Great civilizations arose in the most fertile zones of the planet where cereals were cultivated. We can identify a culture by the type of cereals that this people cultivated and consumed, and we postulate that a culture depends on the agriculture.
The world’s best known cereals are wheat, rice, maize, barley, oats, rye and millet. Of these, the oldest and most used to the point of shaping cultures and civilizations, are the first three.
Wheat, with the most widely grown species scientifically known as Triticum aestivum, came from southeastern Turkey and was the first cereal to be cultivated. Its cultivation in the regions of the Fertile Crescent, an area in the Middle East which currently embraces Iraq, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, southwest Turkey, western Iran, and the island of Cyprus, gave birth to the most ancient civilization, the cradle of the first great empires and Western civilization.
Rice, which is scientifically known as Oryza sativa, came from China and India, and rapidly spread to the rest of Southern Asia as a staple food, is responsible for the great Asian civilizations: India, China and Japan.
Maize, which is scientifically known as Zea mays, was first grown in Central America, more specifically southern Mexico, and is responsible for the rise of the only civilizations in the new continent: Mayans, Aztecs and Incas.
Agriculture, pastoralism and liberation of Man
God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food…’ Genesis 1:28-29
As long as Man hunted, fished and gathered fruits, he lived in symbiosis with nature and at its mercy. He was therefore no different from other animals: bears, for example, are omnivores like us and they too hunt, fish and gather fruits. Human life, like animal life, was nothing more than a battle for survival – most of the 24 hours each day were spent searching for food to survive, thus to live was synonymous to staying alive.
Since males are on average physically stronger than females, they dedicated their time to hunting, fishing and gathering fruits, all which kept them outside the house and always on the move. Women, on the other hand, stayed mostly within the living quarters, dedicating their time to the preparation of food, especially after the discovery of fire. In addition to this, they also ensured the future of the clan or tribe by giving birth, raising and educating the young.
Hunting and fishing were physically challenging activities that came with a certain danger, therefore men used more their reptilian brain, which is common to all vertebrates. As we know, this part of the brain triggers three main reactions: fight, flee or hide. The preparation of tools, weapons and traps, and the constant movement from one place to another filled men’s time.
Contrary to them, the women were less concerned about safety, and occupied their time with domestic work, and the care of the children. Therefore they used less the reptilian brain and more the mammalian and rational brain, which is why their thinking were more introspective. It is for this reason, being more sedentary and having more free time, that I believe it was the women who discovered agriculture in experimenting with seeds in the land encircling their living area.
The king of agriculture: the cereal
For as long as agriculture was still limited to the cultivation of vegetables and fruits, man’s life did not change much, and he continued to be hunter-gatherer, with the difference that now he gathered the crops that he himself had sowed and planted. Since these vegetables that he now cultivated were the same that he used to gather, there was no significant change in his culture or modus vivendi, as there was no substantial alteration in his diet.
The great agricultural revolution came with the discovery of cereals. From this point onward, the characteristics and properties of the cereal quickly made agriculture almost exclusively cereal based. Even today cereal crops are the most cultivated agricultural product in the world; in fact, the goddess of agriculture and harvest in the Roman mythology is called Ceres, from which the word cereal is derived. The agricultural revolution of the 1960s, termed the “Green Revolution”, was exclusively a cereal revolution, as it aimed to increase cereal production by using high yield seed varieties and new technologies, primarily in fertilizers.
Within the mammalian species, Homo sapiens are neither herbivores nor carnivores, but rather omnivores, that is, they must have a diversified diet. Therefore, when Man discovered cereal he somehow discovered part of his identity; all food pyramids of an ideal diet for human beings place cereals at their base. In term of proportion, a balanced diet should consist of 30% cereals, 25% fruits and vegetables, 20% fish, seafood and dairy products, 15% meat, and 10% fats.
Cereal is the foundation of diet and culture
Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul: Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” Luke 12:16-19
There are basically three reasons why cereal became since its discovery the king of agriculture, the staple food of humans, and by affinity, also the founding of great civilizations that shaped our planet throughout the history of humanity.
