Steven A. Weber: An Interdisciplinary Visionary in Paleoethnobotany Author(s): Jade d'Alpoim Guedes and Dorian Q. Fuller Source: Journal of Ethnobiology, 38(4):464-468. Published By: Society of Ethnobiology https://doi.org/10.2993/0278-0771-38.4.464 URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.2993/0278-0771-38.4.464 BioOne (www.bioone.org) is a nonprofit, online aggregation of core research in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences. BioOne provides a sustainable online platform for over 170 journals and books published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses. Your use of this PDF, the BioOne Web site, and all posted and associated content indicates your acceptance of BioOne’s Terms of Use, available at www.bioone.org/page/ terms_of_use. Usage of BioOne content is strictly limited to personal, educational, and non-commercial use. Commercial inquiries or rights and permissions requests should be directed to the individual publisher as copyright holder. BioOne sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, nonprofit publishers, academic institutions, research libraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research. Journal of Ethnobiology 2018 38(4): 464–468 Steven A. Weber: An Interdisciplinary Visionary in Paleoethnobotany Jade d’Alpoim Guedes1,2* and Dorian Q. Fuller3 In its fortieth year, the Society of Ethno- simply cataloguing plant remains towards a biology is recognizing one of its founders, truly interdisciplinary paleoethnobotanical Steve Weber, with the dedication of this approach that was at once anthropological issue to his career. In addition to found- and ecological (see historical treatments ing the Society, Steve has made significant of the field [Fuller 2002; Pennington and contributions to the field of ethnobiology Weber 2004]). In this regard, Steve drew through his paleoethnobotanical research. on his experience working in the American The same creative vision that fueled the Southwest in archaeological science and beginnings of the Society are evident in his ethnobotany (e.g., Weber 1986; Whiting research in South Asia. et al. 1985)—perspectives that fueled his Steve’s research revolutionized under- research in the Indus region. standing of agricultural practices across the Steve’s research at the site of Rojdi Indus Valley region and helped to launch established a model for how to prop- systematic archaeobotanical studies in erly integrate paleoethnobotany into the South Asia. Prior to Steve’s research at the research design of an excavation project site of Rojdi, in Gujarat, in the southern (Weber 1992). Steve created sampling strat- part of the Indus Valley, investigations of egies that not only targeted most contexts plant use were narrow and focused only on at Rodji, he also floated large volumes of the presence or absence of cultivars. There sediment at sites like Harappa (Weber was little concern for how these remains 2003) and Farmana (Weber et al. 2011), were distributed across sites, how their use which allowed him to provide a compre- changed through time, or what importance hensive picture of subsistence in the Indus they held in the past diets (see discussion Valley. To this day, Steve’s volume on Rojdi in Fuller and Weber 2005). Steve’s research remains the only book published on the agenda set out to broaden the research paleoethnobotany of a Harappan site perspective not only through systematic (Weber 1992). sampling of plant remains with a flotation Steve’s work also shifted perceptions of machine, but also by applying an ethno- the role that a suite of small-seeded grasses, biological lens to the research. That is, he collectively known as millets, played in considered cultivated and wild plants to be subsistence patterns around the world. part of a broader subsistence base that also Prior to Steve’s work, paleoethnobotanical included livestock and hunted animals. research focused heavily on document- Steve’s engagement with South Asian ing the domestication, spread, and use of archaeology was part of a pivotal shift in large-grained crops, such as rice (Oryza its history during the 1980s and 1990s. He sp.), wheat (Triticum), and barley (Hordeum and a few Indian colleagues moved from vulgare). Because of their small size, differ- 1 Department of Anthropology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California. 2 Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, California. 