Story of Food in the Human Past
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A01=Robyn E. Cutright
agricultural revolution
archaeology of food
Author_Robyn E. Cutright
beer
Category=JBCC4
Category=NK
Category=WB
caveman diet
chicha
class
Columbian Exchange
cuisine
domestication of plants and animals
eq_bestseller
eq_food-drink
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
feasts
fire
funerary food
gender
Hadza
homo erectus
How can we understand the role of fire in cooking?
How did class shape cuisine?
How did food shape humans in evolutionary terms?
hunters
identity
Incas
kitchens
Neandertals
paleo diet
prehistory
prehistory of food
rituals
sacred meals
scavengers
South America
stone tools
Upper Paleolithic
When did hierarchical forms of social organization emerge?
When was the transition to agriculture?
Yucatan
Product details
- ISBN 9780817359850
- Weight: 630g
- Dimensions: 152 x 228mm
- Publication Date: 26 Jan 2021
- Publisher: The University of Alabama Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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A sweeping overview of how and what humans have eaten in their long history as a species
The Story of Food in the Human Past: How What We Ate Made Us Who We Are uses case studies from recent archaeological research to tell the story of food in human prehistory. Beginning with the earliest members of our genus, Robyn E. Cutright investigates the role of food in shaping who we are as humans during the emergence of modern Homo sapiens and through major transitions in human prehistory such as the development of agriculture and the emergence of complex societies.
Cutright begins her fascinating study with a discussion of how food shaped humans in evolutionary terms by examining what makes human eating unique, the use of fire to cook, and the origins of cuisine as culture and adaptation through the example of Neanderthals. The second part of the book describes how cuisine was reshaped when humans domesticated plants and animals and examines how food expressed ancient social structures and identities such as gender, class, and ethnicity. Cutright shows how food took on special meaning in feasts and religious rituals and also pays attention to the daily preparation and consumption of food as central to human society.
Cutright synthesizes recent paleoanthropological and archaeological research on ancient diet and cuisine and complements her research on daily diet, culinary practice, and special-purpose mortuary and celebratory meals in the Andes with comparative case studies from around the world to offer readers a holistic view of what humans ate in the past and what that reveals about who we are.
The Story of Food in the Human Past: How What We Ate Made Us Who We Are uses case studies from recent archaeological research to tell the story of food in human prehistory. Beginning with the earliest members of our genus, Robyn E. Cutright investigates the role of food in shaping who we are as humans during the emergence of modern Homo sapiens and through major transitions in human prehistory such as the development of agriculture and the emergence of complex societies.
Cutright begins her fascinating study with a discussion of how food shaped humans in evolutionary terms by examining what makes human eating unique, the use of fire to cook, and the origins of cuisine as culture and adaptation through the example of Neanderthals. The second part of the book describes how cuisine was reshaped when humans domesticated plants and animals and examines how food expressed ancient social structures and identities such as gender, class, and ethnicity. Cutright shows how food took on special meaning in feasts and religious rituals and also pays attention to the daily preparation and consumption of food as central to human society.
Cutright synthesizes recent paleoanthropological and archaeological research on ancient diet and cuisine and complements her research on daily diet, culinary practice, and special-purpose mortuary and celebratory meals in the Andes with comparative case studies from around the world to offer readers a holistic view of what humans ate in the past and what that reveals about who we are.
Robyn E. Cutright is the Charles T. Hazelrigg Associate Professor of Anthropology and Latin American Studies at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky.
