Feeding the Confined: Faunal Analysis of Hyde Park Barracks

Author(s): Kimberley G Connor

Year: 2019

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology, Faunal, and Foodways Studies" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Institutions today struggle with the same questions as those in previous centuries – how should we balance nutritional requirements and budget constraints? Is the diet designed to punish, reform or rehabilitate? Should there be set minimums for the quantity and quality of  the food? This paper uses a combination of faunal analysis and historical research to examine the diet of women staying in the Immigration Depot (1848–1886) and the Destitute Asylum (1862–1886) at Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney, NSW. The results show that a lack of official planning can be damaging, even when punishment is not intended. While the diet was basically sufficient, it was monotonous and poorly adapted to the women’s needs. I argue that this was not the consequence of a policy decision to punish or control the inmates but rather the use of older, generic dietaries based on those designed for sailors and convicts.

Cite this Record

Feeding the Confined: Faunal Analysis of Hyde Park Barracks. Kimberley G Connor. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, St. Charles, MO. 2019 ( tDAR id: 449103)

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Keywords

Temporal Keywords
1848-1886

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): 302