Ritual feasting and empowerment at Yanshi Shangcheng

This study concerns ritual feasting at the site of Yanshi Shangcheng, an Erligang (early Shang) urban center in the middle Yellow River valley of northern China. The related rituals of divination, sacrifice, and feasting are often framed as elite practices in this region. Quantitative analysis of ceramics and contextual analysis of archaeological finds from an elite palace and a potters' neighborhood are applied to the question of whether Yanshi elites held a monopoly on ritual feasting. Dominant statistical findings support a picture of exclusionary elite feasting that contrasts with potters' simpler foodways. However, “statistical outliers” and strong contextual evidence demonstrate that Yanshi potters were also conducting ritual feasts. Using a feasting typology that includes a range of feasting types from large-scale elite feasting to small-scale community feasts and symbolic feasting, this paper argues that Yanshi elites conducted large-scale feasting while Yanshi potters practiced community-based and household feasts that were empowering to their group. A trend in augmenting social power of artisans can be seen through time at Yanshi and also through the Shang dynasty.