Ancient Pottery, Cuisine, and Society at the Northern Great Lakes

Susan Kooiman examines precontact Indigenous pottery from the Cloudman site on Drummond Island to investigate how pottery technology, pottery use, diet, and cooking habits change over time and how these changes relate to hypothesized transitions in subsistence, settlement, and social patterns among Indigenous pottery-making groups in the area. She demonstrates that ceramic technology and cooking techniques evolved to facilitate new subsistence and processing needs and that comparisons with ethnographic and ethnohistoric accounts of local Indigenous cooking and diet enhance her interpretations of past cuisine and culinary identities.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 228 pages
\n Publication date: 30 November 2021
\n Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
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This groundbreaking archaeological investigation delves into the realm of ancient cuisine, shedding valuable light on the culinary traditions of bygone eras. Ancient cuisine holds a prominent place in the current discourse of archaeology, with this book offering a unique perspective on the shifting settlement and subsistence patterns in the Northern Great Lakes region. Author Susan Kooiman embarks on a comprehensive exploration of precontact Indigenous pottery from the Cloudman site on Drummond Island, situated at the far eastern end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Through meticulous analysis of these pottery artifacts, Kooiman seeks to unravel the intricate changes in pottery technology, pottery use, diet, and cooking habits over time. By comparing these findings with hypothesized transitions in subsistence, settlement, and social patterns among Indigenous pottery-making groups in the area, Kooiman demonstrates how ceramic technology and cooking techniques evolved to meet the evolving needs of communities.

Furthermore, her interpretations of past cuisine and culinary identities are strengthened by comparisons with ethnographic and ethnohistoric accounts of local Indigenous cooking and diet. The complementary nature of these diverse methods reveals a complex interplay of technology, environment, and social relationships, underscoring the potential applications of such an analytic suite to long-standing questions in the Northern Great Lakes and other archaeological contexts worldwide.

This book is written in a clear and accessible style, making it appealing to students and scholars of archaeology and anthropology, as well as armchair archaeologists who are eager to delve deeper into Indigenous/Native American studies, food studies and cuisine, pottery, cooking, and food history.

\n Weight: 454g\n
Dimension: 158 x 237 x 21 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780268201456\n \n