Native Eastern Woodland Edible Metaphors of Pig and Bear

Summary

This is an abstract from the "If Animals Could Speak: Negotiating Relational Dynamics between Humans and Animals" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Domestic pigs, first introduced to sixteenth-century Native Americans in the Southeast by Spanish entradas, provided a familiar and suitably European food source for colonists who settled the region. Over the next two to three centuries, local Indigenous cuisines also incorporated pig meat and fat, which often fulfilled the same culinary roles once occupied by black bear (a species endemic to much of North America). To understand this incorporation, we consider the metaphoric qualities of pigs and bears and their perceived similarities and differences along culinary, social, and ritual lines among Indigenous Eastern Woodland groups.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• If Animals Could Speak: Negotiating Relational Dynamics between Humans and Animals   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37141.0