Under the Shade of Thipaak

The Ethnoecology of Cycads in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean

Michael D. Carrasco, Angélica Cibrián-Jaramillo, Mark A. Bonta, Joshua D. Englehardt

• Publisher: University Press of Florida
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9780813069364
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780813070179
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

Society for Ethnobotany Daniel F. Austin Award

The important cultural role of an ancient, endangered plant

 

Under the Shade of Thipaak is the first book to explore the cultural role of cycads, plants that evolved over 250 million years ago and are now critically endangered, in the ancient and modern Mesoamerican and Caribbean worlds. This volume demonstrates how these ancient plants have figured prominently in regional mythologies, rituals, art, and foodways from the Pleistocene-Holocene transition to the present.

Contributors discuss the importance of cycads from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including biology and population genetics, historical ecology, archaeology, art history, linguistics, and conservation and sustainability. Chapters pay special attention to the enduring conceptual relationships between cycads and maize. This book demonstrates how a close examination of cycad-human relationships can motivate conservation of these threatened plants in ways that engage local communities, as well as promote the significance of ancient and modern practices that unite nature and culture.

Contributors: Francisco Barona-Gómez | Emanuel Bojorquez Quintal | Mark A. Bonta | Edder Daniel Bustos-Díaz | Dánae Cabrera-Toledo | Michael Calonje | Michael D. Carrasco | Angélica Cibrián-Jaramillo | Joshua D. Englehardt | Jorge González-Astorga | Naishla M. Gutiérrez-Arroyo | José Saíd Gutiérrez-Ortega | Thomas Hart | Jaime R. Pagán-Jiménez | Francisco Pérez-Zavala | Luis Rojas Abarca | Esteban Sánchez Rodríguez | Dennis William Stevenson | Amber M. VanDerwarker | Luis R. Velázquez Maldonado | Andrew P. Vovides

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Foreword
• Introduction: Elucidating Human-Cycad Relationships in the Indigenous Ethnoecological and Agroecological Systems of the Americas and Beyond
• 1. An Overview of Cycadales in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean: Biology, Distribution, and Conservation
• 2. Cycad Population Genetics in Mexico and the Caribbean
• 3. Zamia in the Insular Caribbean: New Insights into the Historical Ecology of an Ancient Wild Food Plant
• 4. Ancient Mesoamerican Agricultural Strategies: The Role of Cycads and Phaseolus Beans in the Development of Intensive Field Cultivation Systems
• 5. The Archaeology of Cycad Use in Ancient Mesoamerica: Old Data, New Methods
• 6. The Maize God Revisited: Iconology of Cycads, Maize, and Fertility Deities in Mesoamerican Art
• 7. Tracking Teosinte across Mexico and Northern Central America
• 8. The Sacred-Maize-Ancestor Concept: An Ethnograp hic Perspective
• Epilogue: What Have We Learned and Where Are We Going?
• References Cited
• List of Contributors
• Index