Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
1035088 | Journal of Anthropological Archaeology | 2010 | 19 Pages |
Abstract
⺠Aspects of any given food system inform, and are informed by, a variety of social, economic, religious, historical, ecological, cultural, and political processes. ⺠Elite foods (or, indeed, socially valued foods) tend to be those foods (or groups of foods) which are (a) scarce, (b) overly abundant, (c) diverse, (d) labor-intensive in acquisition or preparation, (e) periodically occurring, (f) exotic (non-local) in origin, (g) tasty, or (h) symbolically potent. ⺠Using these criteria elite food can be identified using archeological data, even when lacking ethnohistoric and ethnographic evidence. ⺠Possible elite foods were singled out at the Ceremonial Center of Tibes, Puerto Rico using these criteria, many of them small contributors to the general diet of the population.
Related Topics
Social Sciences and Humanities
Arts and Humanities
History
Authors
L. Antonio Curet, William J. Pestle,