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Culture and Agriculture: A Comment on Sissel Schroeder, Maize Productivity in the Eastern Woodlands and Great Plains of North America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

William W. Baden  and
Christopher S. Beekman
William W. Baden
Affiliation:
Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, IN 46805
Christopher S. Beekman
Affiliation:
Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, IN 46805
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Abstract

Using selective maize yield data from ethnohistoric and government sources dating between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, Schroeder (1999) argues that Mississippian average yield potential fell within a 9-10 bu/acre range. We evaluate her argument in terms of well-established climatic, environmental, varietal, and behavioral constraints on maize agriculture and conclude that reconstructing prehistoric agricultural potential requires a more precise methodology that incorporates these factors.

Résumé

Résumé

Usando datos selectivos para el rendimiento del maíz sacados defuentes etnohistóricas y gubernamentales de mediados del siglo XIX a mediados del siglo XX, Schroeder (1999) sostiene que el potencial para el rendimiento misisipiano medio se encontraba entre 9 y 10 bu/acre [entre 564.4 y 627.11 kg pоr hectárea]. Evaluámes sus argumentes teniendo en cuenta condicionantes ambienlales, climdticos, de conducta y de variedades bien establecidos con respeto al cultivo del maíz y concluimos que reconstruir el potencial agricola prehistórico exige una metodologia más precisa que incorpore estos factores.

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 66 , Issue 3 , July 2001 , pp. 505 - 515
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2001

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