BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
ANUARY 17, 1949 VoL. 13, No. 7 
CAMBRIDG 
E, 
MassacuHUseETTs, J 
MAIZE GRANARIES IN MEXICO 
BY 
ErraimM HERNANDEZ XOLOCOTZI ' 
I. INrRopUCTION 
Tuts study attempts to follow the development of the 
maize granary, an important element of material culture, 
in Mexico where maize has been and still is the basic 
source of food. Sufficient information is now available to 
permit the presentation of a tentative outline of this de- 
velopment from the pre-Conquest period to the present 
day. Further anthropological and ethnobotanical studies 
along these lines may result eventually in the establish- 
ment of significant correlations between granary types 
and indigenous cultures. Such correlations would be of 
great value to scientists engaged in plant exploration, in 
connection with maize research of either a practical or 
a theoretical aspect, since Indian cultures have acted in 
part as isolating mechanisms resulting in the production 
and maintenance of maize ecotypes. 
In the Western Hemisphere, maize was the cereal 
which served as the economic basis for civilization. Ar- 
chaeological studies have brought to light various cul- 
tures with an incipient agriculture based on plants other 
than maize (Zingg 1939 and Anderson 1947); however, 
it was not until after the domestication and spread of 
1 Rockefeller Foundation Fellow from Mexican Agricultural Program 
and Agrénomo **B’’ de la Secretaria de Agricultura y Ganaderia, 
Mexico. 
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