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Cacao

Also Known As Cocoa Tree
Stimulant and Beverage Crops

Cacao is a small evergreen tree whose seeds are processed into cocoa powder, cocoa butter and chocolate; in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica it also served as a ritual beverage and a form of currency. Its domestication region and date are genuinely disputed among scholars: one line of evidence places domestication in the upper Amazon at least 5,300 years ago, at the Santa Ana-La Florida site in present-day Ecuador, by the Mayo-Chinchipe culture, with cacao later introduced into Mesoamerica; a 2018 genomic study of cultivated trees instead concluded that all domesticated cacao descends from a single domestication event about 3,600 years ago somewhere in Central America. Both positions rest on real, peer-reviewed evidence and neither has settled the question. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Disputed
Domestication Region
Disputed: upper Amazon (Ecuador) versus Central America 1
Genuinely disputed: one line of evidence places first domestication in the upper Amazon (Santa Ana-La Florida site, present-day Ecuador, Mayo-Chinchipe culture) with later introduction to Mesoamerica; a 2018 genomic study of cultivated trees instead concluded a single domestication event in Central America. See this wave's open question and dissent record for the full citation of both positions.
Domesticated When (Circa)
Disputed: at least 5,300 years ago, or about 3,600 years ago 1
Genuinely disputed: at least 5,300 years ago per the upper Amazon evidence, or about 3,600 years ago per the 2018 Central American single-domestication-event genomic study.
Era (category)
Bronze Age 1
Category derived from this entry's own free-text era/class property; the source property's own status (debated) carries whatever is unresolved about the underlying date or classification, this derived category fact makes no further claim beyond bucketing that same text.
Classification
Life Cycle
Perennial 1
Primary Use
Food 2
Primary Use
Industrial 2
Scientific Name
Theobroma cacao 1
Crop Class
Beverage 1
Connections

Associated With

Agroforestry, Practices

Cacao is classically grown as an understory shade crop within agroforestry systems in its native tropical range.

Cacao Black Pod Disease, Pests and Diseases

Black pod disease (Phytophthora spp.) is the most damaging disease of cultivated cacao worldwide.

Columbian Exchange, Concepts

A New World domesticate whose post-1492 spread to the Old World, and eventual global chocolate trade, is part of the Columbian Exchange.

Source Cacao Tree (Wikipedia)

Open Questions

Was cacao domesticated in a single event in Central America about 3,600 years ago, or independently earlier in the upper Amazon, at the Santa Ana-La Florida site in present-day Ecuador, at least 5,300 years ago?, Open Questions
Source Cacao Tree (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases

Era Of Origin

The Ancient Near East and Bronze Age World

Also in History Atlas: the era this subject comes from.

Found In

Amazonia

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Source Cacao Tree (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Cacao Tree (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • lead section, Domestication
  • History section
    The cacao tree was first domesticated at least 5,300 years ago, in equatorial South America from the Santa Ana-La Florida (SALF) site in present-day southeast Ecuador.
  • Associated With: Columbian Exchange
View the Source
2. Purdue University NewCROP, James A. Duke Handbook of Energy Crops: Theobroma cacao L. (Handbook of Energy Crops)
Purdue University NewCROP, James A. Duke Handbook of Energy Crops
  • Uses
    Cacao seeds are the source of commercial cocoa, chocolate, and cocoa butter.
  • Uses, cocoa butter
    Cocoa butter is used in confections and in manufacture of tobacco, soap, and cosmetics.
View the Source
Open Questions (1 open question)
Was cacao domesticated in a single event in Central America about 3,600 years ago, or independently earlier in the upper Amazon, at the Santa Ana-La Florida site in present-day Ecuador, at least 5,300 years ago?

Two real, peer-reviewed lines of evidence disagree. Archaeological and residue evidence from the Santa Ana-La Florida site places cacao domestication in the upper Amazon (Mayo-Chinchipe culture, present-day Ecuador) at least 5,300 years ago, with cacao later introduced to Mesoamerica. A 2018 genomic study of cultivated cacao trees instead concluded that every domesticated cacao tree today descends from a single domestication event roughly 3,600 years ago somewhere in Central America, which would leave the older Amazonian material outside the domesticated lineage that survived. Neither study has been overturned by the other.

What would resolve this A direct ancient-DNA comparison between cacao remains recovered from Santa Ana-La Florida and the genomic reference set the 2018 study built its single-origin tree from, which would show whether the upper-Amazon material is ancestral to, or a side branch from, the lineage that was actually domesticated.
Archaeobotany / population genomicsCacao Tree (Wikipedia)
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Domesticated When (Circa)

A 2018 genomic study of cultivated cacao trees concluded that all domesticated cacao descends from a single domestication event about 3,600 years ago somewhere in Central America, roughly 1,700 years later than, and geographically distinct from, the upper-Amazon evidence (Santa Ana-La Florida site, present-day Ecuador, Mayo-Chinchipe culture, at least 5,300 years ago) this fact's primary citation records.

A dissenting reading, from an independent laneCacao Tree (Wikipedia), Wikimedia Foundation

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