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

University Of Florida, Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

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.