Pre-Columbian Foodways in Mesoamerica

Staller, John E.; Carrasco, Michael D.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-0471-3_1

Cited by 13 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…The South American farmers include people from the Middle Sicán period (~1,100–900 BP) of Peru as well as early contact‐era (~400 BP) people who also are from Peru. All of the farmers from the Americas focused on maize production, although they likely supplemented their diets with wild and horticultural goods (e.g., Benz, ; Bush, ; Staller & Carrasco, ). The African farmers come from the Predynastic and Old Kingdom periods (6,500–4,190 BP) of Egypt and from the New Kingdom Period (~1,550–1,070 BP) to Napatan Period (~1,070–664 BCE) Nubian site of Tombos in northern Sudan (Buzon, ; Buzon, Smith, & Simonetti, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dental microwear texture analysis ofHomo sapienssapiens: Foragers, farmers, and pastoralists

Schmidt

Remy

Sessen

et al. 2019

American J Phys Anthropol

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Objectives The current study seeks to determine if a sample of foragers, farmers, and pastoralists are distinguishable based on their dental microwear texture signatures. Materials and methods The study included a sample of 719 individuals from 51 archeological sites (450 farmers, 192 foragers, 77 pastoralists). All were over age 12 and sexes were pooled. Using a Sensofar® white‐light confocal profiler we collected dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) data from a single first or second molar from each individual. We leveled and cleaned data clouds following standard procedures and analyzed the data with Sfrax® and Toothfrax® software. The DMTA variables were complexity and anisotropy. Statistics included ANOVA with partial eta squared and Hedges's g. We also performed a follow‐up K‐means cluster analysis. Results We found significant differences between foragers and farmers and pastoralists for complexity and anisotropy, with foragers having greater complexity than either the farmers or the pastoralists. The farmers and pastoralists had greater anisotropy than the foragers. The Old World foragers had significantly higher anisotropy values than New World foragers. Old and New World farmers did not differ. Among the Old World farmers, those dating from the Neolithic through the Late Bronze Age had higher complexity values than those from the Iron Age through the medieval period. The cluster analysis discerned foragers and farmers but also indicated similarity between hard food foragers and hard food farmers. Discussion Our findings reaffirm that DMTA is capable of distinguishing human diets. We found that foragers and farmers, in particular, differ in their microwear signatures across the globe. There are some exceptions, but nothing that would be unexpected given the range of human diets and food preparation techniques. This study indicates that in general DMTA is an efficacious means of paleodietary reconstruction in humans.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dental microwear texture analysis ofHomo sapienssapiens: Foragers, farmers, and pastoralists

Schmidt

Remy

Sessen

et al. 2019

American J Phys Anthropol

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“…); while macronutritionally these indicate a preponderance of starches and proteins. Interestingly, the domain contains significant local crops that were once dominant in the diet during Pre-Columbian times, such as Cucurbita moschata , Ananas comosus , Persea americana , Annona muricata amongst several others [ 7 ]. As already pointed out by Castañeda and Stepp [ 16 ], plantains and bananas still play an important role in Ngäbe diets with a high number of available varieties, and are thus accorded high saliency in freelists.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regrettably, thorough ethnobiological, agroculinary or ethnographic studies of Chibchan Amerindian groups such as the Ngäbe are very limited, both in general terms and specifically dealing with local production of food plants, foodways, and their drivers of change. This is especially apparent when compared to other Central American macrolinguistic families, such as the Mayas [ 7 ], or from other parts of the world (e.g., North America or Brazil). Besides some governmental and non-governmental technical reports and educational materials, academic literature on Costa Rican indigenous territories is limited (see below).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foodways in transition: food plants, diet and local perceptions of change in a Costa Rican Ngäbe community

