Deborah M. Pearsall
Deborah M. Pearsall
Retired from MU in 2013 after 35 years and now professor emerita, Dr. Pearsall holds a BA from the University of Michigan and MA and PhD from the University of Illinois, all degrees in Anthropology. Her interests center on South American archaeology and paleoethnobotany. Her research has two themes: the origins and spread of agriculture in the lowland Neotropics, and methods and approaches in paleoethnobotany. She is no longer accepting students. She is the author of four books, the general editor of the 2008 edition of the Encyclopedia of Archaeology, and has published in numerous professional journals and edited books. Dr. Pearsall has been honored for her achievements by the Society for American Archaeology (2002), the Society of Ethnobiology (2020), the Archaeological Institute of America (2024), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2025). She maintains an online Phytolith Database.
Books:
2019 Case Studies in Paleoethnobotany. Understanding Ancient Lifeways through the Study of Phytoliths, Starch, Macroremains, and Pollen. Routledge, NY.
2015 Paleoethnobotany. A Handbook of Procedures. Third Edition (1989, 2000). Routledge, NY.
2011 Anderson, E., D. M. Pearsall, E. Hunn, N. Turner (editors). Ethnobiology. John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken NJ.
2008 (General Editor). Encyclopedia of Archaeology. Academic Press, San Diego and Oxford, UK. Three volumes, 2382 pages.
2004 Plants and People in Ancient Ecuador: The Ethnobotany of the Jama River Valley. Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, Case Studies in Archaeology Series, Belmont, CA
1998 Piperno, D. R. and D. M. Pearsall. The Origins of Agriculture in the Lowland Neotropics. Academic Press, San Diego.
1994 Zeidler, J. A. and D. M. Pearsall (editors). Regional Archaeology in Northern Manabí, Ecuador, Volume 1. Environment, Cultural Chronology, and Prehistoric Subsistence in the Jama River Valley. University of Pittsburgh Memoirs in Latin American
Recent Journal articles:
2024 Berman, M. J., D. M. Pearsall, and C. Ritzheimer. Lucayan charred wood selection patterns: A comparative study of variability in fragile island ecosystems of the Central and Northern Bahamas. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-024-01017-4
2023 Siegel, P. E. and D. M. Pearsall. Plant resource diversity in the ethnobotanical record of precolonial Puerto Rico: Evidence from microbotanical remains. Journal of Archaeological Science 160, doi:105859
2023 Paleoethnobotany as ethnobotany as paleoethnobotany. Journal of Ethnobiology 43:40-43
2023 Hart, T. C., Duncan N. A., Pearsall, D. M., and Love, M. W. South American maize and political economy of the Middle and Late Formative Soconusco region of Guatemala. Latin American Antiquity, https://doi.org/10.1017/laq.2023.3
2021 Pearsall, D. M., M. O’Brien, R. A. Benfer, and R. Kennedy. Establishing phytolith analogs for four forest formations of lowland Ecuador: Results and applications to archaeological and paleoenvironmental interpretation. The Digital Archaeological Record (core.tdar.org). doi:10.48512/XCV8459114
2020 Berman, M. J and D. M. Pearsall. Crop dispersal and Lucayan tool use: Investigating the creation of transported landscapes in the Central Bahamas through starch grain, phytolith, macrobotanical, and artifact studies. Journal of Field Archaeology 45(5):355-371. https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2020.1740958
2020 Pearsall, D. M., N. A. Duncan, K. Chandler-Ezell, D. H. Ubelaker, and J. A. Zeidler. Food and Society at Real Alto, an Early Formative Community in Southwest Coastal Ecuador. Latin American Antiquity 31(1):122-142. https://doi.org/10.1017/laq.2019.96
2016 Pearsall, D. M., N. A. Duncan, J. G. Jones, D. E. Freidel, C. I. Veintimilla, and H. Neff. Human-environment interactions during the early mid-Holocene in coastal Ecuador as revealed by mangrove coring in Santa Elena Province. The Holocene 26(8):1262-1289. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0959683616638421
Recent book chapters:
2020 Pearsall, D. M., N. A. Duncan, J. G. Jones, and D. E. Freidel. The Santa Elena Peninsula in the Early Mid-Holocene: Human-environment interactions before and during the “hiatus” between Vegas and Valdivia. Pp. 35-44 in Las Vegas: The Early Holocene Archaeology of Human Occupation in Coastal Ecuador, edited by P. W. Stahl and K. E. Stothert. University of Pittsburgh Memoirs in Latin American Archaeology No. 25.
2019 Siegel, P. E., J. G. Jones, D. M. Pearsall, N. P. Dunning, P. Farrell, N. A. Duncan, J. H. Curtis, S. K. Singh. Humanizing the landscapes of the Lesser Antilles during the Archaic Age. Pp. 55-70 in The Archaeology of Caribbean and Circum-Caribbean Farmers 6000 BC - AD 1500, edited by B. A. Reid. Routledge, NY.
2019 Siegel, P. E., J. G. Jones, D. M. Pearsall, N. P. Dunning, P. Farrell, N. A. Duncan, J. H. Curtis. Ecosystem engineering during the human occupations of the Lesser Antilles. Pp. 77-88 in Early Settlers of the Insular Caribbean. Dearchaizing the Archaic, edited by C. L. Hofman and A. T. Antczak. Sidestone Press, Leiden
2018 Pearsall, D. M., J. G. Jones, N. E. Dunning, P. E. Siegel, P. Farrell, J. H. Curtis, and N. A. Duncan. Methods for addressing island historical ecology. Pp. 57-71 in Island Historical Ecology: Socionatural Landscapes of the Eastern and Southern Caribbean. Edited by Peter. E. Siegel. Berghahn Books, NY.
2018 Pearsall, D. M., N. E. Dunning, J. G. Jones, N. A. Duncan, P. E. Siegel. St. Croix. Pp. 285-296 In Island Historical Ecology: Socionatural Landscapes of the Eastern and Southern Caribbean. Edited by Peter. E. Siegel. Berghahn Books, NY.
2018 Duncan, N. A., N. P. Dunning, J. G. Jones, D. M. Pearsall, P. E. Siegel. Martinique. Pp. 203-225 In Island Historical Ecology: Socionatural Landscapes of the Eastern and Southern Caribbean. Edited by Peter. E. Siegel. Berghahn Books, NY.
2017 Pearsall, D. M. Commentary: Paleoethnobotany beyond diet, environment, and ecology. Pp. 171-177 in Social Perspectives on Ancient Lives from Paleoethnobotanical Data. Edited by M. P. Sayre and M. C. Bruno. Springer International. DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-52849-6_9