Introduction and General Summary:

On October 12th, 2020 the Newberry Library held a conversation titled “Indigenous Foodways Past and Present” in which multiple speakers took turns describing their own work and ideas in relation to the the importance of historical food pathways within the indigenous community and how they affect the connections and education of the community in the more modern era. This conversation had various points and ideas which were emphasized but a main theme which was demonstrated was the extreme importance of preserving the knowledge of indigenous food pathways, not only to be translated in order to promote food sovereignty, but also as a source of community, connection, spirituality, education, culture, and more. Through these points, it is evident that indigenous food pathways are not just viewed as ways to attain healthy and culturally appropriate food for the indigenous community, but also a way in which these individuals connect to their ancestors and demonstrate rich culture which has largely been taken away or forgotten over time.

Similarly, in our “Wives, Writes, and Witches: Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe” class, we have been discussing women’s history as an entity which has been continuously marginalized and has had so many lost narratives over time as history has chosen to highlight non-domestic, male ideas, expeditions, and spheres of influence instead. We can connect this lost women’s history to the lost inidgenous food pathway history, which is part of a larger history than just of food, in that both of these groups rely on unpopular, not necessarily published or highly scrutinized sources to gain information about a given history in order to highlight it in a broader sense, re-emphasize its importance in the community today, and hope to build connections within these communities as a result. While indigenous individuals used food to connect to their ancestors, community, and land, women in early modern Europe who spent most of their time in the domestic sphere used food in ways which aided in socialization, autonomy in the household, and connections with women both within and outside of their usual social circles. When food pathways are taken away from the larger (also predominantly white and male) narrative, we see this great food connection diminished which demonstrates the point which was made by the facilitator, Lia Markey, in the inidgenous food pathways discussion “Food binds together families and communities. Food exacerbates differences.”[1] This point serves to show how when food pathways are maintained and honored, people come together in a general community and connect, yet food pathways also emphasize gender roles, like in early modern europe when women were forced to stay in the domestic sphere, and demonstrate racial superiority, seen in the colonized food pathways of the inidgenous peoples, in which only certain foods that particular races and ethnicities value are grown and used.

Speaker Introduction and Main Points:

The specific panelists which spoke in the “Indigenous Foodways Past and Present” conversation were Sean Sherman (Oglala Lokota), Elizabeth Hoover (Mohawk/Mi'kmaq), and Eli Suzukovich (Little Shell Band of Chippewa-Cree/Krajina Serb). Each speaker came from a different background and focused on individual aspects of the inidgenous food pathway which interested them and they had experience in addressing.

Connection to HST 311-B: Wives, Wrights, and Witches- Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe

In the question and answer segment of the indegnous foodways conversation, one idea that was highlighted was that the knowledge of indigenous foodways and other general indegnous knowledge is rarely found in archives or in published and popular sources, but instead found in people themselves through oral tradition as well as in personal documents and sources. This idea of non-traditional sources being able to reveal some of the most important aspects of a marginalized group’s culture and day to day knowledge and tradition connects directly to Elaine Leong’s “Collecting Knowledge for the Family: Recipes, Gender and Practical Knowledge in the Early Modern English Household.” In this source, which was examined and discussed throughout class, Leong demonstrates that in early modern Europe, women used non-traditional sources of information to create community and pass around knowledge, primarily through cookbooks. These cookbooks served as archives for the early modern family as they included information about family history, medicinal recipes, information about food, and housekeeping tips, personal relationships, and more. Cookbooks were accompanied by journals and loose pieces of paper which also demonstrated early modern relationships, everyday events, and other day to day needs. These important, yet non-traditional and not typically archived and saved books and journals were highly emphasized as having value in society as they are passed down in wills and in weddings, acting as an heirloom to a family, "The specific listing of these two notebooks underlines the value (monetary and otherwise) placed upon recipe books both as material objects and as collections of knowledge." [2] Generation to generation of people (mostly women), Leong demonstrates, would contribute to this tradition which was not at the time deemed as valuable but in modern day reveals almost the entirety of our knowledge base that is uncovered about early modern women’s society and knowledge. Furthermore, this same tradition is seen in indigenous culture as individuals did not have access to archives or publishers to keep culture, tradition, and knowledge alive, specifically relating to indigenous foodways, so they orally and unofficially documented this knowledge which was, as early modern women’s books were, lost as time went on and did not chose to highlight these rich cultures and spiritualities. This lost knowledge is what Sean Sherman notes he hopes to find out more about and teach to indigenous youth so that it is not lost yet again, as well as assimilate it into everyday culture in order for non-indigenous peoples to understand the value this knowledge, spirituality, and tradition these sources and food have to offer. In both of these instances we can see food recipes, which held more meaning than just of food, being lost as history did not focus on women or indigenous food and tradition.

