Title
Campus Units
World Languages and Cultures
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Version
Accepted Manuscript
Publication Date
2016
Journal or Book Title
The Routledge History of American Foodways
Volume
Part One
Issue
Chapter 1
First Page
9
Last Page
22
Abstract
By the time Europeans reached the shores of the Americas, the Indigenous peoples of the northern continent had developed food systems that efficiently utilized their abundant landscape to provide a relatively nutritious diet. The diversity of Indigenous food ways mirrored the diversity of the ecosystems of each people’s homeland. Lush forests east of the Mississippi harbored plentiful game and provided fertile soil for fields of corn, beans, and squash. Peoples who lived along the ocean coasts gathered tidewater resources, like shellfish, seaweed, and sea urchins. They also perfected seafaring vessels that could take them far from land, even to hunt large game—like seals, dolphins, and whales. Moreover peoples living in regions with seemingly scarce resources developed rich food systems. The peoples of the southwest not only harvested the incredible diversity of their desert landscape, they also invented complex systems of irrigation, allowing them to farm with the little water at their disposal. By viewing most non-human entities as cognizant beings, including animals, plants and even stones, and by emphasizing reciprocal relationships with these other beings, Indigenous peoples learned to hunt, gather, fish, and grow with the restraint needed to ensure continued abundance of food sources. These practices present alternatives to Euro-centric hierarchical models of human and non-human relationships, offering possibilities for establishing more sustainable subsistence practices than those most Americans currently practice.
Copyright Owner
Taylor & Francis
Copyright Date
2016
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Gish Hill, Christina, "Pre-Colonial Foodways" (2016). World Languages and Cultures Publications. 160.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/language_pubs/160
Included in
European Languages and Societies Commons, Indigenous Studies Commons, Nature and Society Relations Commons, Physical and Environmental Geography Commons
Comments
This is an accept manuscript of a book chapter is published as Christina Gish Hill. 2016. Pre-Colonial Foodways. In The Routledge History of American Foodways. Jennifer Jensen Wallach, Lindsey R. Swindall, and Michael D. Wise, eds; pg 9-22. London: Routledge Press. Posted with permission.