Because you always wanted to know.....

                    The Taming of the Wild Chile

     Paleoethnobotanists, the scientists who study the plants used by ancient civilizations, have theorized that chiles were first used as "tolerated weeds."  They were not cultivated but rather collected in the wild when the fruits were ripe.  The wild forms had small, erect fruits that were deciduous, meaning that they separated easily from the calyx and fell to the ground.  During the collection process, whether consciously or unconsciously, the pre-Columbian farmers selected seeds from plants with larger, non-deciduous, and pendant fruits.  The reasons for those selection criteria are a greater yield from each plant and protection of the pods from chile-hungry birds.  The larger the pod, the greater its tendency to become pendant rather than to remain erect.  Thus the pods became hidden amid the leaves and did not protrude above them as beacons for birds.  The selection of varieties with the tendency to be non-deciduous ensured that the pods remained on the plant until fully ripe and thus were resistant to dropping off as a result of wind or physical contact.  The domesticated chiles gradualy lost their natural means of seed dispersal by birds and became dependent upon human intervention for their continued existence.
-Dave DeWitt,  Precious Cargo:  How Foods From The Americas Changed The World

Context:  In the year 595 (+/-?) a volcanic eruption in El Salvador buried a Mayan farming village under twenty feet of lava, ash, and rock.  In 1978, the site was discovered and excavation begun.  It has been a treasure trove for scientists.  "We had no idea that people in the region lived so well fourteen centuries ago."