Cereal is a long lasting food
As the biblical text suggests, unlike roots, tubers, and other fruits and vegetables, cereals have a very long shelf life and store easily. They have even found wheat grains in the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen, which were still in good condition despite being 5 000 years old. In fact, when these were sown they germinated.
In the past when there were no refrigerators, other types of food such as eggs were stored in cereal grains which kept them at a lower than ambient temperature. The storage of cereals, however, does not require a low temperature; they can be stored at any temperature. The only storage requirement for cereals is humidity which must be low; however, the lower the temperature, the longer they last.
This feature of the cereal is what truly liberated man from Nature, because in having stored food, he no longer needed to fill his days searching for food like animals do. The free time left to him allowed him to turn to reflective, creative and scientific thoughts. Cereal works like an insurance policy that confers stability to a society. We can affirm that where there were no cereals there were no civilization, culture and development as the settlements remained primitive in a constant struggle for survival.
Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “(…) there will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt. After them there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt; the famine will consume the land. (…) Let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming, and lay up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it. That food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine that are to befall the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish through the famine.” Genesis 41: 25, 29-30, 35-36
Joseph of Egypt interpreted the pharaoh’s famous dream of seven fat cows and seven lean cows as representing seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of want, and advised him to store grains during the seven years of plenty to prevent the people from perishing in the following years of want. The longevity of the grain makes it the only saviour of mankind in times of famine.
The same cannot be said of other foods; potatoes, for example, can only be stored for one year, and if one harvest fails, an entire population can starve to death, as happened in Ireland between 1845 and 1852; one million Irish died from starvation and another million were forced to emigrate.
Cereal is absorbed slowly and provides energy for a long duration
The durability or longevity of stored cereal is also observed, in some way, inside of our body in relation to its absorption as carbohydrates. The carbohydrates derived from fruits and vegetables are rapidly absorbed and exponentially increase the sugar level in the body; their longevity is short, because they are quickly used up. The carbohydrates derived from whole grains, on the other hand, have slow absorption rate, which also means that the body’s sugar level does not fluctuate drastically. In this way, the energy level in the body stays constant, stable, safe and healthy for a longer period.
Cereals keep the body satiated longer and prevent sudden imbalances of glucose level, thus reducing the urge to eat more frequently. In other words, the longevity of cereals shown in the granaries also occurs in our bodies.
Ingested cereal functions like a fuel tank that supplies energy gradually for a long period, without great variation in glucose level. The freedom, autonomy and free time that cereal gave to humanity to be able to dedicate itself to other activities besides the struggle for survival, are also provided at an individual level to each person who ingests it.
Cereal is a simple but complete food
If we had to choose one single very complete food, from the point of view of nutrition, to live on for some time in the event we become temporarily deprived of food, it is certain that this food could only be the cereal.
Cereals contain a little of everything. Other foods are more specialized in one nutrient or other to the detriment of other nutrients. Fruits and vegetables have vitamins but are low in proteins, and as we have seen, are quickly absorbed and therefore are not good choices in case of an emergency. Meats and fish are rich in proteins, but lack the others.
Interestingly enough when we try to dissect and analyze a grain of cereal, we see that like the universe, the atom and the cell, it is also trinitarian or tridimensional, that is, it is composed of three different elements. Furthermore, inside of these three parts, we find different nutrients.
- Bran – fibers, the B vitamins, minerals (sodium, potassium, chlorine, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, sulfur and iron), proteins (gliadin and glutenin contained in gluten) and phytonutrients (carotenoids, flavonoids and phytosterols known for their antioxidant properties).
- Endosperm – carbohydrates or starch corresponding to 78-83% of the grain, proteins, vitamins of the B group, and fats consisting mainly of triglycerides.
- Germ – minerals, group B vitamins in particular B1 and B2, vitamin E, and phytonutrients.
