Doctoral Dissertation Research: Roots of Complexity: Tubers, Cuisine, and Surplus Production in the Gulf of Alaska

Anthropologists have long suggested that meat—especially salmon—dominated the North Pacific culinary world. This focus on animal foods has obscured the roles plants played in the subsistence, storage, and culinary systems of coastal hunter-gatherers. Ecological knowledge and historic accounts demonstrate that root-foods, such as tubers, bulbs, corms, rhizomes, and roots, were critical sources of carbohydrates throughout this region. This dissertation research tests hypotheses about the roles tubers played in the emergence of surplus production, hierarchy, and feasting in the Kodiak Archipelago, western Gulf of Alaska. Research results have implications for understanding broader patterns of human adaptation across the North Pacific. This project evaluates multiple lines of evidence from sites and sources in the Kodiak Archipelago, including archaeological samples and ethnohistoric accounts of root-food production and consumption. The co-PI will analyze charred plant remains from household and communal pit-roasting features; the size and shape of ceramic vessels; starch residues preserved on cooking pots, and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios to reconstruct past meals. Radiocarbon dating of selected materials will provide chronological control. Integration of these multiple data sources will clarify the roles of root foods in status-based food production and consumption behaviors. The co-PI will produce a dissertation and peer-reviewed journal articles and present results to local Alaska and academic audiences. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.