Integrating African cuisines

Abstract

The strong relationship between cuisine and the construction of identity is an important topic of social science research, but archaeologists have only recently examined African foodways in these terms. Presented here is an ethnoarchaeological study of culinary practices in the Tigray Region, highland Ethiopia. The article suggests that cuisine and its associated heat treatment technologies provide important material practices that track construction, continuity and change in social identities. The study is of interest to archaeologists investigating how identities persist in a location as a result of geographic isolation, elite politics and land tenure systems that promote strong regional and local affiliations. The study is relevant to archaeologists interested in the social history of highland Ethiopia because the approach advocated here may help to elucidate factors that produced distinct geographic distributions of pottery wares in Pre-Aksumite and Aksumite times.