How Colonization Created Food Inequality in the United States (and Why It Matters)

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Perspectives from the Study of Early Colonial Encounter in North America: Is it time for a “revolution” in the study of colonialism?" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In the contemporary landscapes of the United States, there are many social and economic inequalities tied to the production, distribution and consumption of food. When constructing solutions to overcome those food-centered inequalities, it is often overlooked how those disparities originated and were bolstered by European colonization and oppression, such as within Indian removal and chattel slavery. Through the urban and rural, we will explore how Western Tennessee (Memphis and associated pastoral towns) highlights the intersectional history of Native American, African American and Settler past, present and future food systems. We also stress why it matters to acknowledge a racially food-based historicity within the process of colonization to provide more effective solutions to overcome broad scale systemic inequalities in the 21st century.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• Perspectives from the Study of Early Colonial Encounter in North America: Is it time for a “revolution” in the study of colonialism?

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 1053