Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T15:23:32.684Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Communal versus Competitive Feasting: Comment on Kassabaum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2020

Brian Hayden*
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia, 2113-6303 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver, V6T 1Z1, British Columbia, Canada
*
([email protected], corresponding author)

Abstract

Megan Kassabaum has developed a useful approach for interpreting feasting remains, but its application to the Feltus site demonstrates that modifications need to be made. In particular, the characterization of competitive feasting is too simplistic, and her model does not include work types of feasts, which may be responsible for the remains at the Feltus site. The interpretation of feasting at the Feltus site as resulting from social solidarity needs of a dispersed egalitarian society appear questionable on the basis of a high incidence of special meat, the occurrence of smoking pipes, monumental architecture, and indications of possible human sacrifices.

Megan Kassabaum ha desarrollado una propuesta útil para interpretar los restos de banquetes, sin embargo su aplicación hacia el sitio Feltus demuestra que modificaciones serán necesarias. En particular, su caracterización de banquetes competitivos es demasiado simplista y su modelo no incluye banquetes asociados con labor, lo cual podría ser responsable por los restos de el sitio Feltus. La interpretación de un banquete en el sitio Feltus como resultado de una preocupación por la solidaridad social de una sociedad igualitaria dispersa parece cuestionable a base de una prevalencia alta de carne especial, la ocurrencia de pipas para fumar, arquitectura monumental, e indicaciones de posibles sacrificios humanos.

Type
Comments
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 by the Society for American Archaeology

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Barnett, William K., and Hoopes, John W. (editors) 1995 The Emergence of Pottery: Technology and Innovation in Ancient Societies. Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.Google Scholar
Donald, Leland 1997 Aboriginal Slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Haas, Jonathan, and Creamer, Winifred 2006 Crucible of Andean Civilization: The Peruvian Coast from 3000 to 1800 BC. Current Anthropology 47:745760.10.1086/506281CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haidt, Jonathan 2012 Religion, Evolution, and the Ecstasy of Self-Transcendence. Electronic document, https://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_haidt_religion_evolution_and_the_ecstasy_of_self_transcendence, accessed August 24, 2020.Google Scholar
Hayden, Brian 2014 The Power of Feasts: From Prehistory to the Present. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9781107337688CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayden, Brian 2017 Feasting in Southeast Asia. University Press of Hawaii, Honolulu.Google Scholar
Hayden, Brian 2018 The Power of Ritual in Prehistory: Secret Societies and Origins of Social Complexity. Cambridge University Press, New York.10.1017/9781108572071CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kassabaum, Megan C. 2019 A Method for Conceptualizing and Classifying Feasting: Interpreting Communal Consumption in the Archaeological Record. American Antiquity 84:610631.10.1017/aaq.2019.47CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanger, Matthew C., Padgett, Brian D., Larsen, Clark Spencer, Hill, Mark, Lattanzi, Gregory D., Colaninno, Carol E., Culleton, Brendan J., Kennett, Douglas J., Napolitano, Matthew F., Lacombe, Sébastien, Speakman, Robert J., and Thomas, David Hurst 2019 . American Antiquity 84:59160910.1017/aaq.2019.59CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spier, Leslie, and Sapir, Edward 1930 Wishram Ethnography. University of Washington Publications in Anthropology. Seattle.Google Scholar
Taché, Karine 2011 Structure and Regional Diversity of the Meadowood Interaction Sphere. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.10.3998/mpub.11395980CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teit, James 1906 The Lillooet Indians. E. J. Brill, Leiden, Netherlands.Google Scholar
Vega-Centeno Sara-Lafosse, Rafael 2007 Construction, Labor Organization, and Feasting during the Late Archaic Period in the Central Andes. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26:150171.10.1016/j.jaa.2006.07.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watanabe, Hitoshi 1973 The Ainu Ecosystem: Environment and Group Structure. University of Washington Press, Seattle.Google Scholar