Discerning Palates of the Past : : An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Crop Cultivation and Plant Usage in India / / Seetha Narahari Reddy.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Berghahn Books Complete eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Reddy, Seetha Narahari,
• Place / Publishing House: New York; , Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2003]; ©2003
• Year of Publication: 2003
• Language: English
• Series: International Monographs in Prehistory: Ethnoarchaeology Series ; 5
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (175 p.)

This book analyzes the agricultural and pastoral infrastructure of the Mature and Late Harappan cultures (ca. 2500-1700 BC) of northwest India. The economic role of drought-resistant millet crops is reconstructed using ethnographic studies of crop processing, palaeoethnobotany, and carbon isotope analysis. Reddy reveals that simply recovering crop seeds from archaeological contexts does not confirm local crop cultivation, and she suggests that agricultural production of millet crops for human food and for animal fodder may have been economically interwoven in the Harappan civilization. New directions are provided for discerning archaeologically how pastoralism and agriculture may be integrated in complex economic systems.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Plants, Past and Present: An Introduction -- 2. Archaeological Context and the Scope of Inquiry -- 3. The Living Past: Ethnographic Crop Processing Studies -- 4. The Search for Patterns: Ethnographic Modeling and Archaeological Relevance -- 5. Going Beyond Carbonized Seed Lists: Paleoethnobotanical Research -- 6. If the Threshing Floor Could Talk: Testing the Ethnographic Models -- 7. Modeling Animal Diet and Fodder Acquisition -- 8. Conclusion: Discerning Palates, Plant Usage and Subsistence -- Glossary -- References