Which civilisation was the first to cultivate potatoes?

Craftie1, I'm a southern Cajun and my daddy was so comical he was southern Cajun too, but he nicknamed me "Taters" from birth and my brother was "beans" & that's what we were called by him all the time everywhere to everyone until he died 5yrs ago. I remember being embarrassed when he called me that in front of my very educated and not so southern friends in college at Sarah Lawrence. He always called us by our nicknames unless he needed to talk to us about something serious or we were in trouble, then he used our real names.. But I was always rather embarrassed when he called me that in front of people that weren't family or family friends, people that didn't know him or our family I was embarrassed I didn't want people at Sarah Lawrence think that me, or my family were just a bunch of ignorant rednecks and my dad was very smart, both book smart and common sense! I hate now that I'm older, that I let that bother me so bad when I was younger, because I was a Daddy's girl and I miss him very much now, everything about him(even that nickname) my husband calls me that sometimes just trying to make me feel better but it's not the same.. Bless him for trying though, he's a great man that loves me very much. He and I also love Taters lol.. potatoes are great... Sorry, I never comment but it's a sleepless night and It just seemed a good time to share that little story. Manques papa.

here's a case where Punctuation is extremely important. Read the middle of the first paragraph again please. It sounds like potatoes were used to time how long it would take to heal a broken bone. Doesn't it?

Had to be either Mayan or Inca. I just got lucky!

Calling the early farmers in Peru 'Incas' is like calling the age-old tribes in the Amazon rainforest 'Brazilians'. The Incan Empire was only founded in 1438 AD, not long before the Spaniards showed up and thousands of years after the potato was first cultivated.

FaithfulReader, Inca is SA, Mayan is Mexico. Peru is "potato land" as they have around 200 varieties of them.

Nashville Bound, I hear you loud and clear. Even after 6+ years I grieve for my mum and dad. Some things never go away. Just remember the good times and pass it forward. If your brothers are still cool with you, you guys should hang out and drink some wine and sit by the fireplace remembering the good old times.

PanhandleGuy, Well, I was WAY short, since Peru grows over 4000 types of potatoes!

No, the Inca as we know them didn't exsist over 2,000+ years ago and certainly not 5,000 years ago.

SQinfoNUTS, either that or using potatoes on broken bones to calculate time(?)

PhreshPhish, try again, the international potato institute protects way more than 2000 varieties

Player #24137664, agree!! potatoes were cultivated long before the Inca empire existed

the international institute of the potato has more than 4000 varieties between it's base in Peru and subsidiary in Ecuador and the potato long predates the Inca empire!

As noted, “Ancient Peruvian” would be a better-written choice than Inca.

Player. Ty, Crazy thing I love white potatoes but do not like sweet potatoes.

I don't believe this is correct. Mayans were way way before Incans. Perhaps people from Peru , but they were not the Inca!

Yams also

Misspelled word in question.