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Articles 1 - 11 of 11
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Feasting On Broken Glass: Making A Meal Of Seeds, Bones, And Sherds, Mary C. Beaudry
Feasting On Broken Glass: Making A Meal Of Seeds, Bones, And Sherds, Mary C. Beaudry
Northeast Historical Archaeology
Drawing on various lines of evidence that provide insight into late 18th- and early 19th-century episodes of dining at the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm in Newbury, Massachusetts, I explore ways in which historical archaeologists can move from discussions of food and foodstuffs to explore menus, meals, and dining. I argue that by drawing together many lines of evidence—food remains such as bones, seeds, and shells; documentary sources; and ceramics, glassware, and utensils—archaeologists are able to “feast” upon the evidence and to go beyond merely reporting on what people ate in the past. They do so by exploring ways of interpreting food on …
Modeling Communities Through Food: Connecting The Daily Meal To The Construction Of Place And Identity, Karen Bescherer Metheny
Modeling Communities Through Food: Connecting The Daily Meal To The Construction Of Place And Identity, Karen Bescherer Metheny
Northeast Historical Archaeology
Foodways are an aspect of community building that find expression in the physical and cultural landscape. Using family reconstitution, food maps, and other archaeological and anthropological approaches to study foodways and commensality in the mining town of Helvetia, Pennsylvania (ca. 1891–1947), I lay out a program to reconstruct the spatial relationships associated with food procurement, preparation, and consumption in historic-period communities. Particular emphasis is placed on food sharing and shared food activities in the context of the daily meal. These reconstructed relationships or food connections reflect the varied networks and boundaries within the community, based on ethnicity, gender, age, sex, …
Applying Concepts From Historical Archaeology To New England's Nineteenth-Century Cookbooks, Anne Yentsch
Applying Concepts From Historical Archaeology To New England's Nineteenth-Century Cookbooks, Anne Yentsch
Northeast Historical Archaeology
This article describes a study of New England cookbooks as a data source for historical archaeologists. The database for this research consisted of single-authored, first-edition cookbooks written by New England women between 1800 and 1900, together with a small set of community cookbooks and newspaper advertisements. The study was based on the belief that recipes are equivalent to artifact assemblages and can be analyzed using the archaeological methods of seriation, presence/absence, and chaîne opératoire. The goal was to see whether change through time could be traced within a region, and why change occurred; whether it was an archetypal shift in …
Decline In The Use And Production Of Red-Earthenware Cooking Vessels In The Northeast, 1780-1880, Meta F. Janowitz
Decline In The Use And Production Of Red-Earthenware Cooking Vessels In The Northeast, 1780-1880, Meta F. Janowitz
Northeast Historical Archaeology
Ceramic collections from archaeological sites dating to and before the early 19th century are often dominated by red-earthenware vessels used in the foodways complex. By the late 19th century, redware vessels are much less common in New England and the Middle Atlantic region. This decline in the use and production of red earthenwares has many causes, including decreased costs of alternative materials (stoneware, refined earthenware, metal, and glass) and an awareness of the harmful effects of lead glazes, but the most important factor is the change in food-preparation technology from open-hearth to stove cooking.
Op-Ed: The Influence Of New Technologies, Foods, And Print Media On Local Material Culture Remains In Nineteenth-Century America, Marie-Lorraine Pipes, Meta F. Janowitz
Op-Ed: The Influence Of New Technologies, Foods, And Print Media On Local Material Culture Remains In Nineteenth-Century America, Marie-Lorraine Pipes, Meta F. Janowitz
Northeast Historical Archaeology
This opinion piece is a brief discussion of documentary and graphic sources, such as cookbooks, works of fiction, advertisements, and genre paintings, available to archaeologists for use in interpreting food-related artifacts and faunal materials from 19th-century domestic deposits. At that time American society experienced a surge in print and visual media that shaped the consumption and preparation of new foods. The scale of influence a particular form of media has on consumers varies in relation to the time sensitivity of the media.This article considers the range of sources that exist and suggest a comprehensive approach to the analysis of archaeological …
Consumerism And Control: Archaeological Perspectives On The Harvard College Buttery, Christina J. Hodge
Consumerism And Control: Archaeological Perspectives On The Harvard College Buttery, Christina J. Hodge
Northeast Historical Archaeology
Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, offers a unique setting through which to explore cultural changes within 17th- and 18th-century America, including shifting foodways and consumerisms. Harvard’s early leaders constructed their collegiate community by controlling many aspects of scholars’ lives, including their eating, drinking, and purchasing practices. Between 1650 and 1800, the college operated the “Buttery,” a commissary where students supplemented meager institutional meals by purchasing snacks and sundries. As a marketplace, the buttery organized material practices of buying and selling as people and things flowed through it. Archaeological and documentary evidence reveals how college officials attempted to regulate, but lagged …
Historic Philadelphia Foodways: A Consideration Of Catfish Cookery, Teagan Schweitzer
Historic Philadelphia Foodways: A Consideration Of Catfish Cookery, Teagan Schweitzer
Northeast Historical Archaeology
This article explores the consumption of catfish in the Philadelphia area during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Although not extremley popular in the region today, in the past this fish was an important part of the culinary landscape, in particular as part of a meal referred to as "catfish and waffles." Evidence from zooarchaeological and documentary research is used to justify this claim.
Dining With John And Catharine Butler Before The Close Of The Eighteenth Century, Eva Macdonald, Suzanne Needs-Howarth
Dining With John And Catharine Butler Before The Close Of The Eighteenth Century, Eva Macdonald, Suzanne Needs-Howarth
Northeast Historical Archaeology
The partial excavation of the homestead of Colonel John Butler in the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake has afforded the opportunity to explore the daily activities of one Loyalist family after the establishment of the British colony of Upper Canada in the 1780s. In particular, the large collection of zooarchaeological material (over 14,5000 specimens) can provide information about the availability of wild animal species, as well as the types of domestic animals that the Butlers kept on their farm. Butchering marks provide further insight into the types of meat cuts used in cooking meals for the family and guests. These are compared …
The Power Of Choice: Reflections Of Economic Ability, Status, And Ethnicity In The Foodways Of A Free African American Family In Northwestern New Jersey, Megan E. Springate, Amy Raes
The Power Of Choice: Reflections Of Economic Ability, Status, And Ethnicity In The Foodways Of A Free African American Family In Northwestern New Jersey, Megan E. Springate, Amy Raes
Northeast Historical Archaeology
The choices people make concerning food involve decisions well beyond biological sustenance. Food procurement and consumption, as well as the way in which a dish is served, are choices that are embedded with both overt and less obvious implications of social aspirations and validations (McKee 1999; Reitz, Ruff, and Zierden 2006). Food and the means by which it is prepared and consumed embody and communicate cultural traditions, as well as factors such as social identity, ethnicity, status, class, and consumer choice. In this article, we examine the faunal remains, tablewares, and food-preparation vessels recovered during excavations within a free African …
Introduction: Bringing More To The Table, Karen Bescherer Metheny
Introduction: Bringing More To The Table, Karen Bescherer Metheny
Northeast Historical Archaeology
Introduction to the special volume on foodways.
Fish In Foodways Systems-Data Integration And Patterning, David Singer
Fish In Foodways Systems-Data Integration And Patterning, David Singer
Northeast Historical Archaeology
No abstract is available at this time.