Contrasting Commensality in Colonial Mesoamerica and the Borderlands East

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Building Bridges: Papers in Honor of Teresita Majewski" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Native groups developed great diversity in food recipes, preparation techniques, and approaches to commensality. In some regions, such as in the Borderlands East, commensality tended toward communal-style serving vessels and related eating practices. Those practices contrasted with individual-style plates, bowls, and cups that were used in regions of Mesoamerica. The arrival of European colonizers further added to and transformed regional vessel forms with their use of tables in the practice of commensality. The regional differences in Native traditions likely contributed to the varied adoption of Native serving vessels for the colonial table. I contrast major variations in traditions of commensality in colonial Mesoamerica and the Borderlands East. I then investigate those differences through the distribution of European-style tableware and Native serving vessels recovered from two distinct colonial contexts: the Port of Veracruz and the Presidios of Northwest Florida.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Building Bridges: Papers in Honor of Teresita Majewski

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38662.0