The Good Berry: A Wild Rice Domestication TL
- Thread starter PeterEzgo
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I'm pretty sure this TL has a domesticated flax to make linen.
It does but there is plenty of room for buckskin to still be a thing.
Pre-Columbian America is an interesting premise for a TL, especially one heavily about describing the civilization.
Which look like the ones in the 19th century New York.
Thank you
I'll admit, that was one of my inspirations, although not the only one.
The schedule for the next few updates looks like this:
8/7: The spread of maize. This one is already finished and ready to uploaded on time tomorrow.
8/10: Supplemental for other mesoamerican crops and southern domesticates. This one is mostly done. Just needs the finishing touches.
8/14: The construction of mounds and pyramids.
8/21: The ohio river valley
8/24: Supplemental on the hero twins mythology.
8/28: Zhimaaganish warriors
Chapter 21: The Wonder Berry
Chapter 21: The Wonder Berry
By the time the classical period began, maize had spread to the Mishigami. Maize is more commonly called millet today. We will use the term “maize” to distinguish it from true millet, which is an old world crop. The menominee referred to it as mandaamin, or the “wonder berry”.
Maize is a tropical plant. This meant that it preferred to sprout in the winter because tropical areas are too hot to grow in the summer. It also means that its seeds would not sprout if the weather was even slightly cold. For obvious reasons, this made it difficult to grow in the Mishigami. When maize first entered the Mishigami, it was little more than a novelty. Too unreliable to be a staple, it was mainly grown by priests to make beer, if it was grown at all.
Maize varieties that could be grown in the Mishigami were developed in pre-classical times. They were insensitive to daylight hours, meaning they would sprout not long after planting, no matter what time of year that was. Types of maize that would sprout in colder weather were also bred. Further breeding would lead to the development of short season maize, which grows more rapidly but has a smaller yield. This was good, as the growing season in the Mishigami is much shorter than in tropical areas.
These varieties were bred and adopted by the Menominee slowly, over the course of hundreds of years. Most of the population of the Mishigami was subsistence farmers. To a subsistence farmer, a single failed crop could result in starvation. This makes them understandably reticent to change their agricultural practices. The first people to grow maize were the relatively rich and stable lowland manoomin farmers. They had the least to lose if the maize crop failed, as they had manoomin to fall back on. While they were the earliest adopters, they would not be the ones most affected by the adoption of maize.
For upland areas where manoomin was difficult or impossible to grow, maize represented a huge increase in the potential food supply. Whereas previously they had relied on sunflowers and kiinwaa [pitted goosefoot] they would now focus on maize, which had a much higher yield. Throughout the classical period, we see larger and larger villages and cities further and further from the rivers, lakes, and marshes that manoomin requires. The number of longhouses stagnates, with much of the population of upland areas instead choosing to live in small single-family homes. The number of lone homesteads versus communal villages also increased.
The most important early advantage that maize had was how little work was necessary to grow it. Manoomin is a labor intensive crop. You must clear and level the bog fields[rice paddies], dig irrigation ditches, as well as plant, harvest, thresh, and winnow. By contrast, maize relies on natural rainfall and does not usually require irrigation. The cobs can be picked right off the stalk, meaning that sickles to cut the stalk and flails to knock off the seeds were less necessary.
However, unlike manoomin, maize required milling in order to be consumed in large quantities. While modern sweet maize can be cooked and consumed directly, the menominee grew and ate flint maize. This type had a hard outer shell as hard as flint. It also had more starch rather than sugar. This made it able to be stored indefinitely or shelf stable. It also meant that eating it basically required milling it into flour. The flour would then either be made into porridge or turned into dough and then flat bread. Some upland women milled for so long and so often that damage can be seen in the toe bones from kneeling over.
These changes meant that the use (and therefore the production) of sickles and flails declined while the use and production of mortars and pestles increased. Sickles were still used to cut hay and flails were used on other crops. The relative frequency of these tools is used by archeologists to date the spread of maize farming.
Maize also presents several problems. The first, most obvious and most serious problem is that maize is less nutritious than most other cereal grains. This means that eating only corn for long periods of time will lead a person to develop pellagra, a vitamin deficiency similar to scurvy.
This problem is solved with nixtamalization. Nixtamalization is the process of boiling the kernels in an alkaline solution to increase nutrition and soften the outer shell of the maize. Alkaline solutions are made by mixing ground up limestone, sea shells, or deciduous tree ash into water. This process will keep pellagra at bay. It was either independently discovered or learned from Meso-Minisia traders not long after maize was adopted on a wide scale.
Another problem maize presents is soil exhaustion. Maize requires many nutrients from the soil and consumes them quickly. If you plant it in the same field over and over, it will not take long for the the field to become infertile causing the crop to fail. Manoomin did not have as much of a problem with this because the irrigation canals would bring soil and nutrients in from outside. The fish and crayfish that swam in the rice bogs [paddies] also contributed nutrients in the form of their waste. The solutions to the problem of soil exhaustion were well known to the menominee even prior to the introduction of maize. Fertilizer made from human and animal feces, egg shells, fish bones, straw, and other organic compost was spread on the fields prior to planting. This helped extend the life of a field.
However, maize’s soil exhaustion problems would persist until a new innovation was introduced: the two field system. Rather than simply plant the same field over and over again, farmers would switch between planting two different fields. In the first year, maize would be planted in Field A while Field B was left fallow. Then, in the second year, maize would be planted in Field B while Field A was left fallow. And so on. This allowed one field to “rest” while the nutrients returned to the soil. It also meant that you needed twice as much land for the same amount of food.
A new technique, previously unseen in Meso-Minisia, would end up being the true solution to the problem of soil exhaustion. The Menominee began companion planting maize and bede [Apios Americana]. Maize has shallow roots while bede needs the space below ground to grow its tubers. Bede also uses the stalks of maize as a trellis to grown on. This also helps stabilize the maize stalks in high wind. Bede is a nitrogen fixer while maize gets its nitrogen from the soil. Some believe that bede grown with maize will taste better, though this has not been scientifically proven. In addition, the two foods are complimentary and form a complete protein. This means that no other food need be consumed in order to get all the nutrients necessary for human survival. The companion planting is mythologized as “Father Maize” and “Mother Bede” in Menominee mythology.
The combined yields of these two plants allowed for some of the most efficient agriculture ever on earth. Even using stone tools and less efficient planting techniques, the agriculture of Minisia was much more productive than Europe or Asia.
Different types of maize were distinguished by their color. Sweet, sugary maize used to make alcohol was bred to have purple kernels. Southern, long season varieties tended to be redder. Northern, short season varieties tended to be more yellow.
Upland kingdoms that relied on maize were more unstable than lowland manoomin-growing kingdoms. Soil exhaustion remained a constant problem. While bede did not use nitrogen, they did use the other minerals in the soil. Excess or reckless planting led to soil erosion and crop failures. This led to periodic famines and civil wars.
All of this meant that lands beyond the Mishigami began to rise in population and form large cities and kingdoms of their own. Ziibiing, the land of rivers, was truly born at this time.
Next time, we will discuss the building of the pyramids, mounds, and ziggurats of the Mishigami and Ziibiing. But first a supplemental on the other Meso-Minisian plants that were adopted in the Mishigami and Ziibiing as well as the southern plants that were being domesticated.
[1] Taken from: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/MFsAAOSwc4Fjseaj/s-l1600.jpg
[2] Taken from: https://www.mexicanist.com/content/images/2021/10/Nixtamalization.jpg
[3] Taken from: https://pfp.crowcanyon.org/images/directional_corn.jpg
Comments? Questions?
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Shouldn't the introduction of maize result in immediate political instability? Good chapter.
Thanks
Maize is introduced slowly, over the course of centuries. There is not one moment where maize is introduced. It is slowly bred to be more able to grow in eastern north america. It takes time for people to adopt it even after it can grow in temperate areas.
Over the long term, it will lead to more political instability as new states that rely on corn emerge and grow in importance and challenge the existing manoomin growing states.
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There's also another effect: some sociologists studied North Chinese wheat-growing societies and South Chinese rice-growing and found differences about individualism and collectivism: rice-growing societies needed to be more collectivistic to maintain the needed infrastructure while wheat-growing one could afford more individualism (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2021.103778). Indeed, this article has some parts about the effects of maize cultivation (Agrarian Origins of Individualism and Collectivism, January 2022, SSRN Electronic Journal, DOI:10.2139/ssrn.4010492).
I wonder how these maize kingdoms will differ from the rice ones.
Millet is a VERY odd term for maize. Especially when you talk about 'true millet' being AN old world crop.
'Millet' is a generic term for small grained cereals, several of which aren't particularly related to each other.
Maize is the antithesis of small grained.
OTL, 'corn" simply meant 'grain' (you can see a survival of this in barleycorn, either the unit of length- 1/3 inch, as the word for grains of barley, or in John Barleycorn - the personification of beer)
'Corn' by itself was used for the most common grain - Wheat in England, Oats in Scotland, Maize in the US.
Maize was originally 'Indian Corn'.
Borrowing the local word probably from an Eastern Algonkian language like Powhattan or Wampanoag seems most likely if you want to avoid the obvious 'corn'.
Since I can't find those words, faking it with 'mantamin' (undoing the t->d shift of Ojibwe) or 'matamin' if the 'n' is also unique to Ojibwe. (Cree is more conservative than Ojibwe, and they use 'mahtamin')
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I could have used the term "millets" for the old world grains. There are several languages that use the same or a similar word for 'millet' and corn/maize. For example portuguese: milho. The reason for this is simple: corn plants (particularly the stalks and leaves) resemble a number of other plants called millet, particularly sorghum. It does not have anything to do with the grain. It has to do with how the plant looks in the field.
Fascinating. I didn't know that!
