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While settlement patterns and other more obvious manifestations of aggregation have been studied frequently, by examining foodways during periods of aggregation and social reorganization this study provides new insights into the micro-scalar processes of social transformation, cuisine change, and economic intensification associated with increases in settlement size, density, and social diversity. I document how food production and preparation intensified in conjunction with increases in the size of settlements and the scale of communal commensal events. I argue that foodways were a critical aspect of the social work of establishing and maintaining large, dense communities in the 13th and 14th centuries. At the same time, widespread changes in commensal practices placed a larger burden on household surplus and labor and women were likely the most affected as maize flatbreads and other foods made with finely ground flour were adopted and became central to cuisine. As such, this study provides insights into how rapid social transformations in the late 13th and 14th centuries were experienced differently by individuals, particularly along gendered lines. Studies of foodways, and specifically the social dimensions of food, offer a promising and often underutilized source of information about past processes of population aggregation, social integration, and transformations in the political economies of small-scale societies the past.
Hundreds of thousands of archaeological investigations in the United States conducted over the last several decades have documented a large portion of the recovered archaeological record in the United States. However, if we are to use this enormous corpus to achieve richer understandings of the past, it is essential that both CRM and academic archaeologists change how they manage their digital documents and data over the course of a project and how this information is preserved for future use. We explore the nature and scope of the problem and describe how it can be addressed. In particular, we argue that project workflows must ensure that the documents and data are fully documented and deposited in a publicly accessible, digital repository where they can be discovered, accessed, and reused to enable new insights and build cumulative knowledge.
Cientos de miles de investigaciones arqueológicas en los Estados Unidos realizado en las últimas décadas han documentado una gran parte del registro arqueológico recuperado en los Estados Unidos. Sin embargo, si vamos a utilizar este enorme corpus para lograr entendimientos más ricos del pasado, es esencial que CRM y los arqueólogos académicos cambian cómo administran sus documentos digitales y los datos en el transcurso de un proyecto y cómo se conserva esta información para uso en el futuro. Exploramos la naturaleza y el alcance del problema y describimos cómo se pueden abordarse. En particular, sostenemos que los flujos de trabajo de proyecto deben asegurarse que los documentos y datos son totalmente documentados y depositados en un repositorio digital de acceso público, donde puede ser descubiertos, acceder y reutilizados para activar nuevos conocimientos y construir conocimiento acumulativo.