Investigators uncover fireplace, Talgua Village site, Honduras (D. Stierman) FOOD AND CULTURE
Archaeology and Prehistoric Studies

Arnold PP (1999) Eating Landscape: Aztec and European Occupation of Tlalocan. University of Colorado Press. [archaeology; ritual; Central America]

Important Work -- click here for detailsBakels C, Jacomet S (2003) Access to Luxury Foods in Central Europe During the Roman Period: The Archaeobotanical Evidence. World Archaeology 34:542-557. [history; archaeology; food use; Europe]

Bellwood P (2004) First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies. Blackwell. [prehistory; food production]

Bottero J (1985) Cuisine of Ancient Mesopotamia. Biblical Archaeologist 1985:36-47. [prehistory; history]

Bottero J (2004) The Oldest Cuisine in the World: Cooking in Mesopotamia. University of Chicago Press. [history; archaeology]

Bower B (1998) Banquets in the Ruins. Science News 153:131-133. [feasts; prehistory; archaeology]

Recommended -- click for detailsBrenton B, Paine R (2000) Pellagra and Paleonutrition: Assessing the Diet and Health of Maize Horticulturalists through Skeletal Biology. Nutritional Anthropology 22:2-9. [prehistory; physical anthropology; hunger; pellagra]

Brothwell D, Brothwell P (1969) Food in Antiquity. [prehistory; archaeology]

Buikstra J, Mielke JH (1985) Demography, Diet, and Health. In The Analysis of Prehistoric Diets, ed. RI Gilbert, Jr., JH Mielke, pp. 360-422. [prehistory; diet and health]

Buikstra JE, Bullington J, Charles DK (1987) Diet, Demography and the Development of Horticulture. In Emergent Horticultural Economies of the Eastern Woodlands, ed. W Keegan, pp. 76-85. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University. [prehistory; North America]

Cachel S (1997) Dietary Shifts and the Upper Paleolithic Transition. Current Anthropology 38:579-604. [prehistory; food consumption; Europe; North America]

Callen E, Cameron TWM (1960) A Prehistoric Diet Revealed in Coprolites. The New Scientist 8:35-40. [prehistory; dietary reconstruction; coprolites]

Highly Recommended -- click here for detailsChang T-T (2000) Rice. In The Cambrige World History of Food, ed. KF Kiple, KC Ornelas, pp. 132-149. Cambridge University Press. [foodstuff; prehistory; history]

Coe SD (1994) America's First Cuisines. University of Texas Press. [prehistory; history; eating habits; food systems; Central America; Mexico; South America; Aztec; Maya; Inca]

Cohen MN (1977) The Food Crisis in Prehistory: Overpopulation and the Origins of Agriculture. Yale University Press. [prehistory; origins of agriculture; population; starvation; famine]

Cohen MN (1987) The Significance of Long-Term Changes in Human Diet and Food Economy. In Food and Evolution, ed. M Harris, E Ross, pp. 261-284. Temple University Press. [prehistory; diet change; food system; health]

Cohen MN (1989) Health and the Rise of Human Civilization. Yale University Press. [prehistory; diet; nutrition; malnutrition; agricultural revolution]

Cook D (1979) Subsistence Base and Health in the Lower Illinois Valley: Evidence from the Human Skeleton. Medical Anthropology 4:109-124. [prehistory; physical anthropology; origins of agriculture; North America]

Cook D (1984) Subsistence and Health in the Lower Illinois Valley: Osteological Evidence. In Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture, ed. MN Cohen, GJ Armelagos. Academic Press. [prehistory; physical anthropology; origins of agriculture; North America]

Damerow P (1996) Food Production and Social Status as Documented in Proto-Cuneiform Texts. In Food and the Status Quest, ed. P Wiessner, W Schiefenhovel, pp. 149-169. Berghahn. [prehistory; social relations; rations and rank; Near East; Uruk]

Danforth ME (1999) Nutrition and Politics in Prehistory. Annual Review of Anthropology 28:25-Jan-. [paleonutrition; paleopathology; prehistory; North America]

De Benitez AM (1974) Pre-Hispanic Cooking. Ediciones Euroamericana Klaus Thiele. [prehistory; cookery; Latin America; Mexico]

Diamond J (1987) The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race. Discover May. [prehistory; origin of agriculture; diet and disease]

