Matthew E Biwer
I am an anthropological archaeologist and paleoethnobotanist. I specialize in the analysis of plants from archaeological sites in the Peruvian Andes as well as the U.S. Midwest/Southeast. I earned my Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2019.
My dissertation, funded by a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant and a Wenner-Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, compared quantitative spatial patterning of plant data among three provincial Wari sites in south-central Peru to triangulate provincial cuisine. Comparing Wari foodways with an indigenous Huaracane culture site in Moquegua (occupied before and during Wari incursion into the region), I assessed food as a medium for cultural interaction on the Wari frontier. In particular, I found that while the indigenous local Huaracane adopted aspects of Wari cuisine, they did so on their terms and integrated aspects of Wari cuisine into existing social, economic, and political structures. This project theoretically engaged with anthropological issues of ethnic identity, culture contact, colonialism, entanglement, foodways, and human-environment interaction.
Supervisors: Amber VanDerwarker
My dissertation, funded by a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant and a Wenner-Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, compared quantitative spatial patterning of plant data among three provincial Wari sites in south-central Peru to triangulate provincial cuisine. Comparing Wari foodways with an indigenous Huaracane culture site in Moquegua (occupied before and during Wari incursion into the region), I assessed food as a medium for cultural interaction on the Wari frontier. In particular, I found that while the indigenous local Huaracane adopted aspects of Wari cuisine, they did so on their terms and integrated aspects of Wari cuisine into existing social, economic, and political structures. This project theoretically engaged with anthropological issues of ethnic identity, culture contact, colonialism, entanglement, foodways, and human-environment interaction.
Supervisors: Amber VanDerwarker
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1999 review published in this journal. We discuss advances in methods,
ancient subsistence reconstructions, the origins and intensification of agriculture,
and how plants inform on issues of political economy and identity. Significant
methodological developments in the extraction, identification, and analysis of starch
grains and phytoliths have led to advancements in our knowledge of early plant
domestication and the transition to food production. Paleoethnobotanists increasingly
are using more complex quantitative techniques to characterize their data,
which have resulted in more nuanced interpretations of plants that fall within the
purview of social archaeology and allow us to address issues related to gender,
identity, and ritual practice.
1999 review published in this journal. We discuss advances in methods,
ancient subsistence reconstructions, the origins and intensification of agriculture,
and how plants inform on issues of political economy and identity. Significant
methodological developments in the extraction, identification, and analysis of starch
grains and phytoliths have led to advancements in our knowledge of early plant
domestication and the transition to food production. Paleoethnobotanists increasingly
are using more complex quantitative techniques to characterize their data,
which have resulted in more nuanced interpretations of plants that fall within the
purview of social archaeology and allow us to address issues related to gender,
identity, and ritual practice.