Plant Use and Deep Ecology in Colonial New Mexico

Summary

Understanding the interactions between people and the landscape has long been a concern of archaeologists working in the American Southwest. A particular emphasis of this research has focused on understanding the way pre-colonial Pueblos altered the landscape for agricultural production. More recent studies have worked to incorporate indigenous voices into scholarly understandings of the landscape. So far, less attention has been paid to the way Hispano communities in New Mexico experienced and interacted with the landscape during the colonial period. Early accounts by Spanish colonists indicate that they brought wheat, lentils, melons, garlic, and other Old World cultivars with them. While these accounts indicate the colonists were growing the cultivars, previous archaeological work has produced limited evidence for the growth and use of these plants. This paper considers how the desire for specific plants impacted colonial views of the landscape and ecology of northern New Mexico through preliminary phytolith analysis. We use the evidence of everyday plant use over time to work towards a better understanding of the deep ecology of colonial life in the region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20997