I wrote: One wonders how these coffee plants ever survived the 10°C colder >> temperatures of the last ice age . . . >> > > They did not exist. No domesticated plants existed 9,000 years ago, and > none could survive in the wild alone without human protection. >
I meant that present-day domesticated coffee plants did not exist in the wild, unprotected by humans and human technology. Their ancestors existed. Ancestral versions of food crops are more hardy than the modern version, with many fewer seeds. I did not mean there were no domesticated plants; I meant no coffee, rice or maize, and there was nothing that looked like the domesticated version. The earliest cereal food crops were domesticated roughly 9000 years ago, so there were other plants. The same goes for us, by the way. Homo sapiens cannot exist outside of Africa except in the domesticated version, protected by our technology. In the ice ages no human would survive in Europe for more than a few hours without our technology such as clothing, hunting and fire. We are as much a product of domestication as our cows, turkeys and food crops. We domesticated ourselves. To be more specific, I think it is likely that women domesticated men and children. (Seriously.) Everything about us from our diet to our body shape is a product of technology grafted on to the original naturally evolved species. Technology has profoundly affected the very shape of our organs such as the feet and hands, the gut, teeth and brain. To paraphrase Churchill, we shaped our tools and then our tools shaped us. - Jed
