Cassava (manioc) domestication
Domesticación de la yuca (mandioca)
- Date
- c. 7000 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Madeira River basin, Rondônia, Brazil
- Credited to
- Peoples of south-western Amazonia
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Selection of Manihot esculenta from its wild relative on the southern edge of Amazonia. It is today the staple food of more than 500 million people in the tropics.
The region of origin is inferred from genetic studies (Olsen and Schaal, 1999); the oldest direct archaeological remains, at Teotônio and in Panama, are more recent.
What it led to
- the caloric base of Amazonian and Caribbean societies
- its spread to Africa and Asia after the 16th century
- detoxification techniques for bitter varieties