Recommended -- click for detailsDietler M (1996) Feasts and Commensal Politics in the Political Economy. In Food and the Status Quest, ed. P Wiessner, W Schiefenhovel, pp. 87-125. Berghahn. [prehistory; feasting; social relations; Western Europe]

Dietler M, Hayden B (2001) Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on Food, Politics, and Power. Smithsonian Institution Press. [collected essays; food and ritual; festival; prehistory; social relations]

Dillinger TL, Barriga P, Escarcega S, et al (2000) Food of the Gods: Cure for Humanity? A Cultural History of the Medicinal and Ritual Use of Chocolate. Journal of Nutrition 130:2057s-2072s. [foodstuff; prehistory; history; symbol]

Etkin N (1994) Eating on the Wild Side: The Pharmacologic, Ecologic, and Social Implications of Using Noncultigens. University of Arizona Press. [collected essays; prehistory; Recommended -- click for detailsfood use; wild plants; pharmacology]

Eubanks MW (1999) Corn in Clay: Maize Paleoethnobotany in Pre-Columbian Art. University Press of Florida. [archaeology; art; pottery; native American]

Fagan B (1998) Floods, Famines, and Emporers: El Nino and the Fate of Civilizations. Basic Books. [nutritional disasters; prehistory and history of civilization]

Flannery K (1965) The Ecology of Early Food Production in Mesopotamia. Science 147:1247-1255. [prehistory; ecology; food production; Near East; Mesopotamia]

Flannery K (1971) Origins and Ecological Effects of Early Domestication in Iran and the near East. In Prehistoric Agriculture, ed. S Struever, pp. 50-79. Natural History Press. [prehistory; domestication; food production; ecology; Fertile Crescent; Iran]

Ford R (1985) Patterns of Prehistoric Food Production in North America. In Prehistoric Food Production in North America Anthropological Papers of the Museum of Anthropology, ed. R Ford. Ann Arbor: Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan. [prehistory; food production; North America]

Furst P (1978) Spirulina. Human Nature 1:60-65. [foodstuff; algae; prehistory; history; Mexico; Aztec]

Galinat W (1985) Domestication and Diffusion of Maize. In Prehistoric Food Production in North America, ed. R Ford, pp. 245-278. [prehistory; North America]

Gilbert RI, Mielke JH (1985) The Analysis of Prehistoric Diets. Academic Press. [collected essays; prehistory; diet]

Goodman AH, Armelagos GJ (1985) Disease and Death at Dr Dickson's Mound. Natural History. [prehistory; health and disease; effects of agriculture; Illinois]

Goodman AH, Lallo J, Armelagos G, et al (1984) Health Changes at Dickson Mounds, Illinois (a D 950-1300). In Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture, ed. MN Cohen, GJ Amelagos, pp. 271-305. [prehistory; origins of agriculture; North America]

Recommended -- click for detailsGoodwin A, Martin D, Armelagos G, et al (1984) Indications of Stress from Bones and Teeth. In Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture, ed. MN Cohen, G Armelagos, pp. 13-49. [prehistory; origins of agriculture; North America]

Gosden C, Hather JG (1999) The Prehistory of Food: Appetites for Change. Routledge. [collected essays; archaeology; ethnology; prehistoric peoples; food habits]

Harner M (1977) The Ecological Basis for Aztec Sacrifice. American Ethnologist 4:117-135. [cannibalism; prehistory; history; ecology; Mexico; Aztec]

Hayden B (1996) Feasting in Prehistoric and Traditional Societies. In Food and the Status Quest, ed. P Wiessner, W Schiefenhovel, pp. 127-147. Berghahn. [feasts and celebrations; social relations; archaeology; ethnology]

Heiser C (1981) Seed to Civilization. [prehistory; origins of agriculture]

Herrinng DA, Saunders SR, Katzenberg MA (1998) Investigating the Weaning Process in Past Populations. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 105:425-439. [prehistory; infant feeding]

Hudson CM (1979) The Black Drink: A Native American Tea. [collected essays; history; prehistory; North American Indians]

Johannessen S, Hastorf CA (1994) Corn and Culture in the Prehistoric New World. West View Press. [collected papers; prehistory; foodstuff; Central America; North America; South America]

Jones AR (1985) Diet Change and Human Population at Indian Creek, Antigua. American Antiquity 50:518-536. [prehistory; Caribbean]

