Recent archaeological and botanical studies of a number of major food plants throughout the world have clearly shown that thle initial domestication of each of them was a slow and laborious process, carried out by generations of experimentalists familiar with the total ecosystem of which the plant was a part (Darlington, 1963; Harris, 1967, 1969; Ucko and Dimbleby 1969b). Therefore, any pronouncement about the who, where, how, and when of the domestication of a food plant must be based not on general preconceptions but on local facts.
