Domestication of Trees or Forests: Development Pathways for Fruit Tree Production in South-east Asia - Indigenous Fruit Trees in the Tropics: Domestication, Utilization and Commercialization - page 72

background, the aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the process of
domestication of fruit trees as a coevolutionary process between tree
characteristics and production systems. The following questions will be
discussed:

● What are the general characteristics of the process of plant domestication?

● What specific forms of coevolution between trees and production systems

can be distinguished for fruit trees?

● What is the significance of 'intermediate' phases in this coevolutionary

process?

● What conclusions can be drawn regarding new aspects needing attention

in the process of domestication of fruit trees?

4.2 The Nature of Plant Domestication

The dichotomy between wild and domesticated species has a long history. In
the past, this dichotomy has often been used by archaeologists, anthropologists
and historians in a static sense to denote states of being. However, since the
19th century, biologists have started to use the term domestication as a
dynamic term referring to a process rather than a state of existence. At present
this dynamic interpretation of domestication is scientifically generally accepted
(Harris, 1989; McKey et al ., 1993).
None the less, different interpretations of the concept of plant
domestication still prevail (Wiersum, 1997a). This is not surprising in view of
the fact that scientists from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, ranging from
botany to anthropology, geography and agricultural sciences, have been
involved in describing the process of plant domestication. Some scientists have
defined domestication in a relatively restricted sense as a biological process,
while others interpret it in a comprehensive sense as an acculturation process
characterized by increasing human-plant interactions. These different
interpretations can be related to two hierarchical levels. In the biological sense,
domestication refers to the processes operating at species level: the cultivation
and gradual adaptation of a species' morphological and genetic characteristics
for specific uses as well as specific environments. Sometimes the concept of
domestication is even restricted to the process of adaptation of the genetic
make-up of a crop species. Cultivation in the sense of altering the location or
growth habit of a crop may precede such domestication.
In a more comprehensive sense, the concept of domestication refers to
processes operating at both species and agroecosystem level. In this interpretation
the concept refers to the changes in the plant's morphological and genetic
properties brought about by changes in exploitation and management practices.
Concomitant with changes in the biological properties, changes in a plant's
growing environment occur as well as a gradual intensification in cultivation
practices. Thus, in its comprehensive sense, domestication is considered as a
multidimensional process in which a progressively closer interaction between