Abstract
Away from the Ganges valley, the south-eastern highlands of India is recognized as the region of origin of upland or aus rice. In this narrative, we attempt to reconstruct its origin synthesizing inklings from genetics, prehistory, and anthropology, and to find out the putative paleo-ecological, environmental, and cultural context that provided the necessary impetus to it. Genetically, we uncover a highly diverse phenotypic base with unique alleles hinting at an independent origin of aus perhaps from Oryza nivara. Post-LGM paleo-niche portrays more widely distributed O. nivara as opposed to O. rufipogon; relatively abundant O. nivara could have enabled its preferential exploitation. While a dearth of archaeological study does not illuminate much on this aspect; the agricultural attributes of the ethnic inhabitants of the area, e.g., dry rice cultivation with the hoe and the axe, reveal a striking similarity with aus or upland rice cultivation. Furthermore, comparative analyses with other historical anecdotes suggest that upland rice seems to be born as an adaptive landscape management by pre-agriculturist society. It was developed through a broader plant-people-landscape interaction, where rice or its ancestors were grown for subsistence with other crops as a Neolithic proto-agricultural package; in this case along the hill slopes. Summarizing, the current study casts light on some of the understudied aspects of upland rice agriculture, but it also brings out many open questions inviting future examination.
Highlights
The Initiation of agriculture was a giant leap in the history of humanity
It will be futile to predict an initiation of upland rice cultivation from these prefatory records; we discover a faint connection with the elements of agrarian activities
Genetics and anthropology altogether seemed quite compelling to render the claim of independent origin of aus stronger
Summary
The Initiation of agriculture was a giant leap in the history of humanity. Domestication of Asian cultivated rice is a much-debated topic and hovers over two contrasting hypotheses, single and multiple (Molina et al 2009; Huang et al 2012; Civan et al 2015; Choi et al 2017). Archaeological records portray a parallel culture in India yet younger to China but emphasize the glory of past innovations. An abundance in highly productive eco-systems which possibly augmented the preferential exploitation of this wild annual leading to the formation of founder population of semi-domesticated proto-aus (c.a 4000–7000 years); a dearth of genetic evidence instigates us to hypothesize the derivation of a few aus-specific alleles (e.g., Snorkel, Rc etc) from nivara during this phase or arrived as denovo mutation in landraces later (Sweeney et al 2007); iii) domestication and diversification phase: a step forward towards further differentiation of aus group from other, with or without major contribution from japonica and indica as late as 2000 BC or later (Huang et al 2012; Choi et al 2017) It followed a phase of geographic spread of aus culture and gradual amalgamation into the society leading to the origin and evolution of various landraces unique to the many cultural groups contingent on aus rice. The rise of rice into prominence most probably was a result of preferential selection as a primary cereal that happened later driven by various other demographic, cultural, and socio-economic factors
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