Editing Banana (section)

== History ==

=== Domestication ===

{{See also|Musa acuminata|Domesticated plants and animals of Austronesia|East African Highland bananas}}

The earliest domestication of bananas (''[[Musa (genus)|Musa]]'' spp.) was from naturally occurring [[parthenocarpic]] (seedless) individuals of ''[[Musa banksii]]'' in [[New Guinea]].<!--<ref name="apscience"/>-->{{sfn|Nelson|Ploetz|Kepler|2006}} These were cultivated by [[Indigenous people of New Guinea|Papuans]] before the arrival of [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesian-speakers]]. Numerous [[phytolith]]s of bananas have been recovered from the [[Kuk Swamp]] archaeological site and dated to around 10,000 to 6,500 [[Before Present|BP]].<ref name="Denham-2011"/><!--<ref name="Perrier2009"/>--><ref name="Fuller-2015"/> [[Foraging]] humans in this area began domestication in the late [[Pleistocene]] using [[transplanting|transplantation]] and early [[tillage|cultivation]] methods.<ref name="Roberts-2017">{{cite journal |last1=Roberts |first1=Patrick |last2=Hunt |first2=Chris |last3=Arroyo-Kalin |first3=Manuel |last4=Evans |first4=Damian |last5=Boivin |first5=Nicole |title=The deep human prehistory of global tropical forests and its relevance for modern conservation |journal=[[Nature Plants]] |publisher=[[Nature Portfolio]] |volume=3 |issue=8 |date=2017-08-03 |page=17093 |pmid=28770823 |doi=10.1038/nplants.2017.93 |bibcode=2017NatPl...317093R |url=https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/6697/3/Roberts%20et%20al.%20revised%20main%20text%20accepted%20version%20with%20pix.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/6697/3/Roberts%20et%20al.%20revised%20main%20text%20accepted%20version%20with%20pix.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live }}</ref> By the early to middle of the [[Holocene]] the process was complete.<!--<ref name="Harris-Hillman-1989"/>--><ref name="Roberts-2017"/> From New Guinea, cultivated bananas spread westward into [[Island Southeast Asia]]. They [[hybrid (biology)|hybridized]] with other (possibly independently domesticated) [[subspecies]] of ''Musa acuminata'' as well as ''M. balbisiana'' in the Philippines, northern New Guinea, and possibly [[Halmahera]]. These hybridization events produced the triploid [[List of banana cultivars|cultivars of bananas]] commonly grown today.<ref name="Denham-2011"/> The banana was one of the key crops that [[Vavilov center|enabled farming to begin]] in Papua New Guinea.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Denham |first1=T. P. |last2=Haberle |first2=S.G. |last3=Lentfer |first3=C. |last4=Fullagar |first4=R. |last5=Field |first5=J. |last6=Therin |first6=M. |last7=Porch |first7=N. |last8=Winsborough |first8=B. |year=2003 |title=Origins of Agriculture at Kuk Swamp in the Highlands of New Guinea |journal=Science |volume=301 |issue=301 (5630) |pages=189–193 |doi=10.1126/science.1085255 |jstor=3834782|pmid=12817084 }}</ref>

=== Spread ===

From Island Southeast Asia, bananas became part of the staple domesticated crops of [[Austronesian peoples]].<ref name="Denham-2011">{{cite journal |last1=Denham |first1=Tim |title=Early Agriculture and Plant Domestication in New Guinea and Island Southeast Asia |journal=[[Current Anthropology]]|date=October 2011 |volume=52 |issue=S4 |pages=S379–S395 |doi=10.1086/658682|hdl=1885/75070 |s2cid=36818517 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><!--<ref name="Perrier2009"/>--><ref name="Fuller-2015">{{cite journal |last1=Fuller |first1=Dorian Q. |last2=Boivin |first2=Nicole |last3=Hoogervorst |first3=Tom |last4=Allaby |first4=Robin |title=Across the Indian Ocean: the prehistoric movement of plants and animals |journal=[[Antiquity (journal)|Antiquity]] |date=January 2, 2015 |volume=85 |issue=328 |pages=544–558 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00067934 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

