Multiple pathways to farming in precontact eastern North America

Hunter-gatherers in eastern North America utilized gourds at least 7000 years ago, operating at the early end of a sequence that ended with maize-based agriculture across most of the area. Various subregions differed from each other in timing and degree of participation in premaize crop production. A Midwestern record of native seed plant domestication preceding the adoption of maize is documented, and the significance of this phenomenon is now recognized. Recent archaeobotanical information highlights the amount of geographic variability, limiting the utility of earlier broad-scale interpretations. This paper includes a comparison of sequences in selected subregions: the Midwest/Midsouth, the Southeast, the Lower Mississippi Valley, the Trans-Mississippi South, and the Northeast.