Histories of Maize: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Prehistory, Linguistics, Biogeography, Domestication, and Evolution of Maize - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1598744623 ISBN 13: 9781598744620

Publisher: Routledge, 2006

Synopsis

Maize has been described as a primary catalyst to complex sociocultural development in the Americas. State of the art research on maize chronology, molecular biology, and stable carbon isotope research on ancient human diets have provided additional lines of evidence on the changing role of maize through time and space and its spread throughout the Americas. The multidisciplinary evidence from the social and biological sciences presented in this volume have generated a much more complex picture of the economic, political, and religious significance of maize. The volume also includes ethnographic research on the uses and roles of maize in indigenous cultures and a linguistic section that includes chapters on indigenous folk taxonomies and the role and meaning of maize to the development of civilization. Histories of Maize is the most comprehensive reference source on the botanical, genetic, archaeological, and anthropological aspects of ancient maize published to date. This book will appeal to a varied audience, and have no titles competiting with it because of its breadth and scope. The volume offers a single source of high quality summary information unavailable elsewhere.

About this title

Book Description:

This book provides a single source of information about the genetic, archaeological, and anthropological aspects of ancient maize!

From the Back Cover:

Among many themes that recur throughout this multifaceted examination ofZea mays L. is the contention that maize was not initially the important economic food sources that many have assumed. Domesticated only once, maize played important roles in many sociocultural developments, but it did not always achieve economic importance and it probably became a primary staple in the Americas much later than previously thought. Drawing upon new techologies and their associated methodologies, the editors have developed a holistic approach to maize that highlights the prehistoric record, chronology, and contextual associations of maize, particularly through molecular, biological, and morphological research as well as stable carbon isotope analysis, paleodiet, ethnographic, and linguistic analyses. This sweeping summary of maize studies offers a useful consolidation of research agendas, at once providing new conclusions and opportunities for new research.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1598744623
• ISBN 13: 9781598744620
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 704
• Editor: Staller John, Tykot Robert, Benz Bruce