Jones EL (2003) Dietary Eveness, Prey Choice, and Human-Environment Interactions. Journal of Archaeological Science 31:307-317. [archaeology; dietary breadth; ethnology; North America; Canada; Inuit]

Katz S, Maytag F (1991) Brewing an Ancient Beer. Archaeology 44:24-33. [prehistory; food processing; barley]

Katz S, Voigt M (1986) Bread and Beer. Expedition 28:23-34. [foodstuffs; prehistory]

Katzenberg MA, Herring DA, Saunders SR (1996) Weaning and Infant Mortality: Evaluating the Skeletal Evidence. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 23:177-199. [archaeology; osteology; infant feeding]

Keegan WF (2000) The Caribbean, Including Northern South America and Lowland Central America: Early History. In The Cambridge World History of Food, ed. KF Kiple, KC Ornelas, pp. 1260-1278. Cambridge University Press. [prehistory; history; Caribbean; Central America; South America; Taino; Lucayan; African-Caribbean; Garifuna]

Klepinger L (1984) Nutritional Assessment from Bone. Annual Review of Anthropology 13:75-96. [prehistory; nutritional health]

Kuster H (2000) Northern Europe -- Germany and Surrounding Regions. In The Cambridge World History of Food, ed. KF Kiple, KC Ornelas, pp. 1226-1231. Cambridge University Press. [prehistory; history; Europe]

Larsen CS (2000) Dietary Reconstruction and Nutritional Assessment of Past Peoples: The Bioanthropological Record. In The Cambridge World History of Food, ed. KF Kiple, KC Ornelas, pp. 13-34. Cambridge University Press. [physical anthropology; human evolution; prehistory]

LeCount LJ (2001) Like Water for Chocolate: Feasting and Political Ritual among the Late Classic Maya at Xunantunich, Belize. American Anthropologist 103:935-953. [food and festival; prehistory; Central America]

Maat G (1986) Features of Malnutrition, Their Significance and Epidemiology in Prehistoric Anthropology. In Innovative Trends in Prehistoric Anthropology, ed. B Hermann, pp. 157-164. [prehistory; malnutrition]

Mangelsdorf PC, MacNeish RS, Galiant WC (1964) Domestication of Corn. [foodstuff; prehistory]

Martin D, Goodman AH, Armelagos G (1985) Skeletal Pathologies as Indicators of Quality and Quantity of Diet. In The Analysis of Prehistoric Diets, ed. R Gilbert, J Mielke, pp. 227-279. [prehistory; diet and disease]

McCorriston J, Hole FA (1991) The Ecology of Seasonal Stress and the Origins of Agriculture in the near East. American Anthropologist 93:46-69. [prehistory; origins of agriculture]

McIntosh E (1995) American Food Habits in Historical Perspective. Praeger. [general survey; prehistory; history; change; North America; United States]

Messer E (2000) Maize. In The Cambridge World History of Food, ed. KF Kiple, KC Ornelas, pp. 97-112. Cambridge University Press. [foodstuff; prehistory; cultural geography; nutrition; disease]

Nestle M (2000) Paleolithic Diets: A Sceptical View. Nutrition Bulletin 25:43-47. [diet; homonid evolution; hunter-gatherer; prehistory; primates]

Newman JL (2000) Africa South from the Sahara. In The Cambridge World History of Food, ed. KF Kiple, KC Ornelas, pp. 1330-1339. Cambridge University Press. [prehistory; origins of agriculture; history; diet and disease; Africa]

Newman L, Crossgrove W, Kates R (1990) Hunger in History: Food Shortage, Poverty, and Deprivation. Blackwell. [collected papers; prehistory; origins of agriculture; change; malnutrition; famine]

Ortiz de Montellano B (1990) Aztec Medicine, Health, and Nutrition. [prehistory; history; cannibalism; Mexico; Aztec]

Parmalee PW, Klippel WE (1974) Fresh Water Mussels as a Prehistoric Food Source. American Antiquity 39:421-434. [prehistory; foodstuff; North America]

Perry L, Dickau R, Zarrillo S, et al (2007) Starch Fossils and the Domestication and Dispersal of Chili Peppers (Capsicum Spp. L.) in the Americas. Science 315:986-988. Recommended -- click for details[prehistory; origins]

