Beyond the Ecofact: Toward a Social Paleoethnobotany in Mesoamerica

Morehart, Christopher T.; Morell-Hart, Shanti

doi:10.1007/s10816-013-9183-6

Cited by 46 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 102 publications

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“…Diet and subsistence patterns contribute a substantial amount of information for understanding people's lifeways. However, anthropologists have moved past attempts to determine which foods were featured in social organizations in favor of investigating the function of food as a part of the semiotic system within particular socio-cultural frameworks (Appadurai 1981;Morehart and Morell-Hart 2015;Morell-Hart 2012). Worldwide, more consistent applications and advances in archaeobotany have enabled archaeologists to address research problems regarding plant domestication, economies, subsistence strategies, human introductions of new plants, and the role of foods during social events (Barton and Torrence 2015;Henry et al 2014;Liu et al 2018;Pagán-Jiménez et al 2015;Pearsall 2018;Piperno 2011;Zarrillo et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Precolonial Culinary Practices: Starch Analysis on Griddles from the Northern Caribbean

Ciofalo

Sinelli

Hofman

2019

J Archaeol Method Theory

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Late precolonial (c. 800-1500 CE) culinary practices in the northern Caribbean have received limited investigations. Determining foodways has been integral for the study of cultures, yet there has never been a comparison of foodway dynamics in the Caribbean between the Greater Antilles (the presumed origin of people who migrated into The Bahamas) and the Bahama archipelago. The objective of our study was to analyze microbotanical residues (starches) extracted from 45 clay griddles (food preparation platters) to illuminate a partial view of the phytocultural repertoire of this region and explicate variations of the identified culinary practices. The griddles were excavated from three archaeological sites: El Flaco and La Luperona in northwestern Dominican Republic and Palmetto Junction on the western coast of Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands. Regarding the production of plant-based food on griddles, our produced data suggests that the people who lived at El Flaco focused on the production of maize (Zea mays L.) derivatives, La Luperona residents prepared guáyiga/coontie/ zamia (Zamia spp.) food products, and Palmetto Junction ostensibly had a focus on the production of manioc (Manihot esculenta Crantz) based foods. This survey of foodways has exposed particular cultural niches, different adaptation strategies, and associated culinary practices. Resumen Las prácticas culinarias precoloniales (c. 800-1500 CE) en el norte del Caribe han sido investigadas de manera limitida. Determinar lasdimensiones de la alimentación ha sido fundamental en el estudio de las culturas; no obstante, en el Caribe nunca se ha realizado unacomparación de estas dinámicas entre las Antillas Mayores (el atribuido origen migratorio de humanos a las Bahamas) y el archipiélago delas Bahamas. El objetivo de este estudio fue analizar los residuos microbotánicos (almidones) extraídos

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Precolonial Culinary Practices: Starch Analysis on Griddles from the Northern Caribbean

Ciofalo

Sinelli

Hofman

2019

J Archaeol Method Theory

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“…In our analysis, we use ideas from political ecology and recent scholarship on eventful archaeology to position social and political action within the broader environment. Specifically, we view political ecology as research that focuses on the integration “of biophysical and political‐economic phenomena” as suggested by Brannstrom (, 75), as well as “negotiations of social relationships and differential access to social resources” (Bauer, Johansen, and Bauer , 8) (see also Morehart and Morell‐Hart ; Thompson ). While political ecology provides a necessary focus on not just social relations, but also the environment, it does not provide a specific direction or method on how to conduct such analyses.…”

Section: Event Action and Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

4 Political Ecology and the Event: Calusa Social Action in Early Colonial Entanglements

Thompson

Worth

2018

Archaeological Papers of the American

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There are many examples of colonial entanglements resulting in shifts in religions, practices, subsistence, and political structures, largely linked to inequalities between the colonized and the colonizers. However, there are also examples in which practices, particularly among Native American societies, persisted in the context of social situations that intertwined peoples with diverse histories. At the time of Spanish arrival, the Calusa of southwestern Florida were a large‐scale, hierarchical society with supra‐community integration and were able to maintain high degrees of autonomy. Our focus here is to explicate the early colonial world of the Calusa. Specifically, we want to understand why early European interactions take such a dramatically different course in southwestern Florida than in other areas of Spanish colonization. To do so we use political ecology and recent scholarship on eventful archaeology to consider Calusa and Spanish social and political action. Our work focuses on interactions between the Spanish and the Calusa during the early and mid‐sixteenth century (ca. 1513 to 1569 CE). We argue that because the Calusa were fisher‐gatherer‐hunters, lacked maize agriculture, and had their capital on the defensible island of Mound Key, Spanish‐Calusa interactions and events transpired in a fundamentally different context compared to other Spanish outposts and colonies. With this example, we show how various events, knowledge, and traditions of the Calusa of southern Florida all worked to create a vastly different colonial entanglement that resulted in the Spanish abandonment of the area for some time.

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“…This marks a continuation of archaeological attention to topics that have most frequently been considered by cultural anthropologists. The social analysis of food and systems of cuisine relative to social structure, identity, domestic settings, feasting, and culture change have all received frequent attention (Metheny and Beaudry ; Morehart and Morell‐Hart ; Pearson et al. ; Wilkins and Nadeau ).…”

Section: Reexamination and Reframingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropological Archaeology in 2015: Entanglements, Reflection, Reevaluation, and Archaeology beyond Disciplinary Boundaries

Jones

2016

American Anthropologist

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Archaeologists in 2015 engaged with critical anthropological topics in our search to understand humanity's story, including conflict and cooperation, materiality, ritual, food, environment, and heritage. New shifts in both our theory and our approaches are emerging; lines between traditional publication outlets and gray literature have blurred; open-source publications are now available; and social networking sites, along with blogs, crowdfunding, and data-sharing sites, are changing archaeological practices. At the same time, political challenges to archaeology's

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Beyond the Ecofact: Toward a Social Paleoethnobotany in Mesoamerica

Cited by 46 publications

References 102 publications

Late Precolonial Culinary Practices: Starch Analysis on Griddles from the Northern Caribbean

Late Precolonial Culinary Practices: Starch Analysis on Griddles from the Northern Caribbean

4 Political Ecology and the Event: Calusa Social Action in Early Colonial Entanglements

Anthropological Archaeology in 2015: Entanglements, Reflection, Reevaluation, and Archaeology beyond Disciplinary Boundaries

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