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A Cross-Cultural Study of Colonialism and Indigenous Foodways in Western North America Anthony P. Graesch, Julienne Bernard, and Anna C. Noah In the milieu of everyday household and community life, food practices are highly visible and pervasive reminders of individual and collective identity, ideology, and social status. Food is acquired, prepared, shared, and consumed multiple times every day, and food is often at the center of social interaction and cultural expression. Thus, it is perhaps no surprise that even in the midst of immense cultural change during periods of extended and intensive contact with outsiders, food practices are often one of the most enduring aspects of traditional lifeways among indigenous people (McKee 1987; Sanders 1980). Such persistence may be explained not only by environmental or ecological realities, but also by the symbolic importance of historically situated practices embodied in all facets of daily food production and consumption. The plant and animal substances people classify as food are symbolically distinct from most other material culture in that they are not merely used or worn but rather physically incorporated into the body. Thus, eating is a deeply personal way of interacting with one’s material environment . Further, food preferences (in general) and notions of edibility (in particular) are often moral concerns. This is perhaps most apparent with food taboos documented with ethnographic research worldwide, but it is also evident in the ways food can be used to divide and marginalize people by race, ethnicity, and class (Kershen 2002). In this sense, the politics of food and taste are often at the center of complex webs of information exchanged between cultures (Anderson 2005; Farb and Armelagos 1980; Harris 1985) and can be “simultaneously a thread of commonality and a measure of distinction” (Mosley 2004:50). Given that everybody eats, food is a forum for developing attitudes about outsiders (or the Other). In the context of interactions 11 Colonialism and Indigenous Foodways 213 between indigenous people and Europeans, decisions regarding the edibility of certain foods can be considered as part of a far more intimate process of intercultural negotiation of oftentimes opposing morals. The mere introduction of novel plants, animals, and methods of food preparation can challenge indigenous notions of edibility, as can the morally laden attitudes of Europeans towards the edibility of native foods. Mosley (2004:52) writes, “To question not just the aesthetics, but also the edibility of the Other’s diet, is to question the legitimacy of its foodways, its culture, and its civilization.” The resulting adoption and/or rejection of new foods by native people, both in daily practice and in the context of sacred and ritual activities, may be indicative of the attitudes of native actors towards Europeans. This has significant implications in colonial situations, which are often characterized by shifting notions of indigenous identity and affiliation. If “you are what you eat,” then what you eat carries even greater significance when “who you are” is thrown into question. Food, then, provides a unique lens for exploring both individual- and group-level associations (both ideological and sociopolitical) in precolonial and colonial settings in which notions of identity and power are challenged. Native decision-making processes may be difficult to discern from colonial mandates and efforts to direct culture change in settings in which food supply is controlled and concepts of edibility or taste are actively employed by colonizers to assert claims of authority. Data from autonomous native villages complement historical and archaeological data that derive from studies of colonial settlements because they provide a way to clearly examine the outcomes of native decisions independent of imposed dietary change. Archaeological research in these settings provides a long-term perspective on change and continuity in native foodways and elucidates the variety of ways in which native people responded to European people, as well as the range of conditions that accompanied (and indeed, extended beyond) their presence. From Alaska to Baja California, the effects of colonial influences on West Coast indigenous foodways were highly varied. Beginning in the sixteenth century, competing colonial and mercantile interests prompted more than three centuries of exploratory voyages, trading, and episodic settlement by Europeans in western North America. During this period, indigenous histories were partially shaped by intermittent 214 Graesch, Bernard, and Noah and/or sustained interactions with Russian, French, British, Spanish, and eventually (but perhaps most significantly) American colonists. In this chapter, we use three unique but related case studies in western North America to explore the changing uses of food in native communities that...

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