THE PREHISTORY OF FOOD

This collection presents studies from across the globe examining the interrelationships of food, biology and ecology. The contributors investigate the different roles food plays in culture: as an object of consumption and, subsequently, an important factor of socioeconomic change, as an agent of innovation affecting agriculture and methods of preparation and cooking, as a vital part of the landscape and as an important influence on the history of humans and plants. The Prehistory of Food contains case studies ranging from the rainforest groups of South America, to peoples of the desert fringes of Asia, to farmers in the Highlands of New Guinea. The book charts the movements of plants over the last 5,000 years, and with an impressive wealth of archaeological, genetic, botanical and linguistic evidence it tells the complex and fascinating story of the relationship between humans and their food.