“An instrument of grace”: Archaeological and ethnographic studies of homegardens in the American Neotropics

Homegardens are spaces where food, medicine, construction materials, and plants of aesthetic value are grown, both for household consumption, but also for sale in markets to supplement household income. Importantly, they are also spaces of cultural significance; gardens are spaces where many household activities are enacted, where household income is supplemented, where cultural memory is maintained. Archaeological explorations of garden spaces, particularly in the Neotropics, have successfully utilized soil chemical, archaeobotanical, and spatial analysis in identifying the location of cultivated spaces in relation to household structures. Having refined our ability to identify homegarden spaces, we can focus on anthropologically oriented questions regarding gender, status, political economy, and identity. In this special issue we are looking beyond gardens as simply utilitarian and functional spaces, and seeing them as places that have social, cultural, personal, and psychological importance. This introductory article will present some of the past and current research on homegardens and provide avenues for future archaeological research.