Weeds for Thought: Towards a Cultural Model of Plant Domestication in the Southeastern United States

The development of agriculture among the indigenous populations of the Southeastern United States was firmly rooted in the domestication of native plant species.  The process of the domestication of these “weedy” plant species has been considered an ecological necessity and a social inevitability.  However, by emphasizing agricultural utility over models of cultural practice and change, current theories of Southeastern plant domestication overlook the holistic nature of plant use.  The broad range of known historic and contemporary plant usage by indigenous groups demonstrates the wide variety of alternative aspects that drive plant use.  By synthesizing archaeological, ethnographic, and phytochemical evidence, traditional perspectives of agricultural development will be reevaluated to show that alternative uses of plants, such as medicine, ritual, and preservation, were likely the dominant factors stimulating the early and continued human-plant interaction in the Southeast that led to plant domestication and the development of agriculturally reliant societies within the region.