Seeds of Memory: A long-term study of life and plant use in the Sextin river valley of Durango, Mexico

Summary

The relationship between people and plants is basic to all of human existence. Many archaeologists have considered this relationship as primarily economic, yet ethnographic accounts reveal important social aspects of human-plant interactions. In this paper we consider the long-term relationship between certain plant species (both wild and domesticated- beyond the triad of corn, beans and squash), botanic knowledge and memory in the Sextin valley. Here we present macrobotanical, phytolith and pollen data from the excavation of the archaeological site of Corral de Piedra- an almost 1000 year old, 70 room hilltop village- and compare and contrast findings with information recorded through ethnographic interviews with local plant use experts. This analysis points at interesting continuities, as well as changes, brought on by both social processes and major environmental shifts. Furthermore, we show how the relationship people have with plants is linked inexorably and serves as an entry point to memory evoking the lived experiences of places thusly endowing them with meaning and often repopulating them with people from the past.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Advances on the investigation of Chalchihuites culture

Keywords

Spatial Coverage