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Under the Shade of Thipaak

The Ethnoecology of Cycads in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean

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

Format:Hardback

Publisher:University Press of Florida

Published:30th Aug '22

Should be back in stock very soon

Under the Shade of Thipaak cover

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.

“This groundbreaking volume takes the cycad-human relationship out of the scholarly shadows. It will serve as the primary source for the importance of the Cycadales order in past, present, and future human societies.”—Dolores R. Piperno, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

“Moves beyond the narrow focus of agricultural, culinary, and iconographic studies and demonstrates the importance of cycads in these different systems. Both fascinating and inspiring.”—Andrew R. Wyatt, Middle Tennessee State University

ISBN: 9780813069364

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 333g

342 pages