I combine macrobotanical and microbotanical analysis in order to examine the relation between ancient humans and their environment. I am mainly interested in foodways, a set of important quotidian and specialized activities that had profound impact on economy, political organization, and social structure. Examining ancient foodways can also provide insight about cultural values and the creation of individual and group identities.

I have been doing paleoethnobotanical analysis in Québec, Oaxaca, and Chiapas, covering a wide array of time periods, from the Preclassic to the Historical Periods. My Master’s thesis examined foodways at Achiutla, Oaxaca, during the Postclassic and Early Colonial Periods. Through the lens of paleoethnobotany, my goal was to examine how Mixtec people negotiated the arrival of new food items in the region and the pressures exerted on their way of life. Most recently, I have started analyzing microbotanical remains recovered in mortuary contexts. This allows me to identify plants placed as offerings, as well as the ancient functions of artifacts placed in the burials.

My PhD examines plant practices from private mortuary contexts and public sacred practices at Monte Albán, OAX, to examine continuities and changes over time in those deeply meaningful plant practices. This will allow me to understand how ancestors and those plant remains offered and used in ritualized events played a key role in longer term process (specifically at the Annales level of the conjonctures) not just in an artificially, separate domain that archaeologists label as “ritual”. This will allow me to examine how mortuary contexts and public rituals —often analytically separated from daily life – were entangled, rather than distinct.