"Tell Me What You Eat and I’ll Tell You Who You Are": Food and the Challenge of Indian Identity in Late 18th and Early 19th Century California
Author(s): Lindsay A Kiel
Year: 2017
Summary
The neophyte housing complex of Mission Santa Clara de Asís, one of the five Spanish missions established in the San Francisco Bay Area during the California Mission Period, was excavated between 2012 and 2014. Excavations unearthed numerous refuse pits that contained a variety of artifacts including large numbers of faunal remains. Feature 157, the focus of this research, was made up of three distinct multi-use pit sub-features that contained the remains of a variety of fauna. The assemblage dates to approximately 1777-1837 and contains several thousand bones. The fauna recovered from this feature contradicts mission records and highlights the complexity of feeding the mission’s residents, illustrating consumption of both domesticated animals (provided by the Spanish Padres) and wild fauna, gathered by Mission Indians.
Cite this Record
"Tell Me What You Eat and I’ll Tell You Who You Are": Food and the Challenge of Indian Identity in Late 18th and Early 19th Century California. Lindsay A Kiel. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Fort Worth, TX. 2017 ( tDAR id: 435417)
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Keywords
General
Diet
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Fauna
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mission
Geographic Keywords
North America
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United States of America
Temporal Keywords
1777-1837
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): 341