How can archaeologists or anthropologists reconstruct diet in the past, and why is this information important?
Food and Diet in Past Societies
How can archaeologists or biological anthropologists reconstruct diet in the past, and why is this information important? Find two anthropology journal articles that date to 2010 or later that discuss how anthropologists can reconstruct past human diets. This may include isotope analyses, phytolith identification/analysis, or other methods.
For this question, you should also reference general course material on the anthropology of food in your response. This means that you need to apply the course concepts we learned in the lectures.
There has been a lot of talk about the “Paleolithic diet” and the problems with grains, as more and more people become allergic to wheat and gluten. Let’s take a look at what our native ancestors ate in ancient times. In northern North America, it often was moose, caribou and other animals, fish, berries, the bark and buds of trees, moss and plant roots. Animal flesh was dried and stored; plant foods were dried, pulverized, and made into cakes to be eaten straight or cooked.
Further south, fruits and nuts, and then cultivated plants such as corn, beans, and squash were added to the game and fish. Buffalo meat was a staple on the Plains. In what is now the western United States, mice, rats, reptiles and insects were widely consumed. The harvest was often not very successful. Around the Gulf of Mexico and Florida, the climate offered a wider selection: wild fruits, berries, nuts; cultivated grains and vegetables; game, [and] fish from fresh and sea waters (DeVries, 1952; Price, 1979).
On the west coast of South America, natives consumed a great deal of fish, dried fish eggs, and kelp. A great many vegetables were cultivated by the Incas, including potatoes, squash corn, beans. Further inland there were wild fruits, berries, and the like. Animal flesh included the llama, the alpaca, the guanaco, the guinea pig, wild boar, and birds.
In the Amazon basin, there were tropical fruits such as oranges, limes, melons, grapes, plantains, bananas, guavas, and pineapple. Also, green plants, nuts, carob, yucca and yams, wild honey from hollow trees, fresh water fish, water fowl, eggs, wild deer, and other animals. On the pampas, the Patagonians dined on guanaco, buffalo, and some roots. Around Chile, there were figs, pomegranates, peaches, grapes, strawberries, as well as cultivated pumpkins, yucca, beans, and corn. In Tierra del Fuego, it was mostly fish, small animals, and birds. Foods were cooked, dried, roasted, or sometimes lightly seared over the fire; in many cases meat was eaten uncooked.
Native Americans got their protein from animals that lived on wild plants, which are rich in nutrients and antioxidants. Food was always fresh. It was generally consumed within a day or two of being secured. If grain was used, it was ground and made into bread on the same day. Fruits or vegetables may have been sun-dried for preservation. Animal food was generally consumed immediately.
All native groups used fire in some form, and preparation of foodstuffs was aimed at improving digestibility, as high-fiber foods can be difficult to digest without some grinding or softening. Hunter-gatherers ate as much as 3 pounds of plant foods daily, which were higher in minerals and calcium than modern cultivated plants.