Award Abstract # 1649463
Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Role of Food in Establishing Social Solidarity
| NSF Org: | BCS Division Of Behavioral and Cognitive Sci |
| Recipient: | |
| Initial Amendment Date: | November 10, 2016 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | November 10, 2016 |
| Award Number: | 1649463 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: | John Yellen jyellen@nsf.gov (703)292-8759 BCS Division Of Behavioral and Cognitive Sci SBE Direct For Social, Behav & Economic Scie |
| Start Date: | November 15, 2016 |
| End Date: | October 31, 2019(Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $10,840.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $10,840.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: | |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: | 660 S MILL AVENUE STE 204 TEMPE AZ US 85281-3670 (480)965-5479 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: | |
| Primary Place of Performance: | Tempe AZ US 85281-6011 |
| Primary Place of Performance Congressional District: | |
| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): | |
| Parent UEI: | |
| NSF Program(s): | Archaeology DDRI |
| Primary Program Source: | |
| Program Reference Code(s): | |
| Program Element Code(s): | |
| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.075 |
ABSTRACT The proposed study will provide a detailed view of the foodways and social dynamics surrounding household and communal food practices in the Zuni/Cibola region over a period of rapid regional and local population aggregation and migration in the 13th and 14th centuries AD. Specifically, this research addresses relationships between social transformation, economic intensification, and increasing settlement size, density, and social diversity. This study draws on multiple kinds of archaeological data to provide a detailed comparative analysis of how the foods and food technologies of households developed, changed, or persisted in two settlement regions the Cibola region of the U.S. Southwest.
While food is widely considered a fundamental part of human social life and culture, the relationships between daily food practices and broader processes of social integration and social transformation have received little attention. This study investigates social drivers of food change in the past and provides a comparative case for considering the role of food and food practices in social and economic transformations in small-scale societies. More broadly, this research will improve and contribute to long-term histories of cuisine and traditional food practices of ancestral peoples of contemporary Western Puebloan communities (i.e., Acoma, Zuni, Hopi). The collection of this data will provide training and research experience for several undergraduate students in multiple archaeological analytical methods at Arizona State University. The data sets produced by this research will be digitally curated and made available to other researchers in publications, professional meetings, and online through the Digital Archaeology Record (tDAR). Thus, this study will not only synthesize large amounts of previously published and unpublished data and new research, but it will enhance infrastructure for research and education by providing a useful template and baseline for future studies of foodways in other places and periods. By investigating and developing methods to examine food practices and their social dynamics in the past, this research contributes to understandings about the social and political importance of food in everyday life.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This project explored changes in foodways with the formation of large, aggregated communities in the Cibola Region of east-central Arizona and west-central New Mexico in the 13thand 14thcenturies CE. Drawing on numerous archaeological collections and materials relating to the production, preparation, and consumption of food, this study documented how increases in the size and density of farming villages and towns resulted in intensified food production and an elaboration of maize cuisine, in part to participate in increasingly large communal ritual feasting activities. As communal ritual events were critical to the social integration of rapidly coalescing communities, this work highlights the political and economic importance of foodways in the work of forming and maintaining social communities. The theoretical framework and large datasets employed in this study provide the foundation for future research addressing the social and political importance of foodways throughout the U.S. Southwest. More broadly this study contributes to understandings of how cuisines develop, persist and change, particularly in small-scale societies, and it addresses how micro-scalar shifts in food practice were linked to broader climatic and sociopolitical changes. This research also has significant methodological contributions as it employs a synthetic, comparative analysis of foods, food technologies, and food activities and provides a useful framework for addressing histories of cuisine and the relationships between daily food practices and broader changes in the political economy and environment in the past. This research has also generated and made publically available through the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR) some of the largest regional databases of plant, groundstone, ceramic, and architectural analyses. Finally, through workshops and recorded interviews with traditional food experts at Zuni Pueblo, this research contributes to understandings of Zuni food histories and supports the sharing of traditional food knowledge amongst the Zuni descendant community.
Last Modified: 01/07/2020
Modified by: SarahOas
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