Piperno D, Pearsall D (1998) The Origins of Agriculture in the Lowland Neotropics. Academic Press. [prehistory; origins of agriculture; South America]

Price TD, Gebauer AB (1995) Last Hunters--First Farmers: New Perspectives on the Prehistoric Transition to Agriculture. School of American Research. [collected essays; archaeology; origins of food production]

Pyke M (1978) The Evolution of Animal Protein in the Human Diet. In New Protein Foods, ed. AM Altshul, HL Wilcke, pp. 47-57. Academic Press. [meat eating; human evolution; history; prehistory]

Reber EA, Evershed RP (2004) How Did Mississippians Prepare Maize? The Application of Compound-Specific Carbon Isotope Analysis to Absorbed Pottery Residues from Several Mississippian Sites. Archaeometry 46:19-33. [archaeology; lipid analysis; dietary reconstruction; ceramic analysis; prehistory; cookery; North America]

Reitz E (2000) Temperate and Arctic North America to 1492. In The Cambridge World History of Food, ed. KF Kiple, KC Ornelas, pp. 1288-1304. Cambridge University Press. [prehistory; North America]

Reitz EJ, Scarry CM (1985) Reconstructing Historic Subsistence with an Example from Sixteenth-Century Spanish Florida. In Society for Historical Archaeology Special Publication (No. 3). [history; archaeology; diet; North America; Florida]

Roosevelt A (1987) The Evolution of Human Subsistence. In Food and Evolution, ed. M Harris, E Ross, pp. 565-578. Temple University Press. [prehistory; paleoanthropology; diet; subsistence]

Rose JC, Burnett BA, Nassaney MS, et al (1985) Paleopathology and the Origins of Agriculture in the Lower Mississippi Valley and Caddoan Culture Areas. In Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture, ed. MN Cohen, GJ Armelagos, pp. 393-424. [prehistory; diet and disease; origins of agriculture; North America; Mississippi Valley]

Rose JC, Condon KW, Goodman AH (1985) Diet and Dentition: Developmental Disturbances. In The Analysis of Prehistoric Diets, ed. RI Gilbert, Jr., JH Mielke. Academic Press. [physical anthropology; dietary deficiencies; dentition; prehistory]

Sahlins M (1978) Culture as Protein and Profit. The New York Review of Books 25:45-53-. [taboo; symbolism; prehistory; cannibalism; Mexico; Aztec]

Sandford M (1992) Investigations of Ancient Human Tissue: Chemical Analysis in Anthropology. Gordon and Breach. [prehistory; biological anthropology; diet; disease]

Sarpaki A (2001) Condiments, Perfume and Dye Plants in Linear B: A Look at the Textual and Archaeobotanical Evidence. In Manufacture and Measurement: Counting, Measuring and Recording Craft Items in Early Aegean Societies, ed. A Michailidou, pp. 195-265. Research Center for Green and Roman Antiquity, National Hellenic Reseach Foundation. [archaeology; food use; Europe; Mediterranean]

Sarpaki A (2001) Processed Cereals and Pulses from the Late Bronze Age Site of Akrotiri, Thera: Preparations Prior to Consumption. British School of Anthens 96:27-40. [archaeology; food processing; Europe; Mediterranean]

Scott EM (2001) Food and Social Relations at Nina Plantation. American Anthropologist 103:671-691. [history; archaeology; social relations; North America; Louisiana; French; Anglo-American; African-American]

Sealy J, Pfeiffer S (2000) Diet, Body Size, and Landscape Use among Holocene People in the Southern Cape, South Africa. Current Anthropology 41:642-654. [prehistory; hunter-gatherer; food foraging; Africa; Khoisani]

Sheehan MS (2002) Dietary Responses to Mid-Holocene Climatic Change. North American Archaeologist 23:117-144. [prehistory; North America]

Shoeninger M (1989) Reconstructing Prehistoric Human Diet. In Chemistry of Prehistoric Human Bone, ed. TD Price, pp. 36-67. [prehistory; paleoanthropology; osteology]

Smith P, Bar-Yosef O, Sillen A (1984) Archaeological and Skeletal Evidence for Dietary Change During the Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene in the Levant. In Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture, ed. MN Cohen, G Armelagos, pp. 101-136. [archaeology; prehistory; origins of agriculture; Levant]

