Diverse Dining: Post-Emancipation Foodways in Antigua, West Indies

Summary

The role of zooarchaeology and foodways in plantation archaeology has aided in teasing out the details of daily life and shifting sociocultural habits during the colonial period. Plantation archaeology has also had a distinct focus on the African diaspora communities. However, the post-Emancipation period complicates the narrative even further as new ethnic communities were brought or drawn to the new labor requirements of plantations at this time. Post-Emancipation Antigua saw an influx of immigrant communities from countries such as China, India, and Portugal, who brought their own foodways patterns and practices. This paper will discuss some of the ways in which relationships with animals and their food products shifted over time in Antigua, and what that meant for dining and daily lives across multiple social classes and ethnic groups. It will also address some interpretive challenges faced by archaeologists at the Antiguan plantation Betty’s Hope for this time period, particularly from a faunal analysis perspective. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017   •
• Afterlives of Slavery on the Post-Emancipation Caribbean Plantation

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 515