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Commentary: Paleoethnobotany Beyond Diet, Environment, and Ecology

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Social Perspectives on Ancient Lives from Paleoethnobotanical Data

Abstract

In this chapter I focus on contemporary practices and approaches in paleoethnobotany beyond diet, environment, and ecology as illustrated by the papers of this volume, and by the contributions of Christine A. Hastorf. I discuss approaches for seeking “the invisible,” insights into spatiotemporal characteristics of rituals, and revealing the social realm through paleoethnobotany. Inferring complex human behaviors from the archaeobotanical record is both challenging and rewarding.

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References

  • Hastorf, C. A. (2001). Making the invisible visible: The hidden jewels of archaeology. In P. Drooker (Ed.), Fleeting identities: Perishable material culture in archaeological research (pp. 27–42, Center for Archaeological Investigations Occasional Paper 28). Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.

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  • Hastorf, C. A. (2003). Community with ancestors: Ceremonies and social memory in the Middle Formative at Chiripa, Bolivia. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 22(4), 305–332.

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  • Hastorf, C. A. (2007). Archaeological Andean rituals: Performance, liturgy, and meaning. In E. Kryriakidis (Ed.), The archaeology of ritual (pp. 77–107). Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Cotsen Press.

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  • Hastorf, C. A. (2008a). Food and feasting, social and political aspects. In D. M. Pearsall (Ed.), Encyclopedia of archaeology (pp. 1386–1395). Oxford: Academic Press.

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  • Hastorf, C. A. (2008b). Paleoethnobotany. In D. M. Pearsall (Ed.), Encyclopedia of archaeology (pp. 1790–1795). Oxford: Academic Press.

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  • Morehart, C. T., & Morell-Hart, S. (2013). Beyond the ecofact: Toward a social paleoethnobotany in Mesoamerica. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 22(2), 483–511.

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  • Pearsall, D. M. (2015). Paleoethnobotany: A handbook of procedures (3rd ed.). Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.

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Correspondence to Deborah M. Pearsall .

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Pearsall, D.M. (2017). Commentary: Paleoethnobotany Beyond Diet, Environment, and Ecology. In: Sayre, M., Bruno, M. (eds) Social Perspectives on Ancient Lives from Paleoethnobotanical Data. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52849-6_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52849-6_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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