Ancient Foodways: Integrative Approaches to Understanding Subsistence and Society - Hardcover

Society for Ethnobotany Daniel F. Austin Award



How archaeology can shed light on past foodways and social worlds



Through various case studies, Ancient Foodways illustrates
how archaeologists can use bioarchaeology, zooarchaeology,
archaeobotany, architecture, and other evidence to understand how food
acquisition, preparation, and consumption intersect with economics,
politics, and ritual. Spanning four continents and several millennia of
human history, this volume is a comprehensive and contemporary survey of
how archaeological data can be used to interpret past foodways and
reconstruct past social worlds.



This volume is organized
around four major themes: feasting and politics; sacrifice, ritual, and
ancestors; diet, landscape, and health; and integrative methods.
Contributors weave together multiple threads of evidence relating to
plants, animals, craft production, and human health and reconnect the
material remnants with behaviors, practices, and meanings. The case
studies show the varied and creative ways that multiple sources of
evidence can be used to shed light on past foodways.



Ancient Foodways
demonstrates how environmental and cultural factors shaped past
subsistence strategies and cooking practices and reveals the role food
played in shaping cultural identity and exchange networks, while also
examining how food production methods can lead to environmental
destruction and the detrimental role of dietary constraints on human
health.