Women and Subsistence Food Technology: The Arctic Seal Poke Storage System

Frink, Liam; Giordano, C.

doi:10.1080/07409710.2015.1099906

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Aquatic oil played an important role in the lives of prehistoric and historic peoples of the (sub)Arctic. Not only was the substance used as a fuel to burn in oil lamps, but it is also known to be an important part of the Unangax̂ diet (Unger, 2014) and critical for the storage of various foodstuffs (Frink and Giordano, 2015). Knecht and Davis (2001, 2008) have suggested multiple times that stone bowls were used for the purpose of rendering aquatic oils.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The increased presence of marine mammals rich in fats during this period of high marine productivity may have increased the rendering of marine oil. On the other hand, the unpredictability of climate change could have posed problems for the rendering of oil using a cold method where pieces of fat were stored in a cleaned seal skin, referred to as a seal poke , and left to slowly self-render into oil (Frink and Giordano, 2015). Temperature was of the utmost importance to this process.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Investigating the function of prehistoric stone bowls and griddle stones in the Aleutian Islands by lipid residue analysis

et al. 2018

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The earliest durable cooking technologies found in Alaska are stone bowls and griddle stones recovered from the Aleutian Islands. This article aims to identify the function of these artefacts. Molecular and chemical analyses of carbonised residues found on their surfaces confirm that these artefacts were used to process marine resources. Both artefacts have high lipid content and C:N ratios, suggesting they were used to process oily substances. Stable isotope results of individual lipids suggest that they were used to process different sets of resources within the aquatic spectrum as griddle stones have slightly more 13C-depleted lipids than stone bowls, possibly indicating more variable use. Integration of these results with archaeological and ethnographic data leads us to infer that griddle stones were used for cooking a diversity of aquatic resources, possibly with the addition of plant foods, whereas stone bowls were specifically used to render marine mammal fats. We further hypothesize that a sudden peak in stone bowl frequencies at 4000–3000 cal yr BP was connected to a Neoglacial cold spell bringing sea ice conditions to the Aleutian Islands. This may have led to new subsistence strategies in which the rendering of marine mammal fats played a central role.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the function of prehistoric stone bowls and griddle stones in the Aleutian Islands by lipid residue analysis

et al. 2018

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“…Some modern forms of processing, accomplished with mechanized technology, include grinding, homogenization, pasteurization, defatting, liquefaction, and emulsification, among many others (Connor & Schiek, ). In contrast, traditional food processing can often accommodate these same objectives using nonmechanized technological methods, which have been practiced for thousands of years, such as fermentation, germination, mechanical processing, thermal treatment, dehydration, and preservation (Fellows, ; Frink & Giordano, ). It may be premature to ascribe processing as a uniquely human trait when tool‐use and food handling are observed across a wide range of animal taxa (e.g., Apidae, cephalopods, corvids, and procyonids) (King, ; Shumaker et al, 2011), yet the operational leap to intentional post‐harvest modification is, thus far, restricted to the human lineage (Harmand et al, ; Wrangham & Conklin‐Brittain, ).…”

Section: Bioavailability and Human Digestive Physiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Current views on hunter‐gatherer nutrition and the evolution of the human diet

Crittenden

Schnorr

2017

American J Phys Anthropol

135

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Diet composition and food choice are not only central to the daily lives of all living people, but are consistently linked with turning points in human evolutionary history. As such, scholars from a wide range of fields have taken great interest in the role that subsistence has played in both human cultural and biological evolution. Central to this discussion is the diet composition and nutrition of contemporary hunters and gatherers, who are frequently conscripted as model populations for ancestral human nutrition. Research among the world's few remaining foraging populations is experiencing a resurgence, as they are making the final transition away from diets composed of wild foods, to those dominated by domesticated cultigens and/or processed foods.In an effort to glean as much information as possible, before such populations are no longer hunting and gathering, researchers interested in the evolution of human nutrition are rapidly collecting and accessing new and more data. Methods of scientific inquiry are in the midst of rapid change and scholars are able to revisit long-standing questions using state of the art analyses. Here, using the most relevant findings from studies in ethnography, nutrition, human physiology, and microbiomes, we provide a brief summary of the study of the evolution of human nutrition as it has specifically pertained to data coming from living hunter-gatherers. In doing so, we hope to bridge the disciplines that are currently invested in research on nutrition and health among foraging populations. K E Y W O R D Sdiet composition, forager, gut microbiome, human evolution, nutrition | I N T R O D U C T I O NDiet composition and food choice are indisputably a core facet in all human societies. Changes in diet are routinely associated with watershed moments in human evolution-such as tool making, brain expansion, family formation, cooperation, and even increased longevity (Aiello & Wheeler, 1995; Lee & DeVore, 1968;Wrangham, 2009). In the not-too-distant past, before industrialization, the rise of the middle class, and the development of market economies, procuring and preparing enough food to feed one's self and one's family occupied a significant portion of daily labor. In contemporary unindustrialized small-scale societies, this is still largely the case (Hawkes et al., 1997;Marlowe, 2010;Wood & Marlowe, 2013). Appropriately, anthropologists take great interest in the role that food and diet have had in human biological and cultural evolution (Messer, 1984). The old proverbs, "you are what you eat" and "tell me what you eat and I'll tell you what you are" (Brillat-Savarin, 1862) speak about food not only as a physical embodiment of the environment, but also as a means of social identity and symbolic construction of culture. Naturally, these are anthropological dialogues, but at their core, they speak the language of many fields of biology. In order for scholars interested in the evolution of the human diet to integrate work from various disciplines, a collective conversation ...

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“…Some fermentations require vessels, but not all. Food can be fermented in animal stomachs (Frink and Giordano, 2015). In addition, food can be fermented by submerging it in slowmoving streams or by burying it underground.…”

Section: The Extended Microbiomementioning

confidence: 99%

The Internal, External and Extended Microbiomes of Hominins

et al. 2020

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The social structure of primates has recently been shown to influence the composition of their microbiomes. What is less clear is how primate microbiomes might in turn influence their social behavior, either in general or with particular reference to hominins. Here we use a comparative approach to understand how microbiomes of hominins have, or might have, changed since the last common ancestor (LCA) of chimpanzees and humans, roughly six million years ago. We focus on microbiomes associated with social evolution, namely those hosted or influenced by stomachs, intestines, armpits, and food fermentation. In doing so, we highlight the potential influence of microbiomes in hominin evolution while also offering a series of hypotheses and questions with regard to evolution of human stomach acidity, the factors structuring gut microbiomes, the functional consequences of changes in armpit ecology, and whether Homo erectus was engaged in fermentation. We conclude by briefly considering the possibility that hominin social behavior was influenced by prosocial microbes whose fitness was favored by social interactions among individual hominins.

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Women and Subsistence Food Technology: The Arctic Seal Poke Storage System

Cited by 14 publications

References 17 publications

Investigating the function of prehistoric stone bowls and griddle stones in the Aleutian Islands by lipid residue analysis

Investigating the function of prehistoric stone bowls and griddle stones in the Aleutian Islands by lipid residue analysis

Current views on hunter‐gatherer nutrition and the evolution of the human diet

The Internal, External and Extended Microbiomes of Hominins

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