D'Ambrosio

Puri

2016

J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine

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BackgroundIndigenous populations are undergoing rapid ethnobiological, nutritional and socioeconomic transitions while being increasingly integrated into modernizing societies. To better understand the dynamics of these transitions, this article aims to characterize the cultural domain of food plants and analyze its relation with current day diets, and the local perceptions of changes given amongst the Ngäbe people of Southern Conte-Burica, Costa Rica, as production of food plants by its residents is hypothesized to be drastically in recession with an decreased local production in the area and new conservation and development paradigms being implemented.MethodsExtensive freelisting, interviews and workshops were used to collect the data from 72 participants on their knowledge of food plants, their current dietary practices and their perceptions of change in local foodways, while cultural domain analysis, descriptive statistical analyses and development of fundamental explanatory themes were employed to analyze the data.ResultsResults show a food plants domain composed of 140 species, of which 85 % grow in the area, with a medium level of cultural consensus, and some age-based variation. Although many plants still grow in the area, in many key species a decrease on local production–even abandonment–was found, with much reduced cultivation areas. Yet, the domain appears to be largely theoretical, with little evidence of use; and the diet today is predominantly dependent on foods bought from the store (more than 50 % of basic ingredients), many of which were not salient or not even recognized as ‘food plants’ in freelists exercises. While changes in the importance of food plants were largely deemed a result of changes in cultural preferences for store bought processed food stuffs and changing values associated with farming and being food self-sufficient, Ngäbe were also aware of how changing household livelihood activities, and the subsequent loss of knowledge and use of food plants, were in fact being driven by changes in social and political policies, despite increases in forest cover and biodiversity.ConclusionsNgäbe foodways are changing in different and somewhat disconnected ways: knowledge of food plants is varied, reflecting most relevant changes in dietary practices such as lower cultivation areas and greater dependence on food from stores by all families. We attribute dietary shifts to socioeconomic and political changes in recent decades, in particular to a reduction of local production of food, new economic structures and agents related to the State and globalization.

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“…We left shrinking forests for savannahs, lakes, and shorelines that allow for more game and plant produce. Food drove our global expansion, perhaps at some cost to Megafauna, and later drove empires and colonial settlers for lands to farm to secure dietary balance 33,74–96 (Figure 3).…”

Section: Nicotinamide and Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nicotinamide as Independent Variable for Intelligence, Fertility, and Health: Origin of Human Creative Explosions?

Williams

Hill

2019

Int J�Tryptophan�Res

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Meat and nicotinamide acquisition was a defining force during the 2-million-year evolution of the big brains necessary for, anatomically modern, Homo sapiens to survive. Our next move was down the food chain during the Mesolithic ‘broad spectrum’, then horticultural, followed by the Neolithic agricultural revolutions and progressively lower average ‘doses’ of nicotinamide. We speculate that a fertility crisis and population bottleneck around 40 000 years ago, at the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, was overcome by Homo (but not the Neanderthals) by concerted dietary change plus profertility genes and intense sexual selection culminating in behaviourally modern Homo sapiens. Increased reliance on the ‘de novo’ synthesis of nicotinamide from tryptophan conditioned the immune system to welcome symbionts, such as TB (that excrete nicotinamide), and to increase tolerance of the foetus and thereby fertility. The trade-offs during the warmer Holocene were physical and mental stunting and more infectious diseases and population booms and busts. Higher nicotinamide exposure could be responsible for recent demographic and epidemiological transitions to lower fertility and higher longevity, but with more degenerative and auto-immune disease.

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Pre-Columbian Foodways in Mesoamerica

Cited by 13 publications

References 38 publications

Dental microwear texture analysis ofHomo sapienssapiens: Foragers, farmers, and pastoralists

Dental microwear texture analysis ofHomo sapienssapiens: Foragers, farmers, and pastoralists

Foodways in transition: food plants, diet and local perceptions of change in a Costa Rican Ngäbe community

Nicotinamide as Independent Variable for Intelligence, Fertility, and Health: Origin of Human Creative Explosions?

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