TY - JOUR
T1 - Beyond the Ecofact
T2 - Toward a Social Paleoethnobotany in Mesoamerica
AU - Morehart, Christopher
AU - Morell-Hart, Shanti
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2013, Springer Science+Business Media New York.
PY - 2015/6/28
Y1 - 2015/6/28
N2 - This essay examines the relationship between social archaeology and paleoethnobotany in Mesoamerica, a region where paleoethnobotanical research has been growing rapidly. We synthesize Mesoamerican paleoethnobotanical studies that have gone beyond descriptions of subsistence economies, reconstructions of ecological systems, or static lists of identified plant remains. These paleoethnobotanical investigations, we argue, transcend the ecofact to shed light on how human–plant interaction was connected to power, agency, societal structures, and normative constraints—fundamental foci of research in social archaeology. Pulling on current trends in Mesoamerican paleoethnobotany, we show how these social archaeological topics have been addressed via studies of political ecology and ritual. Future advances in social paleoethnobotany are contingent upon methodological innovations in data sampling, quantification, analysis, and integration. We end with a consideration of additional pathways toward a social paleoethnobotany, which includes contributions to understanding materiality, past gender relations, environmental knowledge, and the effect of scale on analysis and interpretations.
AB - This essay examines the relationship between social archaeology and paleoethnobotany in Mesoamerica, a region where paleoethnobotanical research has been growing rapidly. We synthesize Mesoamerican paleoethnobotanical studies that have gone beyond descriptions of subsistence economies, reconstructions of ecological systems, or static lists of identified plant remains. These paleoethnobotanical investigations, we argue, transcend the ecofact to shed light on how human–plant interaction was connected to power, agency, societal structures, and normative constraints—fundamental foci of research in social archaeology. Pulling on current trends in Mesoamerican paleoethnobotany, we show how these social archaeological topics have been addressed via studies of political ecology and ritual. Future advances in social paleoethnobotany are contingent upon methodological innovations in data sampling, quantification, analysis, and integration. We end with a consideration of additional pathways toward a social paleoethnobotany, which includes contributions to understanding materiality, past gender relations, environmental knowledge, and the effect of scale on analysis and interpretations.
KW - Ethnobotany
KW - Mesoamerica
KW - Paleoethnobotany
KW - Social archaeology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84938090705&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1007/s10816-013-9183-6
DO - 10.1007/s10816-013-9183-6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84938090705
SN - 1072-5369
VL - 22
SP - 483
EP - 511
JO - Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory
JF - Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory
IS - 2
ER -