These ancient introductions resulted in the banana subgroup now known as the [[true plantains]], which include the [[East African Highland bananas]] and the [[Pacific plantains]] (the [[Iholena bananas|Iholena]] and [[Maoli-Popo'ulu bananas|Maoli-Popo'ulu]] subgroups). East African Highland bananas originated from banana populations introduced to Madagascar probably from the region between [[Java]], [[Borneo]], and [[New Guinea]]; while Pacific plantains were introduced to the Pacific Islands from either eastern New Guinea or the [[Bismarck Archipelago]].<ref name="Denham-2011"/><!--<ref name="Perrier2009"/>-->

21st century discoveries of [[phytolith]]s in Cameroon dating to the first millennium BCE<ref name="Mbida-2000">{{cite journal |title=Evidence for banana cultivation and animal husbandry during the first millennium BCE in the forest of southern Cameroon |last1=Mbida |first1=V.M. |last2=Van Neer |first2=W. |last3=Doutrelepont |first3=H. |last4=Vrydaghs |first4=L. |date=2000 |journal=[[Journal of Archaeological Science]] |url=http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/krigbaum/6930/mbida_etal_JAS_2000.pdf |doi=10.1006/jasc.1999.0447 |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=151–162 |bibcode=2000JArSc..27..151M |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120114191608/http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/krigbaum/6930/mbida_etal_JAS_2000.pdf |archive-date=January 14, 2012 |access-date=January 20, 2019  }}</ref> triggered a debate about the date of first cultivation in Africa. There is linguistic evidence that bananas were known in East Africa or Madagascar around that time.<ref name="Zeller-2005">{{cite journal |title=Herkunft, Diversität und Züchtung der Banane und kultivierter Zitrusarten |language=de |trans-title=Origin, diversity and breeding of banana and cultivated citrus |first1=Friedrich J. |last1=Zeller |date=2005 |journal=Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Tropics and Subtropics, Supplement 81 |url=http://www.uni-kassel.de/upress/online/frei/978-3-89958-116-4.volltext.frei.pdf |access-date=September 5, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304222434/http://www.uni-kassel.de/upress/online/frei/978-3-89958-116-4.volltext.frei.pdf |archive-date=March 4, 2016 }}</ref> The earliest prior evidence indicates that cultivation dates to no earlier than the late 6th century AD.<ref name="Lejju-2005">{{cite journal |title=Africa's earliest bananas? |first1=B. Julius |last1=Lejju |first2=Peter |last2=Robertshaw |first3=David |last3=Taylor |date=2005 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=33 |pages=102–113 |url=http://www.inibap.org/pdf/phytoliths_en.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071202120538/http://www.inibap.org/pdf/phytoliths_en.pdf |archive-date=December 2, 2007 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2005.06.015 }}</ref> [[Malagasy people]] colonized Madagascar from South East Asia around 600 AD onwards.<ref>{{cite book |last=Adelaar |first=Alexander |author-link=K. Alexander Adelaar |chapter=Austronesians in Madagascar: A critical assessment of the works of Paul Ottino and Philippe Beaujard |editor=Campbell, Gwyn |title=Early exchange between Africa and the wider Indian Ocean world |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2016 |pages=77–112 |url=http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/70193/1/28.pdf.pdf#page=90 |quote=the beginning of any contacts between East Africa and ISEA, which dates from 300 BC or possibly earlier and involves the transfer of cultigens (including banana, yam, taro, and rice) ... settlement of Madagascar by speakers of Austronesian languages. It covers a period probably beginning around the seventh-century CE |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-33822-4_4 |isbn=978-3-319-33821-7}}</ref> [[Glucanase]] and two other proteins specific to bananas were found in [[dental calculus]] from the early [[Iron Age]] (12th century BCE) [[Philistines]] in [[Tel Erani]] in the southern [[Levant]].<ref>{{cite journal |display-authors=etal |first1=Ashley |last1=Scott |title=Exotic foods reveal contact between South Asia and the Near East during the second millennium BCE |journal=[[PNAS]] |date=Jan 12, 2021 |volume=118 |issue=2 |pages=e2014956117 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2014956117 |pmid=33419922 |pmc=7812755 |bibcode=2021PNAS..11814956S |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Another wave of introductions later spread bananas to other parts of tropical Asia, particularly Indochina and the Indian subcontinent.<ref name="Denham-2011"/> Some evidence suggests bananas were known to the [[Indus Valley civilisation]] from phytoliths recovered from the [[Kot Diji]] archaeological site in Pakistan.<ref name="Fuller-2015"/> Southeast Asia remains the region of [[Center of diversity|primary diversity]] of the banana. Areas of secondary diversity are found in Africa, indicating a long history of banana cultivation there.{{sfn|Ploetz|Kepler|Daniells|Nelson|2007|p=7}}

