Style and Sustenance: A Comparative Investigation of Cattle Husbandry, Beef Butchery, and Gentry Cuisine in Eighteenth-Century British Colonial Virginia and Connecticut

Author(s): Dessa E. Lightfoot

Year: 2017

Summary

Cattle husbandry systems in Colonial Virginia and Colonial Connecticut diverged greatly from a shared British origin. Husbandry choices were not made in isolation, but instead this divergence was the result of a complex interplay between colonial goals, social organization, and changing British culinary fashions.  Did the role of beef in regional Virginian and Connecticuter cuisines vary from contemporary British uses?  Did they vary significantly from each other?  By exploring the history of cattle husbandry, archaeological evidence of beef butchery, and documentary evidence of cuisine in these regions, it is possible to develop a working model of how cattle were reared and used, the place beef occupied in the cuisines of these of regions in the eighteenth century, and how or if they diverged from British culinary trends.

Cite this Record

Style and Sustenance: A Comparative Investigation of Cattle Husbandry, Beef Butchery, and Gentry Cuisine in Eighteenth-Century British Colonial Virginia and Connecticut. Dessa E. Lightfoot. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Fort Worth, TX. 2017 ( tDAR id: 435278)

Keywords

Temporal Keywords
Eighteenth century

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 638