Bones and Barbeques: A Zooarchaeological Study of Alsatian Foodways at Castroville, Texas

Summary

Emigrating from Alsace, a contested border region, to the contested frontier of Texas, many Alsatians had to adjust to life in the American West. This included maintaining their identities as Alsatians in the face of a changing landscape, which manifested through different ways in quotidian life, including choices in food. Through Number of Identified Specimen counts, researchers use faunal assemblages associated with habitation sites to identify patterns of the frequency with which various faunal taxa were consumed by groups of humans. I apply this methodology to a site associated with an Alsatian immigrant household from the mid-19th to the late 20th century within historic Castroville, Texas. Ultimately, I will examine subsistence patterns such as butchery marks and meat choice to ascertain aspects of identity such as class and consumption over time.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Memory, Materiality, and Alsatian Identity in Castroville, Texas   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 225