When Do We Eat? The Life Cycle of Indigenous Maya Food-Plants and Temporal Implications for Residential Stability

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

For Maya agriculture, both ancient and modern, it is known that a wide range of time is needed between planting and harvesting of various plant species. While annual crops require less than a year to reach full productivity, perennial crops, particularly tree-crops, might require many years to begin production, and even longer to reach full productivity. Documents from the Colonial period of the Maya Lowlands describe the significance of orchards and other perennial food plants cultivated in and around Maya villages, and the great distress caused by the destruction of these resources. Annual crops allow for rapid food production under conditions of residential instability such as forced relocation or flight. Perennial crops imply residential stability or long-term tenure over land or rights to harvest specific plants. Working with an inventory of 497 indigenous food-plants of the Maya Lowlands, this presentation will quantify and discuss the social, economic and political implications of time investment and locational stability required by the known range of food-plants available to the Maya.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24276