Surveys the archaeology of food: its methods and its themes (economics, politics, status, identity, gender, ethnicity, ritual, religion).

What are the origins of agriculture? In what ways have technological advances related to food affected human development? How have food and foodways been used to create identity, communicate meaning, and organize society? In this highly readable, illustrated volume, archaeologists and other scholars from across the globe explore these questions and more. The Archaeology of Food offers more than 250 entries spanning geographic and temporal contexts and features recent discoveries alongside the results of decades of research. The contributors provide overviews of current knowledge and theoretical perspectives, raise key questions, and delve into myriad scientific, archaeological, and material analyses to add depth to our understanding of food. The encyclopedia serves as a reference for scholars and students in archaeology, food studies, and related disciplines, as well as fascinating reading for culinary historians, food writers, and food and archaeology enthusiasts.

Introduction : The Social Life of Food -- Part I. Laying the Groundwork -- Framing Food Investigation -- The Practices of a Meal in Society -- Part II. Current Food Studies in Archaeology -- The Archaeological Study of Food Activities -- Food Economics -- Food Politics : Power and Status -- Part III. Food and Identity : The Potentials of Food Archaeology -- Food in the Construction of Group Identity -- The Creation of Personal Identity : Food, Body and Personhood -- Food Creates Society

The chapters in this topically and methodologically diverse volume discuss the role food plays in the construction and maintenance of multiple levels of social identity; they also illustrate the myriad ways in which archaeologists may approach the issue. The book includes essays from archaeologists working in a wide range of time periods and areas: prehistorians and historical archaeologists, specialists in the Old World, and experts on the New World. Contributors use diverse data sets to discuss how food-procurement strategies, consumption patterns, and modes of cooking and dining are intertwined with the construction and maintenance of individual and group identities.

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.

The authors describe various sources of sustenance (meat, cooking oils, fruits and vegetables, beverages, etc.) in terms of who consumed it, how it was prepared, and how it spread from its region of origin. They also study the impact of diet on disease among early peoples.

This Element provides an overview of food and foodways in Ancient China, from the earliest humans (~500k BP) up to its historical beginnings: the foundation of the Zhou dynasty (at the start of the 1st millennium BCE). While textual data provides insights on food and diet during China's historical periods, archaeological data is the main source for studying the deep past and reconstructing what people ate, how they ate and with whom they ate it. This Element introduces the plants and animals that formed the building blocks of ancient diets and cuisines, as well as how they created localized lifeways and unifying constructs across ancient China. Foodways, how food was grown, prepared and consumed, was central in the development of differing social, economic and political realities, as it shaped ritual and burial practices, differentiated ethnic groups, solidified community ties and deepened or assuaged social inequalities.