Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Pespectives on Food, Politics, and Power

445 Pages·2010·18.243 MB·English

by  Michael Dietler, Brian Hayden

ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
ETHNOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES
ON FOOD, POLITICS, AND POWER
Edited by Michael Dietler and Brian Hayden
The UniversiTy of AlAbAmA Press
TUscAloosA, AlAbAmA
copyright © 2001 by michael Dietler and brian hayden
The University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487‑0380
All rights reserved
manufactured in the United states of America
∞
The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of American
national standard for information sciences‑Permanence of Paper for Printed library
materials, Ansi Z39.48‑1984.
library of congress cataloging‑in‑Publication Data
feasts ; archaeological and ethnographic perspectives on food, politics, and power /
edited by michael Dietler and brian hayden.
p. cm.
originally published: Washington, D.c. : smithsonian institution Press, 2001.
includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978‑0‑8173‑5641‑5 (pbk. : alk. paper) — isbn 978‑0‑8173‑8538‑5
(electronic) 1. festivals—congresses. 2. fasts and feasts—congresses. i. Dietler,
michael. ii. hayden, brian.
GT3930.f4 2010
394.26—dc22
2010003231
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
List ofTables ix
Contributors xi
1
Digesting the Feast-Good to Eat, Good to Drink, Good
to Think: An Introduction 1
Michael Dietler and Brian Hayden
PART 1: ETHNOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES
2
Fabulous Feasts: A Prolegomenon to the Importance of Feasting 23
Brian Hayden
3
Theorizing the Feast: Rituals of Consumption, Commensal Politics,
and Power in African Contexts 65
Michael Dietler
4
Of Feasting and Value: Enga Feasts in a Historical Perspective
(Papua New Guinea) 115
Polly Wiessner
5
Akha Feasting: An Ethnoarchaeological Perspective ~144
Michael J Clarke
6
Polynesian Feasting in Ethnohistoric, Ethnographic, and Archaeological Con
texts: A Comparison ofThree Societies 168
Patrick V. Kirch
7
Feasting for Prosperity: A Study of Southern
Northwest Coast Feasting 185
James R. Perodie
Contents
8
The Big Drink: Feast and Forum in the Upper Amazon 215
Warren R. DeBoer
9
Feasts and Labor Mobilization: Dissecting a Fundamental
Economic Practice 240
Michael Dietler and Ingrid Herbich
PART 2: ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
10
The Evolution of Ritual Feasting Systems in Prehispanic
Philippine Chiefdoms 267
Laura Lee Junker
11
Feasting and the Emergence of Platform Mound Ceremonialism
in Eastern North America 311
Vernon James Knight
12
A Case of Ritual Feasting at the Cahokia Site 334
Lucretia S. Kelly
13
Feasting on the Periphery:The Production of Ritual Feasting and Village
Festivals at the Ceren Site, EI Salvador 368
Linda A. Brown
14
Feasting in the Ancient Near East 391
Denise Schmandt -Besserat
15
Garbage and the Modern American Feast 404
Douglas C. Wilson and William L. Rathje
Index 423
vi
III ustrations
2.1. Schema of feast types 38
2.2. Oversized food-preparation vessels in the household
of a Yao village headman 48
2.3. Multiple outside hearths for a Hmong funeral 50
2.4. Multiple outside hearths for a Ta Oi marriage feast in Vietnam 51
2. 5. Closeup of the food-preparation area in Figure 2.4 52
2.6. Vietnamese lineage shrine used for lineage feasts 54
2.7. Water-buffalo horns from feasts displayed on a house 56
2.8. Pig mandibles on display in an Akha administrator's house 56
3.1. Luo communal beer drinking pot and beer fermentation pot 97
3.2. How beer is consumed from thago through a long vine-stem straw 98
3.3. An iconic representation of a Luo feast 99
3.4. A Luo woman engaged in dryingsinoho 100
4.1. Post-sweet potato nerworks of exchange. warfare. and ritual 122
4.2. N umber of pigs contributed by big-men in secular vs. sacred feasting 130
4.3. Schematic drawing of a Kepele cult site 134
5.1. The number of pigs that each clan in Sam Soong village owns 150
5.2. Elder lineage women and peer guests during an Akha marriage feast 152
5.3. Lineage elders. a Ritual Reciter. and the younger lineage host
