↓Read the passage and answer the question below.↓

"Around 7,000 years ago, agriculture emerged in Mesoamerica, including the domestication of maize, beans, and squash, causing major changes in the plants that people cultivated. Three sisters agriculture had spread across Mexico by 3,500 years ago, though they originated at different times."

How did the cultivation of maize affect settlement patterns in the American Southwest and present-day Mexico?