Food for the Soul & Well-being: Ruminations about the Other Face of Ancient Plant Remains

Author(s): Jose Oliver

Year: 2019

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Intangible Dimensions of Food in the Caribbean Ancient and Recent Past" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper makes the case for a greater concerted effort in archaeobotany to give equal standing to the domain of 'food' for the soul and spirit, that is, useful/edible plants for the well-being of the individual and the community in the past. All too often, the emphasis falls into concerns of staple food as a nutrient requirement and as part of agricultural and landscape studies. The presentation presents examples of the centrality of 'food for the soul' among contemporary groups (Orinoco Basin & Caribbean), followed by a review of the archaeobotanical evidence for the Caribbean, concluding with some suggestions for future avenues of research.

Cite this Record

Food for the Soul & Well-being: Ruminations about the Other Face of Ancient Plant Remains. Jose Oliver. Presented at The 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Albuquerque, NM. 2019 ( tDAR id: 450597)

Spatial Coverage

min long: -90.747; min lat: 3.25 ; max long: -48.999; max lat: 27.683 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23064