at a curing feast 154
5.4. Large cooking pots and woks 157
5.5. The multimodal size distribution of woks and pots in an Alilia village 159
6.1. The main ceremonial plaza on Hivaoa. Marquesas Islands 176
7.1. A potlatch at Alert Bay priorto 1914 186
8.1. Schema contrasting male-associated core with female-associated
periphery 217
8.2. Schema contrasting friends, affines. and enemies 219
8.3. Conibo-Shipibo vessel forms 224
8.4. Artifacts associated with the ani shreati 226
8.5. Pottery vessels associated with the ani shrcati 227
8.6. Schema for marriage and sex 231
9.1. Schematic representation of Collective Work Events (CWEs) 242
9.2. Iron hoe blade from the precolonial era 250
9.3. Schematic links berween subsistence production, marriage,
and iron production in Samia 252
9.4. Schematic representation of the role of work feasts in a multi-centric
economy 253
10.1. Tenth-to nineteenth-century Philippine chiefdoms 269
vii
fllustrarlOns
10.2. Faunal remains in household middens of elite and non-elite residences
at Tanjay 287
10.3. Typical Chinese porcelain "serving" assemblages found at Philippine sites 290
10.4. Percentages of porcelain forms by weight in excavations
of Tanjay and Cebu 291
10.5. Comparison of ceramic assemblages in elite vs. non-elite
habitation zones 292
10.6. Characteristic "serving assemblages" from Philippine sites 294
I 0.7. Schema for relationships of expanded ritual feasting
in Philippine chiefdoms 300
11.1. Truncated Mounds in the Eastern U.S .. 100 B.c.-700 A.D. 314
11.2. McKeithen Mound A, plan of features 316
11.3. Walling Platform Mound. plan of features 317
11.4. Cold Springs. plan of features 318
11.5. Cold Springs. cross-sections of large postholes 319
11.6. Garden Creek Mound No.2. plan of fearures 320
11.7. Timucuan method of smoking meat on a scaffold.
sixteenth-century Florida 326
12.1. The American Bottom region 335
12.2. Late prehistoric chronology for the American Bottom 336
12.3. Site plan of central Cahokia 338
12.4. Portions of deer belonging to the high. mid. and low Food Utility Index (PUT)
categories 341
12.5. A profile of one of the sub· Mound 51 excavation units 343
12.6. Change in percentage of NISP of deer at Cahokia 345
12.7. Summary of faunal materials from sub· Mound 51 pit 346
12.8. Zone D2 birds from sub· Mound 51 348
12.9. Zone D2 fish from sub· Mound 51 350
13.1. Map of western El Salvador 369
13.2. Site map for Ceren. El Salvador 371
13.3. Plan view of Structure 10 at Ceren. El Salvador 373
13.4. Artist's reconstruction of Structure 10 374
13.5. Household 1. Structure 10. and Structure 12 showing positions
of metates 376
13.6. Women's work group using household space to grind corn
for a ritual feast 379
14.1. Standard of Ur 393
14.2. Perforated plaque from Nippur 395
14.3. Perforated plaque from Khafaje 395
14.4. Perforated plaque from Khafaje 396
14.5. Seal impressions from Ur 396
14.6. Seal impression from unknown site 397
15 .1. A Marriott hotel advertisement for a restaurant feast 418
viii
2. 1. Archaeological Signatures of Feasts 40
4.1. The Social Components of Feasting and Corresponding
Political Strategies 118
4.2. Chronological Scheme of Events Discussed in Text 120
4.3. The Six Stages of the Aeatee Cult of Central Enga and Its Relation
to the Tee Cycle 135
5.1. Comparison of Rich and Poor Families 148
5.2. Akha Feast Types 153
6.1. Key Contrasts between Tikopia, Marquesas, and Hawaiian Case Studies 170
6.2. Principal Kinds of Feasts in Tikopia 171
6.3. Principal Kinds of Feasts in the Marquesas 174
7.1. Marriage Wealth Exchanges between Two High· Ranking Kwakiutl
Families 208
8.1. Classification of the Conibo-Shipibo Ceramic Assemblages 225
8.2. Distribution of Beer and Nonbeer Vessels 228
8.3. Synopsis of Schematic Polarities: The COnibo-Shipibo Point of View 231
11.1. Truncated Mounds in the Eastern United States, 100 B.c.-700 A.D. 315
11.2. Associations of Certain Woodland Platform Mounds 322
15.1. Artifacts Related to a Thanksgiving Feast in Sample C45-120291 409
15.2. Artifacts Related to a Presidents' Day Feast in Sample C7022394 412
15.3. Artifacts Related to a Midweek Parry in Sample 1\7 ·031194 414
ix