Paleoethnobotany: A Handbook of Procedures

by Deborah M. Pearsall

This new edition of the definitive work on "doing paleoenthnobotany" follows the steady growth in the quantity and sophistication of paleoenthnobotanical research. It features a rewritten chapter on phytolith analysis and a new chapter, "Integrating Biological Data." It also includes new techniques, such as residue analysis, and new applications of old indicators, such as starch grains. An expanded examination of pollen analysis, more examples of environmental reconstruction, and a better balance of Old and New World examples increase the versatility of this holistic view of paleoethnobotany.
Paleoenthnobotany, Second Edition presents the diverse approaches and techniques that anthropologists and botanists use to study human-plant interactions. It shows why anthropologists must identify plant remains and understand the ecology of human-plant interactions. Additionally, it demonstrates why botanists need to view the plant world from a cultural perspective and understand the strengths and weaknesses of the archaeological record.

Genres: Archaeology

Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Dr. Pearsall is an American archaeologist, specializing in paleoethnobotany. She maintains an online Phytolith database. She is a full professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, where she where first began working in 1978. She received her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1979, her dissertation being The Application of Ethnobotanical Techniques to the Problem of Subsistence in the Ecuadorian Formative.
Pearsall was awarded the 2002 Fryxell Award for Exceptional Interdisciplinary Research, by the Society for American Archaeology.

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[Mills College Library]

930.1 P3611 2015