3 Institute of Archaeology, University College London. *Corresponding author ([email protected]) Steven A. Weber: An Interdisciplinary Visionary in Paleoethnobotany 465 ent types of millet are often not visible to niche already established by indigenous the naked eye. As Steve pointed out, their millet cultivation (Jarrige 1985; Meadow contribution to past diets was largely over- 1989, 1991; Possehl 1986; Weber 1998). looked by researchers who handpicked Previously, researchers had argued that grains from sediments. By promoting the millets became important only towards the use of systematic flotation, Steve docu- end of the Harappan period (roughly 1900 mented the crucial role that millet played in BCE) and had contributed to deurbaniza- past subsistence. For instance, Steve’s work tion by allowing the settlement of areas in Thailand revealed that, rather than rice, where wheat and barley farming could the earliest suite of domesticated crops to not be supported (see also Jarrige 1985; spread to mainland South East Asia were Meadow 1989, 1991). Using systematically foxtail millets (Setaria italica) (Weber and collected data, Steve demonstrated that Fuller 2008; Weber et al. 2010a). Steve also millets were present at Indus sites from the argued for paleoethnobotany to pay atten- earliest days of the Harappan civilization tion to the potential role played by these (Weber 1990, 1992, 1998). He empha- crucial small-seed grass crops in the Amer- sized that, in the Indus Valley, people icas (Weber and Fuller 2008). experimented with a wide range of regional One of Steve’s insights was to farming practices: while some areas, such contrast larger-grained, deep-rooted, as Gujarat, Haryana, and Baluchistan, were and more productive grains—like wheat environmentally adapted to millet produc- and barley—that supported urbanism, tion, core Harappan sites focused on the with smaller-grained resilient millets that production of wheat and barley (Weber propped up local adaptability in smaller 1998, 2003; Weber et al. 2010c). communities (Weber et al. 2010b). Steve’s research also demonstrated Steve’s work in South Asia also empha- that the decline of Harappan urban society sized the important dietary role of plants was not accompanied by a major change such as chenopods as wild or cultivated in subsistence practices, but by strategic foods (Weber 1992; Weber et al. 2011). shifts along a continuum of emphasis on Although one of us critiqued Steve’s insight two seasons of cultivation. Flexible and contrasting grain crop use in large and environmentally attuned cultural practices small communities (Fuller and Madella developed over millennia continued across 2001:346), increasing evidence from sites the regions (Weber 1998, 1999, 2003). This throughout Asia (Xue 2010; Yang and Liu flexibility is still evident today, as large parts 2009; Zhao and Chen 2011) has supported of northern South Asia are characterized by Steve’s hypothesis. As in the Americas (e.g., two different farming regimes: a) the rabi Bruno 2006), the archaeobotany of Asia (winter) cultivation season that focused on and the ethnobotany of India indicate that crops originally domesticated in Southwest chenopods were an important grain (as Asia, such as wheat, barley, lentils (Lens well as a leafy green) in diet (e.g., Partap sp.) and peas (Pisum sp.); and b) a kharif and Kapoor 1985a, 1985b). or summer cultivation system that focused In South Asia, the importance of crops on millets. This flexibility has deep tempo- like sorghum (Sorghum sp.) in historic ral roots and was particularly characteristic subsistence patterns led Possehl (1986) to of small sites that were peripheral to the believe that these millets originated from Harappan core—places that showed conti- Africa. Steve’s research drew attention to nuity after urbanism declined. More recent the fact that a number of millets were indig- scholarship has continued to flesh out how enous to South Asia and that African crops such agricultural flexibility through the two were adopted because they fit into the seasons provided adaptability, even in the Journal of Ethnobiology 2018 38(4): 464–468 466 d’Alpoim Guedes and Fuller face of shifting climatic conditions (e.g., ant. In contrast, millets have been relegated Giosan et al. 2018; Petrie and Bates 2017); to minor roles in contemporary agriculture. these recent interpretations follow a path Indeed, as Steve pointed out, some millets, laid by Steve’s research. such as Panicum sumatrense, might soon Steve called for nuance in describing be forgotten (Weber and Kashyap 2014). past Harappan farming systems, as well as However, many types of millet are more for moving beyond simple characterization nutritious than some large seeded alterna- of regions as based on either rabi (winter) tives and are also better adapted to high or kharif (summer) systems of farming. He heat and low rainfall conditions (Weber argued that researchers should delve into and Fuller 2008; Weber and Kashyap more precise characterizations of the local 2014). Steve called for millets to be taken agro-ecology that demonstrate the nuances seriously by agronomists, particularly in of more complex systems of cropping the face of climate change, and his work (Weber et al. 2010c). Steve’s scholarship has highlighted how attention to past plant (Weber et al. 2011), and that of the students use, revealed through paleoethnobotany (Meyer 2003), incorporated ethnographic and ethnobotany, offers useful lessons to be methods into paleoethnobotanical research heeded in the future of agriculture. design, allowing him to more comprehen- sively interpret the combined impacts of References Cited local environment, cultural practices, and Bruno, M.