Sobolik K (2000) Dietary Reconstruction as Seen in Coprolites. In The Cambridge World History of Food, ed. KF Kiple, KC Ornelas, pp. 44-51. Cambridge University Press. [prehistory; dietary reconstruction]

Spencer C (2000) The British Isles. In The Cambridge World History of Food, ed. KF Kiple, KC Ornelas, pp. 1217-1226. Cambridge University Press. [prehistory; history; Europe; Great Britain]

Speth JD, Spielmann KA (1983) Energy Source, Protein Metabolism, and Hunter-Gatherer Subsistence Strategies. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 2:1-31. [prehistory; hunter-gatherer subsistence]

Recommended -- click for detailsStahl AB (1989) Plant-Food Processing: Implications for Dietary Quality. In Foraging & Farming: The Evolution of Plant Exploitation, ed. DR Harris, GC Hillman, pp. 171-194. [prehistory; foodstuffs; vegetable products; diet and nutrition]

Symons M (2000) A History of Cooks and Cooking. University of Illinois. [prehistory; history; cookery]

Recommeded -- click for detailsTejada C (1979) Nutrition and Feeding Practices of the Maya in Central America. In Aspects of the History of Medicine in Latin America, ed. JZ Bowers, EF Purcell, pp. 54-87. [prehistory; Mesoamerica]

Tudge C (1999) Neanderthals, Bandits and Farmers: How Agriculture Really Began. Yale University Press. [prehistory; orgins of agriculture]

Ucko PJ, Dimbleby GW (1969) The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals. Beresford. [prehistory; history; origins of agriculture; food use]

Valentin F, Bocherens H, Gratuze B, et al (2006) Dietary Patterns During the Late Prehistoric / Historic Period in Cikobia Island (Fiji): Insights from Stable Isotopes and Dental Pathologies. Journal of Archaeological Science 33:1396-1410. [archaeology; diet; Oceania; Fiji]

vander Merwe NJ, Williamson RF, Pfeiffer S, et al (2003) The Moatfield Ossuary: Isotopic Dietary Analysis of an Iroquoian Community, Using Dental Tissue. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 22:245-261. [prehistory; nutrition; North America]

White E (2000) Feeding a City: York: The Provision of Food from Roman Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century. Prospect Books. [collected papers; archaeology; history; food supply; cookery; industrial food; Europe; England; York]

White TD (1992) Prehistoric Cannibalism in Mancos 5mtumr-2345. Princeton University Press. [prehistory; cannibalism]

Wiessner P, Schiefenhovel W (1996) Food and the Status Quest: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Berghahn. [collected papers; social relations; primatology; ethology; social evolution; prehistory; ethnology]

Wilkins J, Harvey D, Dobson M (1995) Food in Antiquity. University of Exeter Press. [prehistory; history]

Recommended -- click for detailsWing E (1978) Use of Dogs for Food: An Adaptation to the Coastal Environment. In Prehistoric Coastal Adaptations: The Economy and Ecology of Maritime Middle America, ed. BL Stark, B Voorhies, pp. 29-41. Academic Press. [prehistory; foodstuff; dog; Central America]

Wing E (2000) Animals Used for Food in the Past: As Seen by Their Remains Excavated from Archaeological Sites. In The Cambridge World History of Food, ed. KF Kiple, KC Ornelas, pp. 51-58. Cambridge University Press. [paleoanthropology; archaeology; food remains]

Wright JC, ed (2004) The Mycenaean Feast. The American School of Classical Studies. [collected essays; archaeology; festival; Mycenaean civilization ]

Wright LE, Schwarcz HP (1998) Stable Carbon and Oxygen Isotopes in Human Tooth Enamel: Identifying Breastfeeding and Weaning in Prehistory. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 106:1-18. [archaeology; infant feeding]

Zohary D, Hopf M (2000) Dometication of Plants in the Old World: The Origin and Spread of Cultivated Plants in West Asia, Europe, and the Nile Valley. Clarendon Press. [prehistory; origins of domestications; Europe; Near East; North Africa (Nile Valley); West Asia]

updated 05/2008

 

NEW
from California

Click on image for details.

Main Page



Featured Book

Click on image for details

Eye Opening -- Click for details

A visual anthropology of food

Well-written lessons -- click for details
A journalist explores four food chains
  photo-chronicle of visits to 30 families in 24 countries for 600 meals
  Copyright © 2002, 2008. All rights reserved.