=== Arab Agricultural Revolution ===

{{further|Arab Agricultural Revolution}}

The banana may have been present in isolated locations elsewhere in the Middle East on the eve of [[Islam]]. The [[spread of Islam]] was followed by far-reaching diffusion. There are numerous references to it in Islamic texts (such as poems and [[hadith]]s) beginning in the 9th century. By the 10th century, the banana appeared in texts from [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] and Egypt. From there it diffused into North Africa and [[Al-Andalus|Muslim Iberia]] during the [[Arab Agricultural Revolution]].<ref name="Watson-1974">{{cite journal |last=Watson |first=Andrew M. |year=1974 |title=The Arab Agricultural Revolution and Its Diffusion, 700–1100 |journal=[[The Journal of Economic History]] |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=8–35 |doi=10.1017/S0022050700079602 |jstor=2116954|s2cid=154359726 }}</ref><ref name="Watson-1983"/> An article on banana tree cultivation is included in [[Ibn al-'Awwam]]'s 12th-century agricultural work, ''Kitāb al-Filāḥa'' (''Book on Agriculture'').<ref>{{cite book |last=Ibn al-'Awwam |first=Yahya |author-link=Ibn al-'Awwam |title=Le livre de l'agriculture d'Ibn-al-Awam (kitab-al-felahah) |language=fr |trans-title=The Book of Agriculture of Ibn-al-Awam (Kitāb al-Filāḥa) |year=1864 |location=[[Paris]] |publisher=A. Francke Verlag |translator=J.-J. Clement-Mullet |pages=368–370 (ch. 7 - Article 48) |url=https://archive.org/details/lelivredelagric00algoog/page/n14/mode/2up |oclc=780050566}} (pp. [https://archive.org/details/lelivredelagric00algoog/page/n472/mode/2up 368]-370 (Article XLVIII)</ref> During the Middle Ages, bananas from [[Granada]] were considered among the best in the Arab world.<ref name="Watson-1983">{{cite book |last=Watson |first=Andrew |chapter=Part 1. The chronology of diffusion: 8. Banana, plantain |date=1983 |title=Agricultural innovation in the early Islamic world |location=New York |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-24711-5}}</ref> Bananas were certainly grown in the Christian [[Kingdom of Cyprus]] by the late medieval period. Writing in 1458, the Italian traveller and writer [[Gabriele Capodilista]] wrote favourably of the extensive farm produce of the estates at Episkopi, near modern-day [[Limassol]], including the region's banana plantations.<ref name="Jennings-1992">{{cite book |first=Ronald |last=Jennings |title=Christians and Muslims in Ottoman Cyprus and the Mediterranean World, 1571–1640 |location=New York |publisher=NYU Press |year=1992 |page=189 |isbn=978-0-8147-4181-8}}</ref>

