Recipes in Transatlantic Contexts: Mountain Chicken and Ouicou

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Atlantic Frontier: Foodways and the Materialities of TransAtlantic Interactions." session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper examines the archaeology of Dominican creole cuisine by taking an in-depth look at one dish: mountain chicken (Leptodactylus fallax) paired with ouicou, or cassava beer. Using this dish as a touchstone of the early modern Lesser Antilles, I explore the archaeological possibilities of transcontinental gastronomy amidst an ongoing Columbian Exchange. Specifically, I address how the mountain chicken and ouicou may have manifested in archaeology sites across the Caribbean, and why this endemic cultural delicacy is under severe threat in the 21st century. Building off my earthenware and microbotanical analysis in La Soye, Dominica- a multicomponent Kalinago cultural center dating from the 16th to 18th centuries- I argue for the importance of Caribbean creole cuisine in intangible heritage dialogues. To enrich this data, I also incorporate research from similar early modern sites in the Caribbean.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• The Atlantic Frontier: Foodways and the Materialities of TransAtlantic Interactions.

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53992