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Integrating African cuisines

Rural cuisine and identity in Tigray, highland Ethiopia

Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, Canada, dlyons{at}ucalgary.ca

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.

Key Words: cuisine • Ethiopia • ethnoarchaeology • heat treatment of foods • identity • Tigray

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Journal of Social Archaeology, Vol. 7, No. 3, 346-371 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1469605307081393


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Lyons, D. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?