Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Part V Food and Drink around the World
- V.A The Beginnings of Agriculture: The Ancient Near East and North Africa
- V.B The History and Culture of Food and Drink in Asia
- V.C The History and Culture of Food and Drink in Europe
- V.D The History and Culture of Food and Drink in the Americas
- V.D.1 Mexico and Highland Central America
- V.D.2 South America
- V.D.3 The Caribbean, Including Northern South America and Lowland Central America: Early History
- V.D.4 The Caribbean from 1492 to the Present
- V.D.5 Temperate and Arctic North America to 1492
- V.D.6 North America from 1492 to the Present
- V.D.7 The Arctic and Subarctic Regions
- V.E The History and Culture of Food and Drink in Sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania
- V.F Culinary History
- Part VI History, Nutrition, and Health
- Part VII Contemporary Food-Related Policy Issues
- Part VIII A Dictionary of the World’s Plant Foods
- Name Index
- Subject Index
- References
V.D.6 - North America from 1492 to the Present
from V.D - The History and Culture of Food and Drink in the Americas
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- Part V Food and Drink around the World
- V.A The Beginnings of Agriculture: The Ancient Near East and North Africa
- V.B The History and Culture of Food and Drink in Asia
- V.C The History and Culture of Food and Drink in Europe
- V.D The History and Culture of Food and Drink in the Americas
- V.D.1 Mexico and Highland Central America
- V.D.2 South America
- V.D.3 The Caribbean, Including Northern South America and Lowland Central America: Early History
- V.D.4 The Caribbean from 1492 to the Present
- V.D.5 Temperate and Arctic North America to 1492
- V.D.6 North America from 1492 to the Present
- V.D.7 The Arctic and Subarctic Regions
- V.E The History and Culture of Food and Drink in Sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania
- V.F Culinary History
- Part VI History, Nutrition, and Health
- Part VII Contemporary Food-Related Policy Issues
- Part VIII A Dictionary of the World’s Plant Foods
- Name Index
- Subject Index
- References
Summary
The food history of Native Americans before the time of Columbus involved ways of life ranging from big-game hunting to (in many cases) sophisticated agriculture. The history of foodways in North America since Columbus has been the story of five centuries of introduced foodstuffs, preparation methods, and equipment that accompanied peoples from Europe, Asia, and Africa, with the food culture of North America having been enriched by each addition.
The Sixteenth Century
Most narrative histories of North America give little attention to the sixteenth century, even though two earthshaking events took place during this time that were to alter the continent’s history fundamentally. One was the demographic collapse of the native populations in the face of Eurasian diseases, such as smallpox. This made possible the second, which was the establishment of European settlements along the eastern seaboard without substantial native resistance.
The Native Americans
The peoples of North America, who numbered perhaps 20 million in 1492, dwelled in societies of many different types, with their cultures shaped by their foodways. Thus, those who depended on hunting and gathering usually lived in roaming bands, whereas maize agriculture normally implied settled life in villages or towns. In the north and west of the continent, the hunter–gatherer lifestyle still predominated in 1492. Game varied from bison on the Great Plains to rats in the deserts of the Southwest. Men hunted and women gathered in these usually nomadic, band-level societies. Some bands, like the Mi'kmaq of Nova Scotia, grew one crop, such as tobacco, and hunted and gathered the remainder of their food supply (Prins 1996). It is important to note that the European picture of Indians as primitives did not allow for such sophistication. The Mi’kmaq knew perfectly well what agriculture was but chose to obtain their food from the wild and to plant only tobacco, which the wild could not provide. Where a staple food could be collected easily, such as in parts of California (where acorns were the daily fare) or in northern Minnesota (where wild rice was the staple), the natives frequently formed settlements (Linsenmeyer 1976).
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- Information
- The Cambridge World History of Food , pp. 1304 - 1323Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000
References
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