Agricultural Labor Organizations and Management Strategies in the Prehistoric Erdaojingzi Site, Inner Mongolia, China

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Food preparation is an arena for the understanding of social performances, and its scope is often indicative of the fabrications of social relations in historical contexts. This paper investigates daily food preparations in archaeological contexts and considers social bonds through the lens of mundane meals. By doing so, we aim to shift the focus from the ritualistic aspects of food to emphasize the role of the primary agent of agricultural production, ordinary farmers. The excavations and flotation work at the Bronze Age site Erdaojingzi (ca. 3500 cal yr BP) in southeast Inner Mongolia make it possible to investigate the labor organization of prehistoric farming societies in the region. Combining crop processing and plant stable isotope analyses, our preliminary results show grain processing activities were organized within each household as well as collectively involving the larger settlement community. In the field, millet cultivation was likely managed with members from multiple households. This research offers an opportunity to gain insights into the social bonds and labor organizations in the context of millet production, paving the way to understand the economic disparities of different subgroups in prehistoric societies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37574.0