Crops
Cacao
Also Known As Cocoa Tree
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Cacao is a small evergreen tree whose seeds are processed into cocoa powder, cocoa butter and chocolate; in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica it also served as a ritual beverage and a form of currency. Its domestication region and date are genuinely disputed among scholars: one line of evidence places domestication in the upper Amazon at least 5,300 years ago, at the Santa Ana-La Florida site in present-day Ecuador, by the Mayo-Chinchipe culture, with cacao later introduced into Mesoamerica; a 2018 genomic study of cultivated trees instead concluded that all domesticated cacao descends from a single domestication event about 3,600 years ago somewhere in Central America. Both positions rest on real, peer-reviewed evidence and neither has settled the question.
Facts
Disputed
Domestication RegionDisputed: upper Amazon (Ecuador) versus Central America 1 Genuinely disputed: one line of evidence places first domestication in the upper Amazon (Santa Ana-La Florida site, present-day Ecuador, Mayo-Chinchipe culture) with later introduction to Mesoamerica; a 2018 genomic study of cultivated trees instead concluded a single domestication event in Central America. See this wave's open question and dissent record for the full citation of both positions. Domesticated When (Circa)Disputed: at least 5,300 years ago, or about 3,600 years ago 1 Genuinely disputed: at least 5,300 years ago per the upper Amazon evidence, or about 3,600 years ago per the 2018 Central American single-domestication-event genomic study. Scientific Name Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
A New World domesticate whose post-1492 spread to the Old World, and eventual global chocolate trade, is part of the Columbian Exchange.
Sources
Open Questions (1 open question)
Was cacao domesticated in a single event in Central America about 3,600 years ago, or independently earlier in the upper Amazon, at the Santa Ana-La Florida site in present-day Ecuador, at least 5,300 years ago?
Two real, peer-reviewed lines of evidence disagree. Archaeological and residue evidence from the Santa Ana-La Florida site places cacao domestication in the upper Amazon (Mayo-Chinchipe culture, present-day Ecuador) at least 5,300 years ago, with cacao later introduced to Mesoamerica. A 2018 genomic study of cultivated cacao trees instead concluded that every domesticated cacao tree today descends from a single domestication event roughly 3,600 years ago somewhere in Central America, which would leave the older Amazonian material outside the domesticated lineage that survived. Neither study has been overturned by the other.
What would resolve this A direct ancient-DNA comparison between cacao remains recovered from Santa Ana-La Florida and the genomic reference set the 2018 study built its single-origin tree from, which would show whether the upper-Amazon material is ancestral to, or a side branch from, the lineage that was actually domesticated.
Archaeobotany / population genomicsCacao Tree (Wikipedia)
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Domesticated When (Circa)
A 2018 genomic study of cultivated cacao trees concluded that all domesticated cacao descends from a single domestication event about 3,600 years ago somewhere in Central America, roughly 1,700 years later than, and geographically distinct from, the upper-Amazon evidence (Santa Ana-La Florida site, present-day Ecuador, Mayo-Chinchipe culture, at least 5,300 years ago) this fact's primary citation records.
A dissenting reading, from an independent laneCacao Tree (Wikipedia), Wikimedia Foundation
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