<html>If It Walks Like a Goosefoot and It Talks Like a Goosefoot . . . : <i>Chenopodium</i> at the Chuchuwayha Rock Shelter</html>
Author(s): Megan Harris
Year: 2025
Summary
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
Chenopodium, commonly known as goosefoot, is a genus of perennial and annual herbaceous plants. This genus is an abundant seed recovered from paleoethnobotanical assemblages in the Fraser and Columbia Plateaus of North America. While prevalent in the paleobotanical record, they are often discounted as incidental environmental inclusions. A growing literature is having trouble reconciling the presence of Chenopodium species. This genus appears in great abundance across both Plateaus. It likely has some role in the lifeways of those Plateau peoples. This paper presents the initial results of the paleoethnobotanical analysis at the Chuchuwayha Rock Shelter in southern British Columbia within the traditional unceded territory of the Upper Similkameen Indian Band (USIB). It explores the relationship between the archaeological remains of Chenopodium from Chuchuwayha and present-day Chenopodium species within the USIB territory. Given their prevalence at a culturally significant site to the USIB, it is likely the Chenopodium species here represents something beyond an incidental environmental inclusion.
Cite this Record
If It Walks Like a Goosefoot and It Talks Like a Goosefoot . . . : Chenopodium at the Chuchuwayha Rock Shelter. Megan Harris. Presented at The 90th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2025 ( tDAR id: 510671)
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Record Identifiers
Abstract Id(s): 51856