Glossary

Commensality Fellowship at table; the act or practice of eating at the same table.

Cuisine Style of cooking (sometimes the prepared food). diet A prescribed selection of foods. dish A particular item of prepared food.

Feasting Eating an elaborate meal (often accompanied by entertainment).

Food Any substance that can be metabolized by an organism to give energy and build tissue food. foodways The eating habits and culinary practices of a people, region, or historical period.

Gastro-politics The everyday domestic politics of the allocation of food.

Household archaeology A branch of archaeology concerned with the study of the material culture and activities associated with ancient households. meal The food served and eaten at one time. subsistence Minimal resources for subsisting.

Food is the meeting place of nature and culture. One cannot unravel one side from the other, making food and all its components engagingly cultural while being driven by the biological. In many communities, food is the principal medium for social interaction, both for prestige gain as well as for comfort and communality. Food is the driving force of vast productive fields as well as small, intimate family meals sitting around a hearth. Both of these are goals in archaeological inquiry. Eating stimulates the memories of every past meal while being driven by the politics and economies of the day. The histories of people’s experiences can be read through the histories of their food use. Food in fact is so basic to life that we often overlook its centrality in our studies, assuming it is insignificant despite it being so obviously present on a daily basis. Eating food is both banal and fraught with consequences, giving it the power to alter and influence. Although we require food, we impose categories upon our food ingredients, making some potential food items unacceptable for consumption and others acceptable, based on a range of emotional, historical, social, economic, and political decisions. But these rules also help people choose edible foods in new settings and lessen the daily issue of what to eat. As Andrew Sherratt aptly stated, we do not eat species, we eat meals.

The study of food is a perspective, an approach, a constellation of questions about the past, and thus a way of doing archaeology. It is not that food does not inspire intellectual thought; it does. Food makes researchers think broadly and deeply about social life. Food production, preparation, storage, serving, and consumption play a part in the creation and recreation of cultures, nations, groups, families, individuals, genders, and personal identities. Food is also material, allowing us access to many aspects of past human society. Giving food creates relationships and therefore encourages sociality. Food sharing is probably the most common social act and gift in human history. Gift exchange occurs virtually in every human interaction, if not as food or things, then at least as information, texts, or attention. Things that are given hold a different meaning than owned or purchased items. A gift is a thing and an act. The gift, with its obligation, holds the possibility of continuing interactions as well as material return. Food gifting develops social relationships of alliances between individuals and therefore larger social units. Even nonmarket societies differentiate between exchange value (the worth of an object when it is exchanged) and use value (the worth of an object based on its use).

Meals and dishes have fluid meanings, well beyond what is physically eaten. The socially sensitive within a specific culture can ‘read’ the occasion, based on the type, quantities, and presentation of the meal. Even if one is studying a new social event, there are cultural rules and proscriptions surrounding the meal that, when applied, identify the type of event and the social relationships of the actors. This is helpful for the archaeologists to bear in mind in their interpretations, as some settings have spatial data that can identify where food was presented and consumed.

The study of meals, foodways, food, and cuisines can help archaeology recover the humanity of the past. Food garners meaning with every bite. It participates symbolically in defining boundaries between the self and the other from regional cuisines, regional production, to religious taboos. Food selection is based on a combination of cultural factors, psychological factors, and ecological availability. Selection is, in part, built upon the memory of past experiences, accentuating certain senses, thoughts, and feelings at each new event. The sensory factors include taste, odor, texture, levels of satiation as well as the settings in which food is consumed, the flavor of the food and its perception; all these contribute in forming a strong corporeal memory. Food scholars agree that human desires are learned and are not wholly dependant upon the nature of foods themselves. Even those few predispositions that humans do have, like a desire for sweetness, salt, and fat, can be unlearned and channeled. As a child grows up in a particular culture, surrounded by traditional culinary preferences, s/he learns what items are desirable as well as the appropriate combinations and quantities of these foods. Most often, food choices are dictated by age, gender, context, and relational experiences. Choices are made daily and seasonally. Large events are planned for, resources are hoarded, utensils are borrowed, and labor is called up. Events like weddings can take years of preparation and planning.