Medicinal Plant Use in Southeast New Mexico: Botanical, Ethnobotanical and Archaeological Evidence

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Medicine and Healing in the Americas: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Perspectives" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Medicinal Plant use for Southeastern New Mexico is presented, covering major plant types, uses, and ecology. In collaboration with a botanist, who specializes in New Mexico flora, we present data on 331 plant species. The process of knowledge production will be addressed, as all of this information is taken from historic ethnographic accounts, botanical, and archaeological literature sources. The majority of the information in this work is from the Mescalero Apache, however other cultural groups are also included. A seasonal, geographic, and ecological analysis is given, showing when, where and for how long plants would be available in the environment. This has implications for human mobility, settlement, and the depth of knowledge traditional medicine practitioners are required to have, while also highlighting the disruptive nature of land exclusion has had on native populations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Medicine and Healing in the Americas: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Perspectives   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23669