A Native American Technology Transfer: The Diffusion of Potato

Abstract

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) deserves merit as one of the most important foods of the world, as well as a notable example of dissemination to the rest of the world of a crop domesticated solely by native South Americans. It was unknown to Europeans until the onset of exchanges between the two hemispheres that commenced after the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Even though samples of potato are thought to have arrived in Spain around 1570, and Spanish chroniclers were writing of its huge contribution to the sustenance of Andean civilizations even before it was introduced to Europe as a botanical curiosity, the potato remained a poorly understood plant for nearly a century. These writings were in many cases not available until modern times, long after potato became a staple on the continents to which it was introduced. An example of this is the large tome of Don Felipe Huaman Poma de Ayala, written in 1584–1614, entitled Nueva Cronica y Buen Gobierno. This was one of the most detailed narratives of life in Peru after the establishment of Spanish rule. The author, a Peruvian native raised and educated by Catholic clergy, sent his manuscript to the Spanish king as a 1400-page document complete with numerous sketches (Fig. 1). However, it was little noticed and probably never seen by the king, for it was taken by the Danish ambassador to Denmark where it was completely forgotten for three centuries, until it was discovered in the Royal Library of Denmark in 1908. Certainly, the strange journey of this most informative record prevented Europeans from being properly informed of the potential of the potato, which remained a plant enigma all too long. It described potato cultivation and the importance of it as a foodstuff in the context of the agriculture of the day. The author was born before the Spanish conquest and the existence and ingestion of potato was neither strange nor noteworthy to him; thus, he listed it along with other crops. Several sketches depicted the planting and harvesting of potato and removal of the harvest to storage buildings, and allusions were made to different cultivars and their particular place in the agricultural production system (Fig. 1). Jose de Acosta, who traveled in South America from 1571 to 1576, wrote: