Pre-Columbian foodways
Subtitle: interdisciplinary approaches to food, culture, and markets in ancient Mesoamerica
By: John Edward Staller, Michael Carrasco, editors
Contributors: University of Calgary. Archaeological Association. Conference
Publisher: Springer
Published: 2010
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 691
ISBN-13: 9781441904706
Other titles: Precolumbian foodways
Description: "The significance of food and feasting to Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures has been extensively studied by archaeologists, anthropologists and art historians. Foodways studies have been critical to our understanding of early agriculture, political economies, and the domestication and management of plants and animals. Scholars from diverse fields have explored the symbolic complexity of food and its preparation, as well as the social importance of feasting in contemporary and historical societies. This book unites these disciplinary perspectives - from the social and biological sciences to art history and epigraphy - creating a work comprehensive in scope, which reveals our increasing understanding of the various roles of foods and cuisines in Mesoamerican cultures."--Jacket.
Notes: Volume originated from a session, "The Role of Sustenance in the Feasts, Festivals, Rituals and Every Day Life of Mesoamerica," held during the 40th annual Chacmool Conference, "Eat Drink and Be Merry : the Archaeology of Foodways," hosted by the Chacmool Archaeological Association and the University of Calgary, Dept. of Archaeology, Nov. 10-12, 2007, Calgary, Alta.  Cf. p. 1.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Ethnohistoric sources on foodways, feasts, and festivals in Mesoamerica / John E. Staller; title: Development or agriculture in prehistoric Mesoamerica : the linguistic evidence / Cecil H. Brown; title: The pastoral niche in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica / Jeffrey R. Parsons; title: The drink mescal : its origin and ritual uses / Mari Carmen Serra and Carlos Lazcano A.; title: Forming Mesoamerican taste : cacao consumption in formative period contexts / Rosemary A. Joyce and John S. Henderson; title: Salt production and trade in ancient Mesoamerica / Eduardo Williams; title: The dirt on food : ancient feasts and markets among the lowland Maya / Bruce H. Dahlin ... [et al.]; title: An epigraphic analysis of classic-period Maya foodstuffs / Kerry Hull; title: Sweet cacao and sour atole : mixed drinks on classic Maya ceramic vases / Dmitri Beliaev, Albert Davletshin, and Alexandre Tokovinine; title: Prehistoric chronology of the common bean in the New World : the linguistic evidence / Cecil H. Brown; title: Death and chocolate : the significance of cacao offerings in ancient Maya tombs and caches at Copan, Honduras / Cameron L. McNeil; title: Feasting with foam : ceremonial drinks of cacao, maize, and pataxte cacao / Judith Strupp Green; title: Corn, colanders, and cooking : early maize processing in the Maya lowlands and its implications / David Cheetham; title: Potographies and biographies : the role of food in ritual and identity as seen through life histories of selected Maya pots and people / Linda Howie, Christine D. White, and Fred J. Longstaffe; title: Dietary diversity in the upper Belize River Valley : a zooarchaeological and isotopic perspective / Carolyn R. Freiwald; title: Power plants : paleobotanical evidence of rural feasting in late classic Belize / David J. Goldstein and Jon B. Hageman; title: Food and feasting in the Zona Maya of Quintana Roo / E.N. Anderson; title: All maize is not equal : maize variety choices and Mayan foodways in rural Yucatan, Mexico / John Tuxill ... [et al.]; title: Maya foodways : a reflection of gender and ideology / Amber O'Connor; title: The axolotl as food and symbol in the basin of Mexico, from 1200 BC to today / Carolyn E. Tate; title: Topophilia : a tool for the demarcation of cultural microregions : the case of the Huaxteca / Lorenzo Ochoa; title: This world and beyond : food practices and the social order in Mayan religion / Brian Stross; title: Maize was their flesh : ritual feasting in the Maya highlands / Allen J. Christenson; title: From field to hearth : an earthly interpretation of Maya and other Mesoamerican creation myths / Michael D. Carrasco; title: The flesh of god : cosmology, food, and the origins of political power in ancient southeastern Mesoamerica / David Freidel and F. Kent Reilly III.