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Ancestral Appetites

Author : Kristen J. Gremillion

Publisher : Cambridge University Press

Page : 197 pages

File Size : 20,88 MB

Release : 2011-03-14

Category : Social Science

ISBN : 1139498886

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Book Description

This book explores the relationship between prehistoric people and their food - what they ate, why they ate it and how researchers have pieced together the story of past foodways from material traces. Contemporary human food traditions encompass a seemingly infinite variety, but all are essentially strategies for meeting basic nutritional needs developed over millions of years. Humans are designed by evolution to adjust our feeding behaviour and food technology to meet the demands of a wide range of environments through a combination of social and experiential learning. In this book, Kristen J. Gremillion demonstrates how these evolutionary processes have shaped the diversification of human diet over several million years of prehistory. She draws on evidence extracted from the material remains that provide the only direct evidence of how people procured, prepared, presented and consumed food in prehistoric times.



Ancestral Diets and Nutrition

Author : Christopher Cumo

Publisher : CRC Press

Page : 576 pages

File Size : 19,81 MB

Release : 2020-11-19

Category : Medical

ISBN : 1000176096

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Book Description

Ancestral Diets and Nutrition supplies dietary advice based on the study of prehuman and human populations worldwide over the last two million years. This thorough, accessible book uses prehistory and history as a laboratory for testing the health effects of various foods. It examines all food groups by drawing evidence from skeletons and their teeth, middens, and coprolites along with written records where they exist to determine peoples’ health and diet. Fully illustrated and grounded in extensive research, this book enhances knowledge about diet, nutrition, and health. It appeals to practitioners in medicine, nutrition, anthropology, biology, chemistry, economics, and history, and those seeking a clear explanation of what humans have eaten across the ages and what we should eat now. Features: Sixteen chapters examine fat, sweeteners, grains, roots and tubers, fruits, vegetables, and animal and plant sources of protein. Integrates information about diet, nutrition, and health from ancient, medieval, modern and current sources, drawing from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Provides comprehensive coverage based on the study of several hundred sources and the provision of over 2,000 footnotes. Presents practical information to help shape readers’ next meal through recommendations of what to eat and what to avoid.



Ancient Foodways

Author : C. Margaret Scarry

Publisher : University Press of Florida

Page : 372 pages

File Size : 47,47 MB

Release : 2022-12-30

Category : Social Science

ISBN : 0813070244

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Book Description

How archaeology can shed light on past foodways and social worlds Through various case studies, Ancient Foodways illustrates how archaeologists can use bioarchaeology, zooarchaeology, archaeobotany, architecture, and other evidence to understand how food acquisition, preparation, and consumption intersect with economics, politics, and ritual. Spanning four continents and several millennia of human history, this volume is a comprehensive and contemporary survey of how archaeological data can be used to interpret past foodways and reconstruct past social worlds.  This volume is organized around four major themes: feasting and politics; sacrifice, ritual, and ancestors; diet, landscape, and health; and integrative methods. Contributors weave together multiple threads of evidence relating to plants, animals, craft production, and human health and reconnect the material remnants with behaviors, practices, and meanings. The case studies show the varied and creative ways that multiple sources of evidence can be used to shed light on past foodways.  Ancient Foodways demonstrates how environmental and cultural factors shaped past subsistence strategies and cooking practices and reveals the role food played in shaping cultural identity and exchange networks, while also examining how food production methods can lead to environmental destruction and the detrimental role of dietary constraints on human health. 



