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Ref ID: 29587
Ref Type: Journal Article
Authors: Harlan, Jack R.
Title: Agricultural origins: centers and non-centers
Date: 1971
Source: Science Magazine
Abstract: I propose the theory that agriculture originated independently in three different areas and that, in each case, there was a system composed of a center of origin and a noncenter, in which activities of domestication were dispersed over a span of 5,000 to 10,000 kilometers. One system includes a definable Near East center and a noncenter in Africa
another system includes a North Chinese center and a noncenter in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific
the third system includes a Mesoamerican center and a South American noncenter. There are suggestions that, in each case, the center and noncenter interact with each other. Crops did not necessarily originate in centers (in any conventional concept of the term), nor did agriculture necessarily develop in a geographical "center."
Date Created: 2/18/2008
Volume: 174
Number: 4008
Page Start: 468
Page End: 474