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Biocultural and archaeological research on food, past and present, often relies on very specific, precise, methods for data collection and analysis. These are presented here in a broad-based review. Individual chapters provide opportunities to think through the adoption of methods by reviewing the history of their use along with a discussion of research conducted using those methods. A case study from the author's own work is included in each chapter to illustrate why the methods were adopted in that particular case along with abundant additional resources to further develop and explore those methods.
List of contents
INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH ETHICS Introduction and Research Design Janet Chrzan Research Ethics in Food Studies Sharon Devine and John Brett PART I: NUTRITIONAL ANTHROPOLOGY Chapter 1. Design in Biocultural Studies of Food and Nutritional Anthropology
Darna Dufour and Barbara Piperata Chapter 2. Nutritional Anthropometry and Body Composition
Leslie Sue Lieberman Chapter 3. Measuring energy expenditure in daily living: Established methods and new directions
Mark Jenike Chapter 4. Dietary Analyses
Andrea Wiley Chapter 5. Ethnography as a tool for formative research and evaluation in public health nutrition: illustrations from the world of infant and young child feeding
Sera Young and Emily Tuthill Chapter 6. Primate Nutrition and Foodways
Jessica Rothman and Caley Johnson Chapter 7. Food Episodes/Social Events: Measuring the Nutritional and Social Value of Commensality
Janet Chrzan PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY OF FOOD AND FOOD HABITS Chapter 8. Archeological Food and Nutrition Research
Patti Wright Chapter 9. Researching Plant Food Remains from Archeological Contexts: Macroscopic, Microscopic, Chemical and Molecular Approaches
Patti Wright Chapter 10. Methods for Reconstructing Diet
Bethany Turner and Sarah Livengood Chapter 11. Nutritional Stress in Past Human Groups
Alan Goodman Chapter 12. Research on Direct Food Remains
Katherine Moore Chapter 13. If there is food, we will eat: an evolutionary and global perspective on human diet and nutrition
Janet Monge Chapter 14. Experimental Archaeology, Ethnoarchaeology, and the Application of Archaeological Data to Contemporary Households and Communities
Karen Metheny
About the author
Janet Chrzan is Adjunct Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research explores the connections between social activities, dietary intake and maternal and child health outcomes.
John Brett is retired faculty in the Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado Denver with a research focus on global and local food systems, food security and food justice.
