Cooking and Colonialism: Identifying Cultural Values and Identities in Consuming “Foreign” Goods in the British Atlantic World

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Consumption, as a shared material practice, has frequently been examined by archaeologists to understand the cultural dynamics in the distinction of groups that inform status, class, and identities. In the increasing integration of global exchanges across the Atlantic in the 18th century, this paper seeks to understand how non-local colonial goods were perceived, valued, and consumed in British colonies. This interest arises out of ongoing research that compares cultures of colonialism in the histories of two Atlantic ports: Spanish St. Augustine, FL, and British Charleston, SC. Given the contested and overlapping histories between these two cities in the North American Southeast, this preliminary research is interested in identifying how British colonists may have consumed Spanish goods in the 18th century, with implications for how the process of colonialism changed British colonists themselves. A survey of contemporary cookbooks, style guides, and personal correspondences can identify discourses on how Spanish goods (such as wine and chocolate) were considered and consumed in Britain and in Charleston, SC. The implications found in the consumption values of foreign goods are considered in comparison to the archaeological studies of the 18th-century British colonies that often emphasize a close adherence to their metropolitan influences.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40381.0