Ancient Ocean Crossings

Author : Stephen C. Jett

Publisher : University of Alabama Press

Page : 529 pages

File Size : 22,41 MB

Release : 2017-06-06

Category : History

ISBN : 0817319395

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Book Description

Paints a compelling picture of impressive pre-Columbian cultures and Old World civilizations that, contrary to many prevailing notions, were not isolated from one another In Ancient Ocean Crossings: Reconsidering the Case for Contacts with the Pre-Columbian Americas, Stephen Jett encourages readers to reevaluate the common belief that there was no significant interchange between the chiefdoms and civilizations of Eurasia and Africa and peoples who occupied the alleged terra incognita beyond the great oceans. More than a hundred centuries separate the time that Ice Age hunters are conventionally thought to have crossed a land bridge from Asia into North America and the arrival of Columbus in the Bahamas in 1492. Traditional belief has long held that earth’s two hemispheres were essentially cut off from one another as a result of the post-Pleistocene meltwater-fed rising oceans that covered that bridge. The oceans, along with arctic climates and daunting terrestrial distances, formed impermeable barriers to interhemispheric communication. This viewpoint implies that the cultures of the Old World and those of the Americas developed independently. Drawing on abundant and concrete evidence to support his theory for significant pre-Columbian contacts, Jett suggests that many ancient peoples had both the seafaring capabilities and the motives to cross the oceans and, in fact, did so repeatedly and with great impact. His deep and broad work synthesizes information and ideas from archaeology, geography, linguistics, climatology, oceanography, ethnobotany, genetics, medicine, and the history of navigation and seafaring, making an innovative and persuasive multidisciplinary case for a new understanding of human societies and their diffuse but interconnected development.



Night and Darkness in Ancient Mesoamerica

Author : Nancy Gonlin

Publisher : University Press of Colorado

Page : 370 pages

File Size : 43,95 MB

Release : 2021-12-01

Category : Social Science

ISBN : 1646421876

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Book Description

Night and Darkness in Ancient Mesoamerica is the first volume to explicitly incorporate how nocturnal aspects of the natural world were imbued with deep cultural meanings and expressed by different peoples from various time periods in Mexico and Central America. Material culture, iconography, epigraphy, art history, ethnohistory, ethnographies, and anthropological theory are deftly used to illuminate dimensions of darkness and the night that are often neglected in reconstructions of the past. The anthropological study of night and darkness enriches and strengthens the understanding of human behavior, power, economy, and the supernatural. In eleven case studies featuring the residents of Teotihuacan, the Classic period Maya, inhabitants of Rio Ulúa, and the Aztecs, the authors challenge archaeologists to consider the influence of the ignored dimension of the night and the role and expression of darkness on ancient behavior. Chapters examine the significance of eclipses, burials, tombs, and natural phenomena considered to be portals to the underworld; animals hunted at twilight; the use and ritual meaning of blindfolds; night-blooming plants; nocturnal foodways; fuel sources and lighting technology; and other connected practices. Night and Darkness in Ancient Mesoamerica expands the scope of published research and media on the archaeology of the night. The book will be of interest to those who study the humanistic, anthropological, and archaeological aspects of the Aztec, Maya, Teotihuacanos, and southeastern Mesoamericans, as well as sensory archaeology, art history, material culture studies, anthropological archaeology, paleonutrition, socioeconomics, sociopolitics, epigraphy, mortuary studies, volcanology, and paleoethnobotany. Contributors: Jeremy Coltman, Christine Dixon, Rachel Egan, Kirby Farah, Carolyn Freiwald, Nancy Gonlin, Julia Hendon, Cecelia Klein, Jeanne Lopiparo, Brian McKee, Jan Marie Olson, David M. Reed, Payson Sheets, Venicia Slotten, Michael Thomason, Randolph Widmer, W. Scott Zeleznik



Evolution Rx

Author : William F. Meller

Publisher : Penguin

Page : 277 pages

File Size : 34,40 MB

Release : 2009-05-05

Category : Health & Fitness

ISBN : 1101052554

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Book Description

Provocative, science-based, and practical, this guide presents a new way for readers to understand their bodies and promote vibrant health. Countless books and experts have advised adopting the "cave-man diet" that avoids processed foods and refined carbohydrates. But how and what to eat is only the beginning of what human evolution can teach about health. Based on the latest research, Evolution Rx provides readers with an understanding of the underlying science and a practical means to making nutritional and lifestyle changes, from exercise and injury prevention to addressing allergies, heart health, cancer, and more. Dr. Meller, one of the country's pre-eminent practitioners of evolutionary medicine, explores such topics as: ?Why eating more fat can fuel weight loss ?Why humans can't register fullness when eating carbohydrates, and what to do about it ?Why getting more sun leads to better health ?Why not to stretch before exercise ?Why children should be encouraged to get dirty



