Elements in the Archaeology of Food – serie

Due to the multi-faceted nature of food - as sustenance, symbol, and commodity - diverse theoretical perspectives have been used to study it in archaeology. One of the more influential and versatile of these approaches is behavioral ecology: the study of behavioral adaptation to local environments. Behavioral ecology provides a powerful body of theory for understanding human decision-making in both the past and present. This Element reviews what behavioral ecology is, how it has been used by archaeologists to study decision-making concerning food and subsistence, how it articulates with other ecological approaches, and how it can help us to better understand sustainability in our contemporary world. The use of behavioral ecology to bridge the archaeological and the contemporary can not only explain the roots of important behavioral processes, but provide potential policy solutions to promote a more sustainable society today.

This Element approaches large game hunting through a social and symbolic lens. In most societies, the hunting and consumption of certain iconic species carries deep symbolism and is surrounded by ritualized practices. However, the form of these rituals and symbols varies substantially. The Element explores some recurring themes associated with hunting and eating game, such as gender, prestige, and generosity, and trace how these play out in the context of egalitarian versus hierarchical societies, foragers versus farmers, and in different parts of the world. Once people start herding domestic livestock, hunting takes on a new significance as an engagement with what is now defined as the Wild. Foragers do not make this distinction, but their interactions with prey animals are also heavily symbolic. As societies become more stratified, hunting large animals may be partly or entirely reserved for the elite, and hunting practices are elaborated to display and build power.

This Element explores Pacific Island foodways, documenting the challenges of studying archaeologically identifiable culinary practices in a widespread diverse region. The authors' overview of gastronomic activities addresses current and foundational research while emphasizing living cultures and past cultures from New Guinea to East Polynesia. This Element employs a variety of perspectives and methodologies, including zooarchaeological, ethnoarchaeological, ethnohistoric, ethnobotanical, and Indigenous. The authors' discussion of food, feasting, ritual, identity, heritage, and community consider the complex sensory and environmental experiences involved in eating. This Element presents an approach for understanding the nature and culture of food, the way that humans make food and food makes us.

This Element provides an overview of food and foodways in Ancient China, from the earliest humans (~500k BP) up to its historical beginnings: the foundation of the Zhou dynasty (at the start of the 1st millennium BCE). While textual data provides insights on food and diet during China's historical periods, archaeological data is the main source for studying the deep past and reconstructing what people ate, how they ate and with whom they ate it. This Element introduces the plants and animals that formed the building blocks of ancient diets and cuisines, as well as how they created localized lifeways and unifying constructs across ancient China. Foodways, how food was grown, prepared and consumed, was central in the development of differing social, economic and political realities, as it shaped ritual and burial practices, differentiated ethnic groups, solidified community ties and deepened or assuaged social inequalities.

This Element provides an overview of food and foodways in Ancient China, from the earliest humans (~500k BP) up to its historical beginnings: the foundation of the Zhou dynasty (at the start of the 1st millennium BCE). While textual data provides insights on food and diet during China's historical periods, archaeological data is the main source for studying the deep past and reconstructing what people ate, how they ate and with whom they ate it. This Element introduces the plants and animals that formed the building blocks of ancient diets and cuisines, as well as how they created localized lifeways and unifying constructs across ancient China. Foodways, how food was grown, prepared and consumed, was central in the development of differing social, economic and political realities, as it shaped ritual and burial practices, differentiated ethnic groups, solidified community ties and deepened or assuaged social inequalities.

Due to the multi-faceted nature of food - as sustenance, symbol, and commodity - diverse theoretical perspectives have been used to study it in archaeology. One of the more influential and versatile of these approaches is behavioral ecology: the study of behavioral adaptation to local environments. Behavioral ecology provides a powerful body of theory for understanding human decision-making in both the past and present. This Element reviews what behavioral ecology is, how it has been used by archaeologists to study decision-making concerning food and subsistence, how it articulates with other ecological approaches, and how it can help us to better understand sustainability in our contemporary world. The use of behavioral ecology to bridge the archaeological and the contemporary can not only explain the roots of important behavioral processes, but provide potential policy solutions to promote a more sustainable society today.

It was long believed that the lack of available food in tropical forests was a limiting factor for the development of human cultures in the Amazon. Recently, a very different picture has emerged in which, on the eve of European invasion, the Amazon basin was home to thriving indigenous societies with highly sophisticated foodways that ultimately co-created the region's much-coveted biodiversity. In this Element, the authors bring together recent data and discussion points on the archaeology of food, alongside testimonies from Forest Peoples, that help us think about culinary traditions, biodiversity, and food sovereignty since the human colonization of the Amazon 12,000 years ago until the present-day climate emergency.

It was long believed that the lack of available food in tropical forests was a limiting factor for the development of human cultures in the Amazon. Recently, a very different picture has emerged in which, on the eve of European invasion, the Amazon basin was home to thriving indigenous societies with highly sophisticated foodways that ultimately co-created the region's much-coveted biodiversity. In this Element, the authors bring together recent data and discussion points on the archaeology of food, alongside testimonies from Forest Peoples, that help us think about culinary traditions, biodiversity, and food sovereignty since the human colonization of the Amazon 12,000 years ago until the present-day climate emergency.