Furthermore, another idea in this conversation which relates to course material is the idea of food and food pathways as being more complex than simply food, but as more of an entity which is used as a result of necessity and its real value coming from the connection, tradition, spirituality, and culture which it bring to the communities around it. In the indigenous community, as Elizabeth Hoover emphasizes by stressing that “Food is at the center of everything,” [3] food is deeply tied to spirituality, community, knowledge, survival, education, preservation, etc. Food in this sense is not just something to eat, but something to worship and honor as both a physically nurturing aspect of life as well as a spiritually important entity. This value placed on food is why individuals such as Sean Sherman and Eli Suzukovich work to bring back and place value on inidgenous food. As indigenous communities were not experiencing the idea of food sovereignty, defined as “the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agricultural systems,” [4] and as their ties to food were forgotten and stripped from them, this deep seeded importance of food was lost and is only now re-gaining its importance in inidgenous society and culture. Similarly, in early modern Europe food was only a small part of the larger discussion of the women’s domestic sphere and food was an entity of connection, as well as safety, for women. Through Dr. Herbert's reading "Female Alliances: Gender, Identity, and Friendship in Early Modern Britain" this use of food as a uniting agent to a larger narrative is stressed. In this time as women were expected to stay at home, the majority of their work was surrounding making food for their families, as well as other domestic chores. As a result, women used food recipes and the making of food to bond with other women and even bridging gaps between servants or maids, "elite women and their servants socialized, laughed, and exchanged secrets and gossip." [5] The common ground which food provided relationships and sharing of knowledge to blossom in demonstrates how, similar to the deep value of food in indigenous communities, food did not have just one function. As the domestic sphere became not just a place where women cooked food, but also a source of knowledge production and community, women were able to gain agency and power from food. Through spirituality and importance in the indigenous communities, as well as connection and common ground in the early modern home, food serves to function as an entity of knowledge and power in both of these very unique spaces.

In addition, another theme which can be seen in our course readings and discussion as well as in the indgenous food pathways discussion is the role of colonization, and therefore movement and discrimination, in both of the narritives of the inidegous indviduals and the early modern European women. In the conversation of indigenous food pathways it is discussed that the primary reason for the loss of emphasis on indigenous food knowledge and food sources was a result of the colonization of the Americas. This colonization, which Sean Sherman notes is still occurring, stretches from Elizabeth Hoover’s timeline of scorched earth, mass migration, influence of western food and farming, climate change, GMOS, theft of land, lack of resources, and more. These colonial influences and more resulted in the loss of not just the tradition and culture of food in indigenous communities, but lack of access to the foods which are culturally appropriate for these communities, demonstrating the lack of food sovereignty that these individuals were and are not met with. Generally speaking, the impact of colonization resulted in severe losses for the indigenous populations and still do today, which is why these panelists are working to reverse this immense damage. The time of colonization impacted early modern women as well, even though they were an ocean away. In the reading entitled "Shifting the Frame: Trans-imperial Approaches to Gender in the Atlantic World" by Susan D. Amussen and Allyson M. Poska the idea of colonization and empire building is discussed in a gendered lens in which we can see the impacts of this change on women left behind in Europe. This economic boom which resulted from colonization “allowed for more opportunities within existing occupational frameworks and greatly expanded the number of women involved [in the workforce]” [6]. Women started to become more active as a result of increased trade, which heavily relied upon imports of food, and while this was positive it also came with negative implications. It is interesting to see this difference of narratives at this time as indigenous individuals were being stripped of food and culture and European women were being shown new foods and cultures to embrace and build upon. These importas of sugar, coffee, tea, etc. were gendered and the women’s role of being a feminne being with assigned gender was enforced, stripping her of authority and agency as they demonstrated the expected appropriate behavior of women. For example, tobacco was gendered and “connected with sinfulness and likened to seduction” [6] which allowed men to continuously use food as a way to limit and define early modern European women. While colonization impacted indigenous beings and early modern European women in different ways, the impact can be seen as enforcing the discrimination of these groups by stripping them of agency and ability to live freely and appropriatly on their own terms in this time.

Footnotes:

[1] "Indigenous Foodways Past And Present," The Newberry online, October 12, 2020, https://www.newberry.org/10122020-indigenous-foodways-past-and-present. (4:24)

[2] Elaine Leong, “Collecting Knowledge for the Family: Recipes, Gender, and Practical Knowledge in the Early Modern English Household," Centaurus 55 (2013): 80.

[3] "Indigenous Foodways Past And Present," The Newberry online, October 12, 2020, https://www.newberry.org/10122020-indigenous-foodways-past-and-present. (48:05)

[4] "Indigenous Foodways Past And Present," The Newberry online, October 12, 2020, https://www.newberry.org/10122020-indigenous-foodways-past-and-present. (13:46)

[5] Amanda Herbert, “Cooperative Labor: Making Alliances through Women’s Recipes and Domestic Production," in Female Alliances: Gender, Identity, and Friendship in Early Modern Britain, 78-116, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014): 82.

[6] Susan Amussen and Allyson M. Poska, “Shifting the Frame: Trans-Imperial Approaches to Gender in the Atlantic World,” Early Modern Women 9.1 (2014). 9.

[7] Susan Amussen and Allyson M. Poska, “Shifting the Frame: Trans-Imperial Approaches to Gender in the Atlantic World,” Early Modern Women 9.1 (2014). 7.

Bibliography:

Amussen, Susan and Poska, Allyson. “Shifting the Frame: Trans-Imperial Approaches to Gender in the Atlantic World,” Early Modern Women 9.1 (2014).

Herbert, Amanda. “Cooperative Labor: Making Alliances through Women’s Recipes and Domestic Production.” in Female Alliances: Gender, Identity, and Friendship in Early Modern Britain, 78-116. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014

"Indigenous Foodways Past And Present." The Newberry online. October 12, 2020. https://www.newberry.org/10122020-indigenous-foodways-past-and-present.

Leong, Elaine. “Collecting Knowledge for the Family: Recipes, Gender, and Practical Knowledge in the Early Modern English Household.” Centaurus 55 (2013): 81-103.