Dietary Histories in Early China: Gender and Food in Urban and Rural Eastern Zhou Communities (771–221 BCE, Ancient Zhenghan City, China)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Stable isotope analysis of human skeletal samples allows bioarchaeologists to study human diet from discrete periods of life and can provide fine-grained dietary histories of individuals. Previous research on the Eastern Zhou Dynasty identified dietary differences between adult females and males, and a study of childhood diet for two urban Eastern Zhou communities indicated that gendered eating patterns began in early life. Those studies found that, over the lifetime, males consumed greater amounts of millet than females, who consumed more wheat, soy, and other C3-foods. However, it is unknown if these differences between the diets of females and males existed in other Eastern Zhou communities, or if this was a local phenomenon limited to the urban center of ancient Zhenghan city (modern-day Xinzheng, China). This project examines individuals from three newly studied mortuary populations including both urban and rural settings. Using a life-course approach, we sampled an early-forming tooth from 38 adult individuals using incremental dentin sampling to investigate breastfeeding, weaning, and childhood diet, in conjunction with a bone sample, which records diet from the final decade before death. Here we examine dietary patterns over individual lifetimes and compare urban and rural experiences in relation to gender and social inequality.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32528