Wild and domesticated plants in Andean Argentina food economics: ethnobotanical evidence for archaeobotanical contrastation

CAPPARELLI, A.

Krakow

Simposio; 14th Symposium of the International Work Group for Palaeoethnobotany; 2007

International Work Group for Palaeoethnobotany, W. Slafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences

The main goal of this work is to registered wild and domesticated plants used as edible, flavouring and fodder resources at the Andean Argentina: Hualfín Valley, Catamarca Province. An specific objective of the research is to contrast ethnobotanical information with the archaeobotanical data from El Shincal Inka site for evaluating continuity or not in traditional food practices. Plant organ, mode of use, byproducts and discard products were registered from 21 wild species and from four cultivated ones. However, emphasis is made to the study of three of them: Prosopis chilensis and P. flexuosa-commonly named as white and black algarroba respectively-, and maize, which are the most important food plants along the prehistory of the area. Key words: Andean Argentina, Prosopis, maize, Ethnobotany, Palaeoethnobotany