Wellmann Imre szerk.: A Magyar Mezőgazdasági Múzeum Közleményei 1971-1972 (Budapest, 1973)

Gunda, Béla: Origin of plant cultivation in the New World

time of their use, their curative effect etc. Some persons are inclined to acquire such knowledge. Those who would like to learn from the "primitive professors", accomodate themselves to them and if they have won their confidence, they may attain the knowledge of the latter. Among the Gosiute Indians the grand-parents are teaching the children about the plants. The Navajos took the old people with them on their wanderings, because they were able to show the edible, dyeing and medical plants. In fact, the Navajos are able to notice certain details on the plants which the white man is unable to recognize. As a result of this comprehensive ethnobotanical knowledge and experience the pre-Columbian plant cultivation developed among the Indians. I think the first steps of the Indians towards plant cultivation are rather interesting because the primitive forms of plant cultivation were probably comparable on other continents too. Of course, the primitive forms of cultivation depended not only on man but on the properties of the plant as well. Both a wild fruit-tree and a grass species have become domesticated plants, but each as the result of another "experiment." However, these "experiments" gave culture the chance of a manysided development.