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This dissertation investigates how food technologies and culinary practices shaped identity in the Tequila Valleys of West Mexico between 200 and 1200 CE. Drawing on interdisciplinary methods—including ceramic and groundstone analysis, microbotanical residue identification, and the archaeology of gender—the dissertation explores how daily meals and elite feasts reflected shifting political, social, and cultural landscapes. Particular attention is given to key transitional moments around 500, 900, and 1200 CE, during which new cooking technologies, vessel forms, and food preparation practices emerged. By applying a chaîne opératoire approach, this research reconstructs the material sequences of food production, preparation, and consumption, providing a detailed view of both continuity and change in culinary lifeways.
The study demonstrates that food was a central medium for expressing and negotiating identity. Ceramic evidence reveals that elite dining practices transformed more rapidly than quotidian ones, indicating the performative role of cuisine in enacting social stratification. Women’s roles in food production—highlighted through analysis of shaft tomb sculptures and changing ceramic forms like grater bowls and comales—are positioned as key drivers of both tradition and innovation. Culinary choices are shown to reflect not only subsistence needs but also cosmopolitan aspirations and responses to long-distance exchange, migration, and sociopolitical restructuring. In this way, cuisine served as a dynamic arena where gendered labor, ethnic affiliations, and hierarchical power were materially expressed and culturally reinforced.
Ultimately, this research contributes to broader debates in archaeology by demonstrating how food practices shape and reflect identity over time. The resilience of core ingredients like maize and beans across centuries underscores a tension between innovation and tradition, while the sensory and social elaboration of elite cuisine reveals evolving expressions of status and belonging. By situating the Tequila Valleys within wider Mesoamerican networks, the dissertation highlights the region’s active participation in processes of cultural negotiation and exchange. The dissertation also underscores the relevance of archaeological food studies to contemporary conversations about sustainability, cultural heritage, and the social significance of cuisine.