The timeline of the Ancient Civilizations
The Mesopotamian Civilization
Period: 3500 BC–500 BC
Location: Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey
The Indus Valley Civilization
Period: 3300 BC–1900 BC
Location: Indus river Northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India
The Ancient Egyptian Civilization
Period: 3150 BC–30 BC
Original Location: Banks of the Nile, Egypt
The Mayan Civilization
Period: 2600 BC–900 AD
Location: Around present-day Yucatan
The Chinese Civilization
Period: 1600 BC–1046 BC
Location: Yellow River and Yangtze region
Ancient Greek Civilization
Civilization Name: Greek civilization
Period: 2700 BC–146 BC
Original Location: Greece, Italy, Sicily, North Africa, and as far west as France
The Persian Civilization
Period: 550 BC–331 BC
Location: Egypt Turkey Mesopotamia up to the Indus river
The Roman Civilization
Period: 550 BC–465 AD
Location: All countries north and south of the Mediterranean Sea
The Aztec Civilization
Period: 1345 AD–1521 AD
Location: South central region of pre-Colombian Mexico
The Inca Civilization
Period: 1438 AD–1532 AD
Location: Ecuador, Peru, and Chile
Wheat and the civilizations of the Fertile Crescent
The Fertile Crescent is not far from the cradle of humanity and has a mild almost spring like climate year round. As we have already mentioned, it is here that the king of the cereals was born -- wheat is the oldest and still the most cultivated cereal because it is the most versatile. When speaking of bread, we usually refer to wheat flour kneaded with yeast and baked in an oven.
With the discovery of agriculture, Man became more and more sedentary, establishing himself on the banks of the great rivers, not only because of the water for drinking and for agriculture, but also because the most fertile lands in the world are always the river basins. The periodic flooding of the riverside lands fertilizes the soil by the phenomenon known as sedimentation of organic matter that the river brings. The first cities were formed on the banks of large rivers.
Wheat – Jordan – Jericho – Eucharist
In the case of the Fertile Crescent, we are talking about the rivers of Jordan, Tigris, Euphrates and Nile. Curiously, the most ancient city in the world is Jericho (9 600 B.C.) established on the banks of the Jordan River and integrant part of the Rift Valley where humanity was born. It is also interesting that the cultivation of wheat began more or less at this time, about 9,000 years ago.
It is not surprising that it was this cereal that Jesus chose to institute the Eucharist as a memorial of his presence among men: “While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’” (Mark 14:22)
In addition to being the composition of the Eucharist, the memorial of his death, Jesus used wheat as a metaphor to explain and give meaning to his death: “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12: 24)
Other cereals
In addition to wheat, which has always been the most used for human consumption, the civilizations of the Fertile Crescent relied on other cereals that still continue to be on the list of the most widely used in the world today: rye, oats and barley. With the exception of barley which was also used as bread for the poor as testified in the Gospel of Saint John (6: 9), these cereals were mostly used for animal farming and for making fermented beverages such as beer and whiskey.
Sumer, Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, the Persian Empire, the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire, civilizations, cultures, development in philosophy and science – the Fertile Crescent was not only the cradle of first civilizations, but also the cradle of the Western civilization.
Rice and the Asian civilizations
Rice based civilizations are almost as old as those based on wheat in the Fertile Crescent, with the difference of a few centuries that is attributed to some technological advances like the discovery of metals. However, we can say that these civilizations have largely accompanied alongside those in the Fertile Crescent and in certain technological advances have even surpassed them, as happened with the invention of paper and gunpowder.
While in the Fertile Crescent and due to the ease of communication, cultures, civilizations and peoples have overlapped each other over time, in Asia, on the other hand, there has been two different foci of culture and civilization – India and China – separated and isolated by the Himalayas and a distance of several hundreds of kilometers.
The cultivation of rice came from the periodic flooding caused by rivers, small lakes, and swamps. This water accumulated in the fields and kept them well fertilized, removed the salt, prevented the growth of weeds, and maintained a constant temperature by retaining heat; above all, it prevented the frost brought on by nocturnal cooling.
Unlike wheat, rice crops need the constant presence of water. We can therefore speak of two distinct Asian cultures: the one that was born on the basin of the Indus River in northwest India, and the one that arose in eastern China, on the banks of Yangtze River and Huang He.
