Thomas Hart is an assistant professor of anthropology at New Mexico State University. Along with NMSU anthropology graduate student Delaney Romo, Hart will examine the origins of food in the ancient Southwest and neighboring regions Thursday night at 7 at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum auditorium. Hart recently sat down with Scott Brocato to give a preview Thursday night’s presentation.
Scott Brocato:
Let's talk about your experience there as an anthropologist, an archaeologist, and let's see if I get this right: paleoethnobotanist. How long have you been all of these things?
Thomas Hart:
Oh, wow. It's probably been about maybe15, 20 years or so starting out. You know, it's been quite a long time doing that, starting out in archaeology and then sort of as you go through the education process, whittling your way down to the field of paleoethnobotany.
Scott Brocato:
And what is that?
Thomas Hart:
It's a tricky one for sure. Paleoethnobotany simply just plants people in the past. An easier phrase is archaeobotany, which is one I think we sort of shorthand.
Scott Brocato:
Well, according to the news release of your upcoming appearance, your main research focus has been the role of plants in the environment, the development of social complexity, and the collapse of civilizations; and your research uncovers connections between plants, people, and the past during environmental and social change. What kind of lessons can we learn from such research, and why is it important?
Thomas Hart:
That's a good question. There's a lot that's going on these days surrounding the environment and particularly food and the ways in which we grow things. And particularly I found during the pandemic, a lot of people started to grow their own food. And so understanding where that food comes from and understanding our personal connections to it is very meaningful to a lot of people. And so this type of research helps us to understand how people grew food in the past and the connections that it has with people today.
Scott Brocato:
And is that going to be the main focus Thursday night, your presentation that's going to be at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Museum?
Thomas Hart:
Yeah, so basically, it's about how do archaeologists find evidence for ancient plants and food? And then how can we use that information to better understand agricultural practices in New Mexico?
Scott Brocato:
And what will be your main focus that evening?
Thomas Hart:
The two main focuses are, one of them is on sort of the question of chili peppers, since that's our beloved state food. And then the other one is a research project done by our masters student, Delaney Romo, on a site just north of here looking at what the native folks were eating at that time.
Scott Brocato:
Was that the Jornada?
Thomas Hart:
Yes, the Jornada Mogollon.
Scott Brocato:
Tell me about them.
Thomas Hart:
So without going too much into it, those are part of the larger sort of pre-contact, pre-Spanish populations in the area. And basically looking at how did they dealt with agriculture. And their agriculture was very different than what we have today.
Scott Brocato:
You'll be joined by graduate student Delaney Romo. Talk about her.
Thomas Hart:
Delaney Romo is an excellent student in our program. She's doing a lot of great work. And this project comes out of our field school program that we have in our department where they excavated the site of Cottonwood Springs. And so Delaney's been doing the archaeobotanical analysis on that project.
Scott Brocato:
What do you want people to take away from Thursday night's presentation?
Thomas Hart:
I want them to sort of look around and see the food that they eat and that the plants that they grow have a really, really deep connection, and that there's been 10,000-plus years of people experimenting with plants in order for that food to get to their plate.
If you really just sort of stop and take a look at the food that we eat, you start to really appreciate the amount of time and effort that humans have put into it. And I think that hopefully on our talk, people understand that there's so much more to learn out there about where this food comes from and how it got here and who made it and who grew it, and what that means to people.
