Diana K. Moreiras
MA Student
BA in Honours Anthropology and Minor History, University of British Columbia, 2010
Email: dianakm18@gmail.com
Supervisor: Dr. Michael Blake
Research Interests: Mesoamerican archaeology; subsistence and food practices; dietaryreconstruction; interaction between plants and humans; origins, distribution, use, significance of cacao (chocolate) and other native foods to the Americas.
Current Projects: For my MA research I will be performing an isotopic analysis on human and faunal bone samples from Post-Classic sites in the Valley of Mexico in order to get a more direct approach to the dietary patterns and subsistence practices by the inhabitants of rural and urban sites before the arrival of the Spanish. In addition, I will be working along with Dr. Blake
on a cacao project exploring the chemical composition of the cacao seeds and its pulp as well as performing a ceramic analysis on pottery from two sites in Chiapas, Mexico and Ecuador which hopefully will help us gain a better understanding on the use of cacao by early inhabitants.
Conference Papers and Publications:
2012 Maize in the Americas: A Statistical Study of Macro-botanical Samples from the Ancient Maize Map (AMM) Database. Paper Presented at the AGSA Talk Series 2011-2012. Vancouver, February 6.
2012 Tamales, Tortillas, and Other Mexica Foods: A Study of Mexica Subsistence through a Selection of Texts. Paper presented at the UBC Anthropology Graduate Student Conference, Vancouver, March 3.
2011 ‘Food of the Gods’: The Origins of Cacao Use and its Cultural Significance in Mesoamerica. Paper presented at the Stanford Archaeology Center Graduate Student Conference. Stanford, CA, April 16.
2011 Studying Mesoamerican Diets: A Direct Approach Through Stable Isotopic Analysis. Paper presented at the UBC Anthropology Graduate Student Conference. Vancouver, BC, March 19.
2011 Re-Thinking Miles Richardson’s Spatial Analysis through Phenomenology and Marxism: A Case-Study of The Plaza and The Market. UBC Anthropology Online Journal Culturepedia 1: 62-72.
Blake, Michael, Bruce Benz, Ryan Wallace, Nicolas Jakobsen, Susan Formosa, Kisha Supernant, Diana Moreiras, and Alex Wong
2010 Ancient Maize Map: An online database and mapping program for archaeological maize in the Americas. Published online at: en.ancientmaize.com. Laboratory of Archaeology UBC, Vancouver.
2010 Thinking and Drinking Chocolate: The Origins, Distribution, and Significance of Cacao in Mesoamerica. Paper presented at the 33rd Annual Society of Ethnobiology Conference. Victoria, BC, May 7.
Memberships:
Society of Ethnobiology member since 2010.