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Human-Plant Mutualism and Niche Expression in the Paleoethnobotanical Record: A Middle Woodland Example

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Gary D. Crites
Gary D. Crites*
Affiliation:
Ethnobotany Laboratory, Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-0720
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Abstract

Analysis of Middle Woodland paleoethnobotanical assemblages from south-central Tennessee yielded evidence of variation and change in human and plant niche expression. A coevolutionary framework for understanding the mutually effective relations between human behavior and plant ecology and genetics is applied in an effort to explain why the Middle Woodland paleoethnobotanical record is expressed as it is. Focus upon a limited suite of taxa associated with secondary succession, cultivation, and domestication make clear the need to understand the ecology and morphology of taxa being considered, as well as the occupational history of the sites in question.

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American Antiquity , Volume 52 , Issue 4 , October 1987 , pp. 725 - 740
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1987

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References

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