Relating to and through Food: Thinking about the Social Dimensions of Food through Cuisine and Commensality

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Thinking about Eating: Theorizing Foodways in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The fundamental importance of food to mind, body, and society makes foodways important to our understanding of past social phenomenon. In this presentation, I highlight the importance of engaging with the social dimensions of food to address the multifaceted relationships between broader changes in the environment and political economy and the everyday practicalities and uncertainties that shaped food practices in the past. I approach the social dynamics of past foodways through the dual lens of cuisine, the cultural logics and embodied traditions of food practices, and commensality, the socioeconomic and political dynamics of shared meals. I discuss the opportunities and challenges of addressing cuisine and commensality in the past through a combination of legacy data, museum collections, ethnoarchaeological research, and the perspectives of descendant communities. Drawing on research examining the role of foodways in rapid social transformations in the Cibola/Zuni region of New Mexico, I emphasize the value of foodways in “thinking” about past lifeways, and argue that synthetic analyses of past foodways drawing on multiple material and theoretical perspectives provide a unique window into the ways individuals along multiple intersections of identity were (un)able to experience and participate in broader social and political life through food.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Thinking about Eating: Theorizing Foodways in Archaeology

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32943