UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Paradigms and Syntagms of Ethnobotanical Practice in Pre-Hispanic Northwestern Honduras Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3ct0728f Author Morell-Hart, Shanti Publication Date 2011 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Paradigms and Syntagms of Ethnobotanical Practice in Pre-Hispanic Northwestern Honduras By Shanti Morell-Hart A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Rosemary A. Joyce, Chair Professor Christine A. Hastorf Professor Louise P. Fortmann Fall 2011 Abstract Paradigms and Syntagms of Ethnobotanical Practice in Pre-Hispanic Northwestern Honduras by Shanti Morell-Hart Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology University of California, Berkeley Professor Rosemary A. Joyce, Chair The relationships between people and plants are complex and highly varied, especially in the mosaic of ecologies represented across Southeastern Mesoamerica. In studying plant use in the past, available technologies and methodologies have expanded and improved, allowing archaeologists to pursue more nuanced approaches to human-plant interactions and complicating previous models based on modern ethnographic accounts and indirect archaeological evidence. In this thesis, I explore various aspects of foodways and ethnobotanical practice in Formative and Classic Northwestern Honduras. My primary data are the actual paleoethnobotanical remains recovered from artifacts and sediments at four sites: Currusté, Cerro Palenque, Puerto Escondido, and Los Naranjos. These remains include microbotanical evidence in the form of starch grains and phytoliths, and macrobotanical evidence including charred seeds and wood. Interweaving practice-based and linguistic-oriented approaches, I structure my work primarily in terms of paradigmatic and syntagmatic axes of practice, and how these two axes articulate. I view ethnobotanical practices in terms of possible options available (paradigms) in any given milieu and possible associations (syntagms) between elements. I ground my arguments in previous ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeobotanical descriptions of plant practices and plant materials in Southeastern Mesoamerica. In my study of 116 bulk macrobotanical flotation samples, 26 microbotanical sediment samples, and 21 microbotanical samples from artifacts, I pursue several pools of questions. Some questions have to do with rethinking how foodways are understood in ancient Southeastern Mesoamerica, and others treat how these foodways can be compared along different axes of activity. I focus on uses of underground storage organs (such as roots and tubers) and the broad spectrum of practices engaged by agriculturalists (including gathering from and managing non- cultivated areas), complicating the traditional maize-beans-squash model posited uniformly for Southeastern Mesoamerica. The analytical portion of the thesis is organized along dimensions of human-plant activity: the spectra of ethnobotanical practices, the interplay between ethnobotanical practices and artifacts, contexts, and spaces, and the transformations and continuities in ethnobotanical practice over time. I also assess the complementarity of microbotanical and macrobotanical approaches in analyzing plant practices of ancient Southeastern Mesoamerica. I primarily focus on taxa richness, relative abundance, diversity of species, charred material densities, and associations between elements of botanical practices. 1 Some associations between elements of practice persist over time, implements, contexts, and spaces, while other associations shift, relative to transformations in paradigmatic options and/or syntagmatic associations. Broadly, there is a strong representation of underground storage organs such as calathea and manioc, and a wide diversity of plants referencing a wide array of practices. This spectrum of practice encompasses a range of action from the cultivation of domesticated cultivars to the processing of wild plants. Throughout this thesis, I argue for the utility of a linguistic practice-based approach in paleoethnobotanical analysis and the incorporation of multiple lines of paleoethnobotanical evidence, in assessing past foodways and human-plant interactions. 2 3 This book about the past is dedicated to the future. i Table of Contents Abstract 1 Dedication i Table of Contents ii Acknowledgments vi Chapter 1: Introduction 1 What am I after? 2 How is this thesis organized? 3 What does this work contribute? 