Vavilov's concept of centres of origin of cultivated plants: its genesis and its influence on the study of agricultural origins

N. I. Vavilov first published his concept of centres of origin of cultivated plants in 1926. For over fifty years it profoundly influenced thinking about the origins and spread of agriculture by bitanists, geograhers, anthropologists and archaeologists. The genesis of the concept and its exposition by Vavilov is examined, and its influence on the ideas of such scholars as C. O. Sauer, I. H. Burkill, C. D. Darlington, A. I. Kuptsov, R. Porteres, J. R. Harlan and J. G. Hawkes is traced. It is concluded that Vavilov's concept, which for so long conditioned ideas about the origins of agriculature, has now outlived its usefulness in thet field sof study.