The Traditional Nutrition Project: A Collaborative Study of Plant Foods to Understand Indigenous Foodways and Health in the Northern Great Basin

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Cultivating Food, Land, and Communities" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Foodways, culture, and health are closely intertwined. As such, food is a central aspect of Indigenous identity and the subject of much anthropological research. Traditional knowledge and archaeological records show that plants have always played important roles within Indigenous foodways in the Great Basin, yet nutritional information for those foods is scarce. This lack of dietary data is problematic for Indigenous communities seeking nutritional information, and for anthropologists who wish to consider nutritional perspectives. The Traditional Nutrition Project is a partnership developed between members of the Klamath Tribes, University of Oregon, and University of Nevada, Reno, to understand human diet and health in the past and present. The goal of the project is to develop a nutritional database for ancestral foods through biannual harvesting events that concurrently function to strengthen relationships between Tribal members and anthropologists while encouraging Indigenous perspectives and practices. This talk will introduce the project, highlight plants of interest, and share results of the first gathering events. We hope this project will support health and food sovereignty within Indigenous communities, contribute to theoretical frameworks in anthropology, and strengthen relationships between all involved.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Cultivating Food, Land, and Communities

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38993.0