Changing food ways as indicators of emerging complexity in Sudanese Nubia

From Neolithic agropastoralists to the Meroitic civilisation

Bibliographic Data

ID6041406
AuthorsRandi Haaland (University of Bergen, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume47
Issue3
Pages327-342
Publication date2012-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAzania Archaeological Research in Africa (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0067-270X • E-ISSN: 1945-5534
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0067270x.2012.708990
OpenAlexW2070559844
LanguageEN
Citations received20
References cited29

This article focuses on politico-economic and socio-cultural processes affecting a changing cuisine in Sudanese Nubia from the 5th millennium BC until the collapse of the Meroitic state during the 4th century AD. The argument is based on an anthropological interpretation of archaeological remains from this period. In the fifth millennium BC we find elaboration and increased variation in material items related to serving and consumption of food and drinks. I argue that this variation in material inventory is causally related to increased social differentiation. Elaborated food-related items are seen as indication of social display and ritual feasting undertaken by a social elite. Domesticated cattle played a crucial role in this elite formation. Comparative ethnographic material shows that differences in possession of cattle are a general characteristic of pastoral communities. Such differences are generally used as a means of creating patron-client relations through cattle transactions. Furthermore cattle have natural attributes that lend themselves to metaphoric and metonymic associations; they can serve as symbols of power, as well as motherly nurturance and support. Symbolic uses of cattle are manifested in increased ceremonial use of cattle during the 5th millennium BC. The importance of cattle culminates during the Kerma period with the sacrifice of several thousand heads of cattle used in funeral feastings

Ancient history · Archaeology · Civilization · Geography · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · History · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology