–5 million people in Amazonia at the time of European contact. These cultivated or managed least 138 plant species 1492. Many these crop genetic resources were human artifacts that required intervention for their maintenance, i.e., they an advanced state domestication. Consequently, there was a relationship between decline Amazonian Amerindian populations and loss heritage after This influenced by crop’s degree domestication, its life history, landscape domestication where it grown, number societies used it, importance to societies. erosion probably reflects order magnitude losses continue today.