Free The Animal: Lose Weight & Fat With The Paleo Diet

Author : Richard Nikoley

Publisher : Hyperink Inc

Page : 258 pages

File Size : 48,37 MB

Release : 2012-06-12

Category : Health & Fitness

ISBN : 1614640211

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Book Description

Drawing on evolutionary logic, scientific research, and his own personal experiences, blogger Richard Nikoley of Free the Animal (freetheanimal.com) presents a complete guide to losing weight and fat the natural way. After many frustrating years of trying to lose weight by adhering to mainstream nutritional guidelines, Richard made a radical decision to throw the rules out. Instead of eating whole grains and lean meat, he ate what his body had always craved: animal fat, and lots of it—and the extra weight started falling away. In "Free The Animal: How To Lose Weight & Fat On The Paleo Diet", Richard shares his tips for eating, fasting, and exercising as wild humans did for millenia. Find out how to embrace your primal cravings for nutritionally dense animal fats and fiber-rich plant sources. Learn to stop listening to the "experts" and start tuning in to your body's natural signals. Richard's approach to the Paleo lifestyle will help you lose fat, gain muscle, and unleash the energy of the animal inside you.



Free The Animal: Weight Loss With The Paleo Diet (aka The Caveman Diet)

Author : Richard Nikoley

Publisher : Hyperink Inc

Page : 195 pages

File Size : 39,98 MB

Release : 2012-07-24

Category : Health & Fitness

ISBN : 161464487X

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Book Description

Drawing on evolutionary logic, scientific research, and his own personal experiences, blogger Richard Nikoley of Free the Animal (freetheanimal.com) presents a complete guide to losing weight and fat the natural way. After many frustrating years of trying to lose weight by adhering to mainstream nutritional guidelines, Richard made a radical decision to throw the rules out. Instead of eating whole grains and lean meat, he ate what his body had always craved: animal fat, and lots of it—and the extra weight started falling away. In Free The Animal: How To Lose Weight & Fat On The Paleo Diet, Richard shares his tips for eating, fasting, and exercising as wild humans did for millenia. Find out how to embrace your primal cravings for nutritionally dense animal fats and fiber-rich plant sources. Learn to stop listening to the “experts” and start tuning in to your body's natural signals. Richard's approach to the Paleo lifestyle will help you lose fat, gain muscle, and unleash the energy of the animal inside you.



Routledge International Handbook of Food Studies

Author : Ken Albala

Publisher : Routledge

Page : 425 pages

File Size : 12,11 MB

Release : 2013-05-07

Category : Social Science

ISBN : 1136741666

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Book Description

Over the past decade there has been a remarkable flowering of interest in food and nutrition, both within the popular media and in academia. Scholars are increasingly using foodways, food systems and eating habits as a new unit of analysis within their own disciplines, and students are rushing into classes and formal degree programs focused on food. Introduced by the editor and including original articles by over thirty leading food scholars from around the world, the Routledge International Handbook of Food Studies offers students, scholars and all those interested in food-related research a one-stop, easy-to-use reference guide. Each article includes a brief history of food research within a discipline or on a particular topic, a discussion of research methodologies and ideological or theoretical positions, resources for research, including archives, grants and fellowship opportunities, as well as suggestions for further study. Each entry also explains the logistics of succeeding as a student and professional in food studies. This clear, direct Handbook will appeal to those hoping to start a career in academic food studies as well as those hoping to shift their research to a food-related project. Strongly interdisciplinary, this work will be of interest to students and scholars throughout the social sciences and humanities.



Ceramics, Cuisine and Culture

Author : Michela Spataro

Publisher : Oxbow Books

Page : 289 pages

File Size : 18,77 MB

Release : 2015-10-31

Category : History

ISBN : 1782979506

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Book Description

The 23 papers presented here are the product of the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and approaches to the study of kitchen pottery between archaeologists, material scientists, historians and ethnoarchaeologists. They aim to set a vital but long-neglected category of evidence in its wider social, political and economic contexts. Structured around main themes concerning technical aspects of pottery production; cooking as socioeconomic practice; and changing tastes, culinary identities and cross-cultural encounters, a range of social economic and technological models are discussed on the basis of insights gained from the study of kitchen pottery production, use and evolution. Much discussion and work in the last decade has focussed on technical and social aspects of coarse ware and in particular kitchen ware. The chapters in this volume contribute to this debate, moving kitchen pottery beyond the Binfordian ‘technomic’ category and embracing a wider view, linking processualism, ceramic-ecology, behavioral schools, and ethnoarchaeology to research on historical developments and cultural transformations covering a broad geographical area of the Mediterranean region and spanning a long chronological sequence.