Mind you, your 'several' is a gross exaggeration. The only languages I've found that do that are Portuguese and Galician (which is very very close to Portuguese).
The Afrikaans word MIGHT be a borrowing of the Portuguese, but likely isn't, and in any case their word for millet is totally different.
Supplemental: The Children of the Corn
Supplemental: The Children of the Corn
Maize was not the only Meso-Minisian plant to arrive in Eastern Minisia before and during the classical period. Other plants also made their mark.
The most important early foreign plant to arrive in the Mishigami was tobacco. The stimulant proved very popular wherever it was introduced. It took its place beside sage, cedar, and sweet grass as a sacred medicine among the Menominee. Tobacco was also used as a pesticide. Its smoke was used to repel zagimeg [mosquitoes]. At other times, tobacco was boiled in water and then the water was painted onto rare plants to keep bugs from eating them.
Common Beans began appearing in the Mishigami and Ziibiing not long after the proliferation of maize. They were used as nitrogen fixers, alongside bede and hairy beans [fuzzy beans]. The use of hairy beans declined at this time, for the rather straightforward reason that common beans taste better.
Varieties of Meso-Minisian squash also made their first appearance at this time. They were less important because they were not that different from the existing Mishigami squashes.
Cotton entered the Minisian southeast, shortly after maize. Compared to linen, cotton was both easier to produce and made a better product. Its fibers were thicker and warmer for the bitter winter cold while remaining breathable in the summer heat. It could only be grown reliably in south, however, so the Mishigami remained dependent on linen and furs. Over time, it became a cash crop for southern elites. They would grow it and then export the raw cotton fibers north to the Mishigami for huge economic gains. More and more cotton clothing was used by the Menominee and the people further south.
Aji [peppers] came north along the trade routes by the middle of the classical period. While today they are best known for their spicy favor, they were also useful as a preservative to the menominee. Capsicum, the same chemical in peppers that causes them to taste spicy, kills bacteria and inhibits their growth.
Tomatoes spread north during the late classical period. Unlike modern day varieties these were small, barely larger than cherries. They were garden plants and were often used to make sauces.
These plants helped to transform the Ziibiing. It slowly became more populated and agricultural. As it did so, its people began domesticating plants of their own.
The bow wood bush [Osage orange or Maclura pomifera] began to be grown commercially for weapon production. It was also used as a hedge to define property lines. Its fruit was used a food source during famines.
Freshwater mussels were farmed for their meat and pearls. Iniki [Florence/Muscle Shoals, AL] became famous for their pearls. As we have already discussed, the shells of freshwater mussels were used to temper pottery.
Near the Gulf of Chitti [Gulf of Mexico], yaupon holly trees were used to make a caffeinated tea drink called Assi. Assi tea is drunk by priests in religious ceremonies, by elites during celebrations, and by warriors before battle. The leaves used to make the tea are a valuable trade commodity and luxury good. Yaupon holly was not domesticated but groves of trees were carefully cultivated as cash crops. They are closely related to the yerba mate, which was used in South America much the same way. There is evidence of elite consumption of Assi tea as far north as Hoshalaga [Montreal, QC].
Koha [Cane or Arundinaria Gigantea] is a relative of bamboo. It was used in much the same way. That is to make weapons and tools, including arrow shafts, fishing poles, fish nets, baskets, flutes, furniture, boats, candles, mats, blowguns, and pipe stems. It is an effective building material for houses. As mowin syllabics spread south, koha replaced birch bark as the most common writing material. It flowers irregularly and its flowers were considered as a symbol of death due to their tendency to flower during droughts.
Muscadine grapes were used to make raisons, jams, and wine. They generally tasted better than the musky frost grapes grown further north.
Manoomin and other Mishigami plants began moving south at this time as well. Manoomin naturally requires a certain number days in cold water before it will sprout. This is called vernalization. This was bred out over time. While it never made a particularly good tropical plant, it was used in sub-tropical regions like the Ziibiing. Heat tolerant types reached the Tanasi Valley [Tennessee Valley] by 1 CE, the Kusa Valley [Coosa River Valley, AL] by 100 CE, and the swamps of Chitti [Lousiana and the Mississippi River delta] by 250 CE.
Meso-Minisia was not unaffected by this trade either. Companion planting of bede and maize proved just as effective there as it was further north.
Next time we will discuss the mounds, pyramids, and ziggurats of the Mishigami and Ziibiing.
[1] Taken from: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/52/Lemoy011.jpg/640px-Lemoy011.jpg
Comments? Questions?
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These additional plants will provide much needed nutrition and clothing. Even tobacco as used to control crop-destroying pests.
Given they live near ponds, would they try to do aquaculture in their bogs? They're already growing mussels so fishes might be a simple extension.
Given they live near ponds, would they try to do aquaculture in their bogs? They're already growing mussels so fishes might be a simple extension.
I don't see why not. They allow fish and crayfish to swim into their rice paddies. I imagine they introduce them deliberately sometimes. Catfish farming would be big in the southeast.