Archaeologies of Foodways through Butchery at Manzanar National Historic Site

Summary

In reaction to the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japan, Americans of Japanese descent were forcibly relocated to internment camps. Internment camps created an environment where Americans constantly had to prove their loyalty to not only white Americans, but also to fellow Japanese Americans. This dynamic challenged Japanese Americans to choose a cultural affiliation, American or Japanese, which denied who they really were as Japanese Americans. Research into the food ways of interned Japanese Americans provides insight to their experience as well as a way to engage the public with the realities of the social injustice enabled by "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.". My paper analyzes butchered faunal remains from Manzanar National Historic Site in order to examine cross-cultural interactions between the Caucasian Staff and interned Japanese Americans through butchery style, cuts of meat, quality of meat, and species consumed.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018   •
• Many People, Many Plates: Archaeologies of Foodways

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 504