3 Chapter 2: Theoretical Underpinnings and Broader Conversations 5 What theoretical perspectives inform my work? 5 Outline of theoretical approaches: practice 5 Outline of theoretical approaches: language 7 The paradigmatic axis 9 The syntagmatic axis 11 Articulation of the paradigm with the syntagm 12 The context of daily practice 15 Text, speech acts, and foodways 17 Intelligibility, inculcation, and competency 18 Final thoughts 20 Chapter 3: Foodways and Ethnobotanical Practice 22 What are "foodways"? 22 How do potential foods become edible? 23 How is cuisine formed and reformed? 24 What is the relationship between "food" and "medicine"? 25 How do people become acculturated through food, and how do foodways become inculcated? 26 How do foodways interact with sociopolitical life and ritualization? 29 How do foodways articulate with broader theoretical frameworks, and what are the implications in terms of this study? 31 Chapter 4: Paradigms and Syntagms of Foodways in Southeastern Mesoamerica 34 How are expectations of foods and foodways in Southern Mesoamerica commonly structured? 34 How are foodways used as proxies for social dynamics in Mesoamerica? 36 Spectra of Taxa and Associated Practices 37 Root crops 38 ii Non-domesticates 39 Classificatory Schemes 41 Associations and Disassociations between Artifacts, Taxa, and Practices 44 Differences and Similarities over Spaces 46 Differences and Similarities over Contexts 47 Transformation and Continuity over Time 48 Summary 49 Chapter 5: Ancient Communities and Ecological Contexts 50 Geographical and Ecological Frames 50 Social and Material Contexts 52 Historical Trends and Trajectories 54 Los Naranjos 55 Puerto Escondido 56 Cerro Palenque 57 Currusté 58 Northwestern Honduras: An Ideal Setting for Foodways Exploration 59 Summary 60 Chapter 6: Paleoethnobotanical Methods 62 Paleoethnobotany as a method 62 How can different taxa be made more visible in the archaeological record? 64 Macrobotanical samples 66 Microbotanical samples 68 Summary 72 Chapter 7: Research Design 73 To what extent are root crops represented, and with which spaces, artifacts, and practices are they associated? 74 To what extent are non-domesticated taxa represented, and with which spaces, artifacts, and practices are they associated? 75 How can we re-consider the way we frame practices associated with different taxa, artifacts, spaces, and contexts? 76 What are the associations and disassociations between specific artifacts and taxa? 76 What are the apparent differences and similarities, over space, in practices and taxa? 77 What are the differences and similarities between contexts, in practices and taxa? 79 What are the apparent transformations and continuities, over time, in practices and taxa? 80 Summary 80 Chapter 8: Complementarity between Microbotanical and Macrobotanical Data 81 Comparisons of overall taxa richness 82 Comparisons of taxa 91 iii Comparison of taxa recovery and richness in sediments 94 Comparison of recovery and taxa richness in artifacts 94 Comparison of recovery and taxa diversity in terms of time 95 Summary 95 Chapter 9: The Broad Spectrum of Taxa and Practices Associated with Individual Plant Species 98 Complications in calculations 99 Resolving the taxon overlap problem 100 Resolving the sample overlap problem 101 Resolving the clade overlap problem 102 Broad ubiquities of taxa 103 Broad interpretations of ubiquities 115 Spectra of practices 122 Summary 123 Chapter 10: Artifacts and Plants, Paradigms and Syntagms 125 What artifacts are associated with each particular taxon? 126 What taxa are associated with particular artifacts? 131 What differences and similarities exist between broad artifact classes? 140 What differences and similarities exist within artifact categories? 142 What are the associations between taxa recovered from artifacts? 144 Summary 153 Chapter 11: Paradigms and Syntagms of Space and Ethnobotanical Practice 155 What is the relationship between a context and a space? 157 Taxon to spaces: What spaces are associated with each taxon? 159 Space to taxa: What differences and similarities exist between spatial types? 165 Summary 177 Chapter 12: Paradigms and Syntagms of Ethnobotanical Practices and Place-making 179 Layout of the landscape and domains of practice 179 What contexts are associated with each taxon? 182 Context to taxa: what differences and similarities exist between context types? 190 Summary 204 Chapter 13: Transformation and Continuity over Time 206 How did the spectrum of economic plants and their loci of practice change over time? 206 How did spaces and contexts change over time? 214 Appearances and disappearances of taxa and practices: ubiquities 218 Summary 226 Chapter 14: Conclusions 228 Key findings from each axis of analysis 229 iv How are expectations of foods and foodways