=== Early modern spread ===

{{further|Columbian exchange}}

In the [[early modern period]], bananas were encountered by European explorers during the [[Magellan expedition]] in 1521, in both [[Guam]] and the [[Philippines]]. Lacking a name for the fruit, the ship's historian [[Antonio Pigafetta]] described them as "figs more than one [[Palm (unit)|palm]] long."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Amano |first1=Noel |last2=Bankoff |first2=Greg |last3=Findley |first3=David Max |last4=Barretto-Tesoro |first4=Grace |last5=Roberts |first5=Patrick |title=Archaeological and historical insights into the ecological impacts of pre-colonial and colonial introductions into the Philippine Archipelago |journal=[[The Holocene]]|date=February 2021 |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=313–330 |doi=10.1177/0959683620941152 |bibcode=2021Holoc..31..313A |s2cid=225586504 |doi-access=free |hdl=21.11116/0000-0006-CB04-1 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Nowell-1962">{{cite book |last=Nowell |first=C.E. |year=1962 |title=Magellan's Voyage Around the World |chapter=Antonio Pigafetta's account |publisher=[[Northwestern University Press]] |oclc=347382 |hdl=2027/mdp.39015008001532 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015008001532?urlappend=%3Bseq=144}}</ref>{{rp|130, 132}} Bananas were introduced to [[South America]] by Portuguese sailors who brought them from West Africa in the 16th century.<ref name="Gibson-2012">{{cite web |first=Arthur C. |last=Gibson |url=http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/economicbotany/Musa/index.html |title=Bananas and plantains |publisher=UCLA |access-date=September 5, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614121141/http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/economicbotany/Musa/index.html |archive-date=June 14, 2012  }}</ref> Southeast Asian banana cultivars, as well as [[abaca]] grown for fibers, were introduced to North and Central America by the Spanish from the Philippines, via the [[Manila galleons]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Guzmán-Rivas |first=Pablo |title=Geographic Influences of the Galleon Trade on New Spain |journal=[[Revista Geográfica]]|date=1960 |volume=27 |issue=53 |pages=5–81 |jstor=41888470 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41888470}}</ref>

<gallery class="center" mode="nolines" widths="250px" heights="180px">
File:Banana ancestors (Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana) original range.png|Original [[Range (biology)|native ranges]] of the ancestors of modern edible bananas. ''[[Musa acuminata]]'' (green), ''[[Musa balbisiana]]'' (orange)<ref name="de Langhe-2004">{{cite book |chapter=Tracking the banana: its significance in early agriculture |first1=Edmond |last1=de Langhe |first2=Pierre |last2=de Maret |editor1-first=Jon G. |editor1-last=Hather |title=The Prehistory of Food: Appetites for Change |publisher=[[Routledge]] |date=2004 |page=372 |isbn=978-0-203-20338-5 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DMgKW9HleFoC&pg=PA372 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222225618/https://books.google.com/books?id=DMgKW9HleFoC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA372 |archive-date=February 22, 2017  }}</ref>
File:Inside a wild-type banana.jpg|Fruits of [[Wild type|wild-type]] bananas have numerous large, hard seeds.|alt=Photo of two cross-sectional halves of seed-filled fruit.
File:Chronological dispersal of Austronesian people across the Pacific (per Benton et al, 2012, adapted from Bellwood, 2011).png|Chronological dispersal of [[Austronesian peoples]] across the [[Indo-Pacific]]<ref name="Chambers-2013">{{cite book |last1=Chambers |first1=Geoff |title=eLS |chapter=Genetics and the Origins of the Polynesians |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |date=2013 |doi=10.1002/9780470015902.a0020808.pub2|isbn=978-0470016176 }}</ref>
File:Bananas Muslim world.JPG|Actual and probable diffusion of bananas during the [[Arab Agricultural Revolution]] (700–1500 CE)<ref name="Watson-1983"/>|alt=Map stating that banana cultivation occurred in pre-Islamic times in India and Southeast Asia, during the 700–1500 CE "Islamic period" along the [[Nile River]] and in [[Mesopotamia]] and [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], and less-certainly in sub-Saharan Africa during that same period
File:Acta Eruditorum - III musa arabum pala plinii, 1734 – BEIC 13446956.jpg|Illustration of fruit and plant,<br/>''[[Acta Eruditorum]]'', 1734
</gallery>

=== Plantation cultivation ===

{{further|History of modern banana plantations in the Americas}}

[[File:Banana Plantation Panabo City.jpg|thumb|Plantation in the Philippines, 2010]]

