Paper Title
Location
Room 217, West Center
Keywords
Gender; Archaeology; Intersectionality; Globalization; Urban Anthropology; Anthropology; Marginalization; Foodways; Feminist Archaeology; Gender Archaeology
Start Date
April 2016
End Date
April 2016
Abstract
Through use of examining how food is produced, stored, distributed and consumed, one can take a glimpse into the past, present and even future of this planet–to better understand the complexity of human identity and the social practices or roles that define an individual, community or society. So this begins an exploration of the archaeology of food as a gendered commodity throughout our evolutionary past, emphasizing the infinite ways in which foodway practices exceeds the nutritional value of what our ancestors, family, friends and ourselves consume(d) on a daily basis. Foodways practices is an invaluable tool in any archaeologists’ tool belt, for it illuminates a very integral part of human identity; gender. A foodways approach examines gendered identity by incorporating an intersectional view of food in culture, tradition and history–food is a communication tool to understanding the beliefs of past peoples, an area that gender plays an active role in. This paper will argue that food is never a purely biological activity, rather, the foods eaten have histories associated with the pasts of those who eat them; its consumption is always determined by meaning and these meanings are always symbolic. An engendered foodways approach to interpreting the archaeological record–and therefore our species history–will replace the focus on the remains of history with a focus on the people of history, by demonstrating that gendered consumption is a dynamic interplay between communities and cultures.
Included in
Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Folklore Commons, Indigenous Studies Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Other Food Science Commons, Other History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Theory and Criticism Commons, Women's Studies Commons
The Archaeology of Appetites
Room 217, West Center
Through use of examining how food is produced, stored, distributed and consumed, one can take a glimpse into the past, present and even future of this planet–to better understand the complexity of human identity and the social practices or roles that define an individual, community or society. So this begins an exploration of the archaeology of food as a gendered commodity throughout our evolutionary past, emphasizing the infinite ways in which foodway practices exceeds the nutritional value of what our ancestors, family, friends and ourselves consume(d) on a daily basis. Foodways practices is an invaluable tool in any archaeologists’ tool belt, for it illuminates a very integral part of human identity; gender. A foodways approach examines gendered identity by incorporating an intersectional view of food in culture, tradition and history–food is a communication tool to understanding the beliefs of past peoples, an area that gender plays an active role in. This paper will argue that food is never a purely biological activity, rather, the foods eaten have histories associated with the pasts of those who eat them; its consumption is always determined by meaning and these meanings are always symbolic. An engendered foodways approach to interpreting the archaeological record–and therefore our species history–will replace the focus on the remains of history with a focus on the people of history, by demonstrating that gendered consumption is a dynamic interplay between communities and cultures.
