The Paleobiolinguistics of Maize (Zea mays L.)

  • Cecil H. Brown Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA
  • Charles R. Clement Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, AM
  • Patience Epps University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
  • Eike Luedeling World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Nairobi
  • Søren Wichmann Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.5.2014.130
Keywords: Archaeobotany, crop origins, historical linguistics, Native American Indians, paleobiolinguistics, plant domestication, plant genetics

Abstract

Paleobiolinguistics is used to determine when and where maize (Zea mays) developed significance for different prehistoric groups of Native America. Dates and locations of proto-languages for which maize terms reconstruct generally accord with crop-origin and dispersal information from plant genetics and archaeobotany. Paleobiolinguistic and other lines of evidence indicate that human interest in maize was extensive millennia before the widespread development of a village‐farming way of life in the New World.

Author Biographies

Cecil H. Brown, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA

Cecil H. Brown is a linguistic anthropologist with interests in ethnobiology, historical linguistics, and Native American languages.

Charles R. Clement, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, AM

Charles R. Clement is a geneticist studying the origin and domestication of native Amazonian crops, and the ethnobotany associated with anthropogenic soils and other domesticated landscapes.

Patience Epps, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

Patience Epps is a linguist whose work investigates lowland South American languages from historical, typological, and descriptive perspectives.

Eike Luedeling, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Nairobi

Eike Luedeling is an agricultural scientist mainly working on the development of holistic analysis methods for agricultural development interventions.

Søren Wichmann, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig

Søren Wichmann specializes in quantitative methods in historical linguistics and Mesoamerican languages. He is General Editor of the journal Language Dynamics and Change.

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Published
2014-05-22
How to Cite
Brown, C. H., Clement, C. R., Epps, P., Luedeling, E., & Wichmann, S. (2014). The Paleobiolinguistics of Maize (Zea mays L.). Ethnobiology Letters, 5, 52‐64. https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.5.2014.130
Issue
Vol 5 (2014)
Section
Research Communications

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