Doctoral Dissertation Research: Patterns of Practice-Foodways as an Archaeological Measure of Culture Change

在Jerald T. Milanich，Jane Anne Blakney-Bailey将进行一项研究，调查欧洲殖民化对土著食物的影响。饮食方式描述了广泛的行为，包括食物偏好，采购，烹饪和准备，以及饮食的社会背景。研究表明，即使在殖民化、流行病和人口减少等极端困难时期，食物方式的变化也往往非常缓慢。同样，少数群体的饮食习惯往往是在不同族裔群体占主导地位的环境中最后改变的传统之一。本研究的重点是奥科尼印第安人，前哥伦比亚人的后裔生活在南部亚拉巴马和格鲁吉亚的查塔胡奇河谷。这一地区在欧洲人到来后出现了严重的人口减少。到了世纪晚期，人口开始回升，并组织成一系列的下溪定居点。一个城市是Oconee（Oconi）。在18世纪50年代，奥科尼印第安人迁移到佛罗里达中北部，在那里他们被称为塞米诺尔人。通过追溯史前和历史时期的这一血统，该研究将提供关于在人类历史这一动荡时期土著食物方式变化或持续模式的详细信息。对食物残留物的分析将提供信息，例如哪些动物被利用以及它们是如何准备的。陶瓷分析将确定陶瓷器皿形式的特定食物相关功能。气相色谱的创新技术将用于分析陶瓷碎片上的有机残留物，以进一步支持或修改对血管功能的解释。历史地图和地理信息系统将被应用于评估如何解决地点和接近和与欧洲定居点的相互作用的自然地理特征可能会影响foodway activities.考古收藏品被用于这些分析是从广泛的时间范围内的Oconee村庄。收藏品在亚拉巴马和格鲁吉亚的博物馆展出。由于有限的考古收藏品可从中北部佛罗里达（奥科尼）塞米诺尔网站，考古实地考察是必要的。实地考察将在位于佛罗里达中北部佩恩斯草原保护区州立公园的佩恩斯镇塞米诺尔遗址进行。该遗址因历史文献而闻名，特别是那些详细描述其居民与美国军队之间战斗的文献。该项目将为公众做出积极贡献。Paynes Prairie的工作人员将与Milanich和Blakney-Bailey合作，制定一个遗址保护计划，并制定解释性信息，供公园游客使用。公众和学生志愿者将参加实地和实验室工作，并将学习考古方法和理论以及塞米诺尔和米科苏基历史的关键方面。这项研究已经引起了公众的极大兴趣。联合PI将继续向公园、广大公众、佛罗里达的塞米诺尔和米科苏基印第安部落以及科学界提供从研究中收集的信息。

Under the supervision of Dr. Jerald T. Milanich, Jane Anne Blakney-Bailey will conduct a study investigating how indigenous foodways were affected by European colonization. Foodways describe a wide range of behaviors including food preferences, procurement, cooking and preparation, and the social contexts of eating. Studies have shown that foodways are often very slow to change even during times of extreme hardship, such as colonization, epidemics, and depopulation. Similarly, food habits of minority groups are frequently one of the last traditions which changes in an environment dominated by a different ethnic group. The focus of this study is the Oconee Indians, descendants of the precolumbian people living in the lower Chattahoochee River Valley of southern Alabama and Georgia. This region witnessed severe depopulation following the arrival of Europeans. By the late seventeenth century, the population had rebounded and organized into a series of Lower Creek settlements. One town was Oconee (Oconi). In the 1750s Oconee Indians migrated to north-central Florida where they became known as Seminoles. By tracing this lineage through the prehistoric and historic periods, the study will provide detailed information regarding the changing or persistent patterns in indigenous foodways during this volatile period of human history.This project will use a multi-pronged approach to the study of Oconee foodways. Analysis of food remains will provide information, such as what animals were exploited and how they were prepared. Ceramic analysis will determine the specific food-related functions of pottery vessel forms. Innovative techniques in gas chromatography will be used to analyze organic residues on ceramic sherds to further support or modify interpretations of vessel functions. Historic maps and Geographic Information Systems will be applied to evaluate how physiographic characteristics of settlement locales and proximity and interaction with European settlements may have affected foodway activities.The archaeological collections being used for these analyses are from a broad temporal range of Oconee villages. Collections are curated in museums in Alabama and Georgia. Because limited archaeological collections are available from north-central Florida (Oconee) Seminole sites, archaeological fieldwork is necessary. Fieldwork will be conducted at the Paynes Town Seminole site, located in Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park in north-central Florida. The site is well known from historical documents, particularly those detailing battles between its inhabitants and the U.S. military. The project will make a positive contribution to the public. Paynes Prairie personnel will be working with Milanich and Blakney-Bailey to create a site preservation plan and to develop interpretive information which will be made available to park visitors. Public and student volunteers will participate in field and lab work and will learn key aspects of archaeological methods and theories and Seminole and Miccosukee history. This research has already elicited great interest from the public. The co-PIs will continue to make information gathered from the research available to the Park, the greater public, the Seminole and Miccosukee Indian tribes of Florida, and to the scientific community.