Maize cobs and cultures: history of zea mays L. / John E. Staller

Incluye bibliografía: páginas 225-255 e índice: páginas 257-262

1 An Introduction to Maize Cobs and Cultures.. 2 Ethnohistory: Impressions and Perceptions of Maize.. 2.1 Ethnohistoric and Ethnographic Perceptions of Maize.. 2.1.1 Consequences of Conquest and Empire.. 2.1.2 Western Perceptions of New World Cultures.. 2.2 Using Sixteenth Century Accounts.. 2.2.1 Early Pre-Linnaean Botanicals.. 2.2.2 Earliest Sixteenth Century Accounts.. 2.3 Central America and Mexico.. 2.3.1 Sixteenth Century Agriculture and Plant Cultivation in Mesoamerica.. 2.3.2 Maize and the Chontal Maya.. 2.3.3 Storage and Redistribution: Mesoamerican Accounts.. 2.4 First Impressions of Andean Civilization.. 2.4.1 Storage, Tribute, and Redistribution in the Andes.. 2.4.2 Maize and Andean Political Economy.. 2.5 Maize and Ancient Religion.. 2.5.1 Maize and Religious Uses and Rites.. 2.5.2 Maize: Religious Significance to Mesoamerican Civilization.. 2.5.3 Early Accounts on Maize Alcohol Consumption.. 2.5.4 Maize Beer and Pulque in Mesoamerica.. 2.5.5 Maize Beer in Ritual and Religion in the Andes.. 2.6 Maize Ethnohistory: Summary and Conclusions.. 3 Scientific, Botanical, and Biological Research on Maize.. 3.1 Introduction on a History of Science on Maize.. 3.1.1 Comparing and Contrasting Old and New World Approaches.. 3.1.2 Research on the Rise of Early Agriculture.. 3.2 Archaeological, Botanical, and Biological Research on Maize Origins.. 3.2.1 Early Botanical and Biological Research on the Origins of Maize.. 3.2.2 Historical Interface of Biological and Archaeological Maize Research.. 3.2.3 Teosinte and the Search for the Origin of Maize.. 3.2.4 Approaches to Finding Wild Maize.. 3.2.5 Pod Corn as Wild Maize.. 3.2.6 Teosinte as a Progenitor of Maize.. 3.3 Maize: Morphological, Biological, Genetic, and Taxonomic Approaches.. 3.3.1 Perennial Teosinte and a Reconsideration of the Tripartite Hypothesis.. 3.3.2 Maize Antiquity and 14C and AMS Chronologies

3.3.3 Phylogenetic Considerations.. 3.3.4 Early Research on Maize Landraces and their Classification.. 3.3.5 Maize Landraces in the Americas.. 3.3.6 Maize Landraces and Colonial Bioprospecting.. 3.3.7 Morphological versus Genetic Maize Landraces.. 3.3.8 Genetic Research and Paradigm Shifts.. 4 Ethnobotanic, Interdisciplinary, and Multidisciplinary Methodologies.. 4.1 Methodological and Technological Breakthroughs.. 4.1.1 Comparing Research on Old and New World Ancient Economies.. 4.1.2 Paleoethnobotany: Methodological Approaches to Domestication.. 4.2 Interdisciplinary Approaches to Domestication, Agriculture, and Adaptation.. 4.2.1 Plant Domestication and Cultivation.. 4.2.2 Approaches to Domestication and Cultivation in the Tehuaca´n Valley.. 4.2.3 Approaches to Domestication and Cultivation in Oaxaca.. 4.3 Ethnobotanical Approaches to Early Agriculture and Biogeography.. 4.3.1 Classes of Ethnobotanical Evidence.. 4.3.2 Pollen Analysis and the Spread of Early Cultigens.. 4.3.3 Phytolith Analysis and Maize Biogeography.. 4.3.4 Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Analysis of Phytolith Assemblages.. 4.3.5 Ethnobotanic Approaches to the Origins of Maize: Central Balsas.. 4.3.6 Isotope Analysis, Paleodiet, and Geochemical Approaches.. 4.4 Multidisciplinary Approaches to Maize Biogeography.. 4.4.1 Ethnobotanic and Isotopic Research at La Emerenciana.. 4.4.2 Advantages to Multidisciplinary Approaches.. References.. Index

Our perceptions and conceptions regarding the roles and importance of maize to ancient economies is largely a product of scientific research on the plant itself, developed for the most part out of botanical research, and its recent role as one of the most important economic staples in the world. Anthropological research in the early part of the last century based largely upon the historical particularistic approach of the Boasian tradition provided the first evidence that challenged the assumptions about the economic importance of maize to sociocultural developments for scholars of prehistory. Subsequent ethnobotanic and archaeological studies showed that the role of maize among Native American cultures was much more complex than just as a food staple. In Maize Cobs and Cultures, John Staller provides a survey of the ethnohistory and the scientific, botanical and biological research of maize, complemented by reviews on the ethnobotanic, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary methodologies. eng