Food is the most basic need of all animals, and throughout history, humans have fulfilled this need by hunting, fishing, foraging, tending plants, and raising animals. Securing food is intertwined with social structure and cultural development, and it is often the center of religious practice. In recent years, technological developments have enabled archaeologists to study the foods ancient people ate with a much great degree to accuracy than ever before. Seeds and pollen are often preserved and can be identified and quantified. Animal bones can be analyzed. Evidence of diets can be coaxed from human bones and teeth with trace element analysis.
This volume of essays by fourteen scholars is the first such study of foodways in the American Southeast. The authors examine which foods were eaten and pursue the question of why, how, and when. While most foods and beverages were consumed for sustenance, others were more ritual in nature. Take for example the Black Drink, a beverage made from holly leaves that causes excruciating vomiting. Thought my many to produce a ritual cleansing, the Black Drink was extensively used throughout the Southeast. In a more modern era, Kentucky bourbon became the drink of choice leaving behind the remains of hundreds of failed distilleries for archaeologists to study.
The archaeology of foodways is a new and growing sub-field, and this volume is an important and fascinating study of the development of foods in the Southeast.
