Old and New Words

Anthropology

Domesticates in the Old and New Worlds

The point of this article, "Domesticates in the Old and New Worlds," is the difference between the Old World domesticated animals and crops, and the New World domesticated animals and crops. It seeks to discover just why so many crops and animals were domesticated in the Old. World and so many fewer species were domesticated in the New World before the advent of Europeans on the scene. It also discusses the spread of domesticated animals from the Old World to the New, and the spread of domesticated crops from the New World to the Old, and how this created new markets and tastes around the world. The point is, that domesticated crops and animals differed, but spread throughout the world as discovery and exploration increased.

The argument the author uses is that food and animals traveled around the world, and became staples in areas where they were not native, such as the potato (Andean), and the tomato (Mexican). Perhaps the most compelling argument of the author is the importance of animals, and how they spread to the New World quickly once they were introduced. Another argument is that our modern dinner plates hold foods that were developed in far-off places, and that we do not really recognize the debt we owe to other countries for developing the food we enjoy today. This argument is quite effective because it makes the reader think about the food we eat and where it really came from. Most people do not recognize that most of the food we call "American" is really just as much of a melting pot as the country itself, and that the food we eat has been around a long time. The argument is compelling and thought provoking and entirely effective for both the reader and the author.