Consuming Conquest: Changing Foodways in Historic New Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "New Avenues in the Study of Plant Remains from Historical Sites" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The historic period in New Mexico is marked by series of major disruptions, including Spanish colonization, the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, the rise of the Comancheria, American Annexation (1846), and the arrival of the railroad (1878). This paper investigates how these disruptions lead to changing patterns of plant consumption and ceramic use during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Plant microremains (phytoliths) and ceramic data are examined from two Spanish New Mexican sites, a 17th-century household (LA20,000) and an 18th-19th-century settlement with households and a plaza known as the Plaza del Embudo. This paper reconstructs dietary change and continuity among Spanish colonists and explores multi-generational dietary impacts during the 17th through 19th centuries.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• New Avenues in the Study of Plant Remains from Historical Sites   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology