Maguey ( Agave spp.) utilization in Mesoamerican civilization: a case for precolumbian "Pastoralism"

Abstract

Archaeologists have generally neglected the implications of maguey cultivation in their assessments of prehispanic Mesoamerican cultural development in the highlands of central and north-central Mexico. Recent ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological studies provide the basis for the formulation of new hypotheses about the importance of the complementarity of maguey and seed-based cultivation in ancient Mesoamerica. We see cultivated maguey as functionally analogous in Mesoamerica to the role of pastoralism in the development of archaic civilizations in the Andes, Asia, Africa, and Europe. Future archaeological and ethnobotanical research should provide key new information for refining and testing these hypotheses.