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.5 - Temperate and Arctic North America to 1492
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
In writing about the history of food and drink in pre-Columbian North America, one is reminded that for the temperate part of the continent, we are describing cultures primarily known only through archaeological and archival research. Very few native populations survived the events of the past five centuries, and those that did endured considerable cultural modifications. Nonetheless, many of the foods and drinks they used became important legacies to the new North American and global foodways that emerged after 1492, and certainly such foods were critical to the survival of the first European colonists who established permanent communities there.
Perhaps the most important of these were pumpkins, squash, beans, and maize (corn), and although few of these crops were originally domesticated in temperate North America, today they, as well as indigenous cultivation and preparation techniques, continue to be valued.
The practice of mixing maize, beans, and squash in gardens was developed by Native Americans, who also contributed many maize dishes, including hominy, grits and other gruels, breads made with corn flour, corn on the cob, and succotash (Hudson 1976: 498–9). Early North Americans gave sunflowers to the world’s economy and contributed to the develop development of modern strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, cranberry, hickory, and pecan varieties (Trager 1970: 278–80; Hedrick 1972). Finally, such preservation techniques as drying fruits or vegetables and curing meat by smoking over hickory coals have Native American antecedents (Hudson 1976: 499).
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- Information
- The Cambridge World History of Food , pp. 1288 - 1304Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000