The advent of urbanism had profound impacts on landscape management, agricultural production, food preservation, and cuisine. This Element examines the 6,000-year history of urbanism through the archaeological perspective of food, using the analysis of cooking and eating vessels, botanical remains, and animal bones along with texts and iconographic evidence to understand the foodways that spurred and accompanied the growth of cities. Human-environmental changes took place as farmers became fewer in number but increasingly essential as providers of food for city-based consumers. The Element also examines the ways in which cities today share patterns of food production and consumption with the first urban settlements, and that we can address questions of sustainability, nutritional improvement, and other desired outcomes by recognizing how the growth of cities has resulted in distinct constraints and opportunities related to food.

The advent of urbanism had profound impacts on landscape management, agricultural production, food preservation, and cuisine. This Element examines the 6,000-year history of urbanism through the archaeological perspective of food, using the analysis of cooking and eating vessels, botanical remains, and animal bones along with texts and iconographic evidence to understand the foodways that spurred and accompanied the growth of cities. Human-environmental changes took place as farmers became fewer in number but increasingly essential as providers of food for city-based consumers. The Element also examines the ways in which cities today share patterns of food production and consumption with the first urban settlements, and that we can address questions of sustainability, nutritional improvement, and other desired outcomes by recognizing how the growth of cities has resulted in distinct constraints and opportunities related to food.

The Circumpolar Arctic is one of the most challenging regions on the Earth for human occupation. High levels of seasonal and spatial variability for all major food sources, combined with low species diversity, result in often limited options for subsistence. Despite these factors, an array of diverse societies thrived across the North. Grounded in profound spiritual and social relationships with animals, Arctic peoples pursued key resources such as caribou/reindeer, seals, whales, fish, and migratory waterfowl. This Element presents an entry point to ancient Arctic foodways authored by two archaeologists specializing in very different regions and cultural traditions. Based in part on the extraordinarily vibrant traditional knowledge of modern northerners, and the rich ethnographic record of the region, it emphasizes how the acquisition, processing, storage, consumption, and discard of food are visible in the archaeological record, and what this can tell us about past lifeways.

The Circumpolar Arctic is one of the most challenging regions on the Earth for human occupation. High levels of seasonal and spatial variability for all major food sources, combined with low species diversity, result in often limited options for subsistence. Despite these factors, an array of diverse societies thrived across the North. Grounded in profound spiritual and social relationships with animals, Arctic peoples pursued key resources such as caribou/reindeer, seals, whales, fish, and migratory waterfowl. This Element presents an entry point to ancient Arctic foodways authored by two archaeologists specializing in very different regions and cultural traditions. Based in part on the extraordinarily vibrant traditional knowledge of modern northerners, and the rich ethnographic record of the region, it emphasizes how the acquisition, processing, storage, consumption, and discard of food are visible in the archaeological record, and what this can tell us about past lifeways.

Anthropologists have struggled with the concept of the food taboo for over a century; and archaeologists struggle with detecting them in the material signatures of the past. Yet by recognizing that ancient peoples must have followed taboos, some of which may have persisted for thousands of years, we gain insight into how cultural traditions shaped the ways in which people ate and interacted with their environments. This Element concerns food and the cultural structures that surround it. It provides an overview of the history and anthropological understandings of food taboos, and offers critical engagement with the current archaeological method and theory investigating these. Archaeological case studies, including the pig taboo in Judaism and ethnoarchaeological analysis of various mammalian taboos among the Nukak of Amazonia, shed light on the difficulties and prospects of studying food taboos in the material record.

Anthropologists have struggled with the concept of the food taboo for over a century; and archaeologists struggle with detecting them in the material signatures of the past. Yet by recognizing that ancient peoples must have followed taboos, some of which may have persisted for thousands of years, we gain insight into how cultural traditions shaped the ways in which people ate and interacted with their environments. This Element concerns food and the cultural structures that surround it. It provides an overview of the history and anthropological understandings of food taboos, and offers critical engagement with the current archaeological method and theory investigating these. Archaeological case studies, including the pig taboo in Judaism and ethnoarchaeological analysis of various mammalian taboos among the Nukak of Amazonia, shed light on the difficulties and prospects of studying food taboos in the material record.

This Element explores Pacific Island foodways, documenting the challenges of studying archaeologically identifiable culinary practices in a widespread diverse region. The authors' overview of gastronomic activities addresses current and foundational research while emphasizing living cultures and past cultures from New Guinea to East Polynesia. This Element employs a variety of perspectives and methodologies, including zooarchaeological, ethnoarchaeological, ethnohistoric, ethnobotanical, and Indigenous. The authors' discussion of food, feasting, ritual, identity, heritage, and community consider the complex sensory and environmental experiences involved in eating. This Element presents an approach for understanding the nature and culture of food, the way that humans make food and food makes us.