Dining in Detroit: A critical look at urban food consumption patterns through 19th Century Faunal Remains Analysis.

Author(s): Jaroslava M Pallas

Year: 2018

Summary

As North American cities underwent growth and change in the early to mid 1800s, production and consumption of food became a chief driving force in this transformation. For many North American cities, including Detroit, a defining moment in urbanization is characterized by the change in food production. Through an assemblage of faunal remains, historical documents, and cookbooks, this paper attempts to illustrate the processes of change in Detroit during 19th century, and observe the transition of food practices of the elites and their servants. Tracing the patterns of food production and consumption provides a vital framework for understanding the transition from a rural to urban landscape. This paper provides an insight of household food consumption of one neighborhood through investigating a sample of faunal remains. Those remains, once tossed aside by a careful unnamed housekeeper, continue to provoke questions about broader aspects of changing lives in a growing city.

 

Cite this Record

Dining in Detroit: A critical look at urban food consumption patterns through 19th Century Faunal Remains Analysis.. Jaroslava M Pallas. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2018 ( tDAR id: 441578)

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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): 883