The Indus River Valley civilization
Also known as the Harappan Civilization, it began 5,300 years ago with the appearance of Neolithic villages. It flourished in areas that currently extend from Afghanistan to Pakistan and India, and peaked around the year 3000 B.C. This is the third most ancient civilization in the world after the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilization, and the first in Asia. Like the civilizations of the Fertile Crescent, it is also a river civilization that was born on the basin of the Indus River. It was above all a very technologically advanced urban civilization; the cities did not appear and grow haphazardly, but were foreseen, planned and architecturally designed.
The Chinese civilization
As we have said previously, this is one of the most ancient civilization known, being almost as old as the ones that existed in Egypt and Mesopotamia. It is believed that in 6 500 B.C. rice was already cultivated along the Yangtze River. While in the Fertile Crescent the empires succeeded one another, in East Asia the historical development seems to have been less abrupt. But we must remember that there is not only a single Chinese people, there exist several ethnic groups that influenced each other, warred and succeeded in the reins of power, creating several dynasties.
Just as the Greek culture served as the model and inspiration for many peoples of the West, the Chinese culture influenced the cultural development of several of its neighbouring countries, including Japan and Korea. The Chinese civilization, like the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilization, was also formed on the banks of large rivers: Huang and Yangtze. Because of this, the Chinese economy was based on irrigation agriculture and the workforce of peasants in collective servitude.
The maize and the Central and South American civilizations
Originated in Mexico, the maize (Zea mays) which means the “grain of life” was in fact the vital food source of the Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas, peoples who lived in the southern Mexico, Central and South America. The existence of maize and these civilizations associated with it is the most obvious and conclusive proof of our hypothesis: where there was no cereal there was no culture.
From the cultivation of cereals, Man has emancipated himself from nature, and has placed it in turn at his service. The indigenous peoples who did not cultivate any cereal did not develop a culture nor created a civilization because their lives were nothing more than a constant struggle for survival.
Both the North American Indians (Canada and United States) and the remaining South American Indians (Brazil, Colombia and Argentina) did not develop a civilization because they did not know or cultivated any cereal crop.
The Mayan civilization
This was the first civilization in the Americas. The Mayan people lived from 1 200 to 250 B.C., having been a contemporary of the Chinese Shang dynasty. The Mayans survived by agriculture in villages in the Yucatan Peninsula, the present day Mexico and areas belonging to Guatemala, Salvador, Belize and Honduras.
At its peak, it came to be a very complex civilization, with a population of around 19 million people. The Mayans developed their own methods of writing around 700 B.C. They were gifted astronomer, specializing in the analysis of celestial movements and in the calculation of data; they became known worldwide for the creation of a mysterious solar calendar in malachite stone that today still arouses the curiosity of many people.
The disappearance of this culture remains a mystery still to be unveiled: they were not conquered by any other groups of people, the least of whom the Spaniards. When the latter arrived in the America, the Mayans had already abandoned their pyramids, temples, fortresses and places of worship. As a testimony of their culture, these temples, fortresses and pyramids are still well preserved, especially the great pyramid of Chichen Itza.
The Aztec empire
The Aztecs were practically the contemporary of the Incas. This people inhabited southern Mexico and even extended to Central America. Much more aggressive and less cultured than the Mayans, they were known for their human sacrifices that they offered to their gods. Their rise coincided with the decline of the Mayans; around 1 500, the Aztecs were at their peak and, precisely because of this, they were brutally conquered and dominated by the Spanish conquerors (Herman Cortes, 1519-1521).
The Inca empire
This empire grew into South America’s largest empire during the pre-Colombian period. The civilization flourished between 1438 and 1532 in present day Peru, Ecuador and Chile. The administrative capital was situated in Cusco, now Peru. The Incas were dedicated to the Sun God and had a king called “Sapa Inca” (son of the sun).
The Incas, like the Mayans and the Aztecs, were also great builders of fortresses, and places like Machu Picchu and Cusco still remain today. Like the Aztecs, the Incas were also conquered by the Spaniards (Francisco Pizarro, 1532-1541).
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
No comments:
Post a Comment