In the 15th and 16th centuries, Portuguese colonists started banana plantations in the Atlantic Islands, Brazil, and western Africa.<ref name="Phora-sotoby.com"/> North Americans began consuming bananas on a small scale at very high prices shortly after the Civil War, though it was only in the 1880s that the food became more widespread.<ref name="Koeppel-2008">{{cite book |first=Dan |last=Koeppel |title=Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World |url=https://archive.org/details/bananafateoffrui00koep |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=[[Hudson Street Press]] |date=2008 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bananafateoffrui00koep/page/51 51–53] |isbn=978-0-452-29008-2}}</ref>  As late as the [[Victorian Era]], bananas were not widely known in Europe, although they were available.<ref name="Phora-sotoby.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.phora-sotoby.com/history.html |title=History of Banana |publisher=Phora-sotoby.com |access-date=April 16, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090416175908/http://www.phora-sotoby.com/history.html |archive-date=April 16, 2009 }}</ref>

The earliest modern plantations originated in Jamaica and the related [[Western Caribbean Zone]], including most of [[Central America]]. Plantation cultivation involved the combination of modern transportation networks of steamships and railroads with the development of refrigeration that allowed more time between harvesting and ripening. North American shippers like [[Lorenzo Dow Baker]] and [[Andrew Preston (businessman)|Andrew Preston]], the founders of the [[Boston Fruit Company]] started this process in the 1870s, with the participation of railroad builders like [[Minor C. Keith]]. Development led to the multi-national giant corporations like [[Chiquita Brands International|Chiquita]] and [[Dole Food Company|Dole]].<ref name="Koeppel-2008"/> These companies were [[monopoly|monopolistic]], [[vertically integrated]] (controlling growing, processing, shipping and marketing) and usually used political manipulation to build [[enclave economy|enclave economies]] (internally self-sufficient, virtually tax exempt, and export-oriented, contributing little to the host economy). Their political maneuvers, which gave rise to the term [[banana republic]] for states such as Honduras and Guatemala, included working with local elites and their rivalries to influence politics or playing the international interests of the United States, especially during the [[Cold War]], to keep the political climate favorable to their interests.<ref name="NZHerald-2008"/>

=== Small-scale cultivation ===

{{further|History of peasant banana production in the Americas}}

[[File:Farm_Workers.jpg|thumb|Small-scale banana production, Liberia, 2013]]

The vast majority of the world's bananas are cultivated for family consumption or for sale on local markets. They are grown in large quantities in India, while many other Asian and African countries host numerous small-scale banana growers who sell at least some of their crop.{{sfn|Office of the Gene Technology Regulator|2008|pp=7–8}} Peasants with smallholdings of 1 to 2 acres in the Caribbean produce bananas for the world market, often alongside other crops.<ref>Clegg, Peter "[http://www.unctad.org/infocomm/anglais/banana/Doc/windward.pdf The Development of the Windward Islands Banana Export Trade: Commercial Opportunity and Colonial Necessity] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101008021400/http://www.unctad.org/infocomm/anglais/banana/Doc/windward.pdf |date=October 8, 2010 }}," ''Society for Caribbean Studies Annual Conference Papers'' 1 (2000)</ref> In many tropical countries, the main cultivars produce green (unripe) bananas used for [[cooking]]. Because bananas and plantains produce fruit year-round, they provide a valuable food source during the ''hunger season'' between harvests of other crops, and are thus important for global [[food security]].<ref name="d'Hont-2012">{{cite journal |pmid=22801500 |year=2012 |last1=d'Hont |first1=A. |title=The banana (Musa acuminata) genome and the evolution of monocotyledonous plants |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=488 |issue=7410 |pages=213–217 |last2=Denoeud |first2=F. |last3=Aury |first3=J.M. |last4=Baurens |first4=F. C. |last5=Carreel |first5=F. |last6=Garsmeur |first6=O. |last7=Noel |first7=B. |last8=Bocs |first8=S. |last9=Droc |first9=G. |last10=Rouard |first10=M. |last11=Da Silva |first11=C. |last12=Jabbari |first12=K. |display-authors=6 |doi=10.1038/nature11241 |bibcode=2012Natur.488..213D |doi-access=free}}</ref>