Session: #293

Session, made up of a combination of papers, max. 15 minutes each

Food and drink are two of people’s biggest concerns as most of our energy is spent fuelling nutritional needs and tastes. Food studies are about more than just documenting the arrival of new practices or new taxa, but also about embedding such practices in the social, economic, religious, political and environmental histories of societies. As stated by Goody (1985, 43): “We need to see the process of preparing materials for consumption as the end point of that major activity of humankind (reproduction apart) that is the production of food”. Moreover, all the steps of food production involve part or much of the population. Therefore, food production practices can be seen as a “total fact”, which includes the acquisition, preparation and consumption of food.
Yet so far, such an important issue remains poorly understood. First, because of the subdivision of disciplines concerned with food procurement and consumption, and second, due to the paucity of reference frameworks built on the present. In this context, Africa is of great relevance, despite the fact that food ways remain poorly studied in that continent. Thus, this session aims for a better understanding of the cultural evolution of African food traditions through the comparison of data from different food remains and various scientific approaches, ranging from archaeology, archaeobotany, archaeozoology cultural and biological anthropology, pottery function analysis, and biochemical and molecular studies. We therefore invite researchers, Africanist and beyond, interested in food studies to join the session to exchange views on this topic.

diet, Archaeological science, pottery function

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Louis champion (France) ^1,2,3

Dr. Anne Mayor (Switzerland) ⁴
Dr. Julien Vieugue (France) ⁵