Women in Ocongate, south of Cuzco, sort potatoes, an Andean native and staple.
Several hundred varieties of potatoes are cultivated today. Juan de Diós
Choquepuma. TAFOS Photographic Archive/PUCP, Lima, Peru.These ecologically diverse environments spurred experimentation. Ecological
geographers have shown that certain regions of the world became hot spots for
domestication as people persisted through various climatic shifts. The main
criteria conducive to domestication are annual seasonality, wet and dry seasons,
and plant diversity. The greater Andean region has these characteristics. It is no
surprise that this region witnessed many plant domestications, some of which
have spread around the globe since the Age of Exploration and the Conquests.
The most commonly consumed domesticated plants from this region are the
potato (Solanum spp.) and the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas). Important dietary
additions include a variety of beans (Phaseolus spp.), chili peppers (Capsicum
spp.), squashes (Cucurbita spp.), peanuts (Arachis hypogaea), and manioc
(Manihot esculenta). Less well known are quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa), oca
(Oxalis tuberosa), ulluco (Ullucus tuberosus), mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum),
and jicama (Pachyrhizus erosus). This region also yielded animal domesticates:
the camelids (llamas and alpacas), the guinea pig (Cavia porcellus), and the
Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata), whose use as food has not spread outside of
this region. Such a diverse and useful range of foods clearly allowed the Incas
and their predecessors—Huari, Tiahuanaco, and Chimú, among others—to make
and sustain their conquests across diverse ecological zones, peoples, and
territories. Although the timing of these domestications is still a focus of study,
we believe that these plants and animals have all been domesticated for at least
4,000 years, and some have been cultivated for 7,000 years.
The Incas focused their early conquests on peoples living in intermontane
valleys. Long before the rise of the Incas, most of the familiar Andean crops and
animals had been in regular production, with many regional variations bred and
selected for local microclimate, productivity, flavor, and yield. In addition, a
range of plants native to Central America entered into the region, just as some of
the Andean domesticates traveled north. The most important dietary and cuisine
species introduced from central America were maize (Zea mays) and avocado
(Persea americana). Andean people also consumed many wild plants and
animals, most prominently fish from the ocean, lakes, and rivers; a variety of
wild cactus fruits; fruits such as chirimoya (Annona cherimola) and lúcuma