Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T21:44:29.837Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pottery Vessel Function and Foodways at El Chorro de Maíta, Cuba

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Vernon James Knight  and
Roberto Valcarcel Rojas
Vernon James Knight
Affiliation:
72 Coventry, Tuscaloosa, AL 35404, (vknight@ua.edu)
Roberto Valcarcel Rojas
Affiliation:
Departamento Centro-Oriental de Arqueología, Cisat, Citma, Holguín, Cuba, (rvalcarcel@holguin .inf .cu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Our approach assumes that pots are tools, containers whose performance characteristics are adjusted to their primary uses. Traditional agricultural peoples generally distinguish among multiple vessel shapes that have distinct intended uses. In this article, we present afunctional analysis of vessel shapes and sizes performed on a sample of 160 rim sherds from the site of El Chorro de Malta, Cuba. These were assigned to 13 defined vessel shapes, most of which displayed more than one size mode based on estimated orifice diameters. The majority of specimens from El Chorro de Malta are low-profile, composite-contour bowls made in medium and large size modes, followed in frequency by simple-contour bowls and plates. Late Ceramic Age peoples in the Greater Antilles are historically documented as participating in the manioc breadcake-cassareep- stewpot foodway common to much of the tropical lowlands of northern South America. Consequently, it should be possible to show how the container assemblage of El Chorro de Malta is adapted to the requirements of that foodway. We note that, ethnographically, the elaborate processing of bitter manioc itself to produce breadcakes as a staple food does not necessarily require pottery vessels at all. Nonetheless, common stewing as a key component of the foodway—including the production of the condiment called cassareep in the Guianas—can require several containers with potentially distinct performance requirements: one to collect the juice below the sleeve press, another to reduce the expressed juice to the thickened sauce over afire, and a third, the stewpot itself, adapted to simmering vegetable and meat stews. We provisionally suggest that some of the most common shape-size classes at El Chorro de Malta are suited to producing and serving stews and cassareep, the traditional complement to eating manioc breadcake.

Resumen

Resumen

Nuestro acercamiento asume que las alias son herramientas, recipientes cuyas características de fabricación se ajustan a sus usos primarios. Las comunidades agricultoras tradicionales generalmente distinguen entre múltiples formas de vasijas que tienen usos intencionales distintos. Un análisis funcional de formas y tamanos de vasijas de cerámica fue ejecutado usando una muestra de 160fragmentos de hordes del sitio El Chorro de Maíta, Cuba. Estas se asignaron a 13 formas de vasijas, gran parte de las cuales muestran más de un modo de tamano basado en los diámetros estimados para laboca. La mayoría de los especímenes de El Chorro de Maita son de perfil bajo, cuencos de contorno compuesto hechos en modos de tamano mediano y grande, seguidos enfrecuencia por cuencos de contorno simple y platos. En tanto se ha documentado historicamente a la gente de la Edad Cerdmica Tardia en las Antillas May ores cómo participantes en las prácticas alimentarias del pan de yucacassareep-vasija de guiso, comun a gran parte de las tierras bajas tropicales del norte de Suramérica, debe serposible mostrar cómo este conjunto de contenedores se adapta a los requisitos de esa prácticas alimentaria traditional. Nosotros notamos que etnográficamente el complejo procesamiento de la yuca amarga para producir tortas de casabe cómo una comida principal no necesariamente requiere de vasijas de cerámica. Sin embargo, elguisado comun, cómo un componente clave de la prácticas alimentaria, incluyendo la producción del condimento llamado cassareep en las Guyanas, eventualmente requiere varios recipientes con requisitos de funcionamiento distintos: uno para colectar el jugo debajo de la prensa para la yuca, otro para reducir, una vez colocado sobre elfuego, el jugo de yuca al nivel de espesado de la salsa, y un tercero, la propia vasija de guiso, adaptadapara cocer afuego lento verduras y estofado de came. Provisionalmente sugerimos que algunas de las closes de forma-tamano más comunes en El Chorro de Maita satisfacen los requerimientos de la producción y servido de guisos y cassareep, complemento tradicional para el consumo del pan de yuca.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , June 2015 , pp. 260 - 278
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Agüero, Juan Carlos, and Rojas, Roberto Valcárcel 1994 Catálogo tecnotipolágico de vasijas de cerámica de grupos agroceramistas de la provincia de Holguín. Manuscript on file, Departamento Centro-Oriental de Arque-ología, CISAT, Holguín, Cuba.Google Scholar
Arnold, Phillip J. 1991 Domestic Ceramic Production and Spatial Organization: A Mexican Case Study in Ethnoarchaeology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K. Google Scholar
Attfield, John 1870 Analysis of Bitter Cassava Juice, and Experiments in Elucidation of Its Supposed Antiseptic Properties. Year-Book of Pharmacy, 1870, pp. 382-385. John Churchill, London.Google Scholar
Bashilov, Vladimir, and Golenko, Viktor 1992 K Bonpocy o Ilepnojni3aujfli “KybTypw Cy6TanHo” B LJeffrpajibHoft Mac™ Ky6u: IJo KepaMirqecKHM MaTepnajiaM PacKonoK riocejiemra 3jn, KoHBeHr[The Problem of the Periodization of Subtaíno Culture in South-Central Cuba: The Ceramic Material from the Site of El Convento]. Russian Archaeology 2:240-258 (reprint).Google Scholar
Blitz, John H. 1993 Big Pots for Big Shots: Feasting and Storage in a Mississippian Community. American Antiquity 58:80-96.Google Scholar
Braun, David P. 1983 Pots as Tools. In Archaeological Hammers and Theories, edited by James A. Moore and Arthur S. Keene, pp. 107-134. Academic Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calvera Roses, Jorge, Rojas, Roberto Valcárcel, and Cooper, Jago 2006 Los Buchillones: universo de madera. Revista de Ciencias Sociales: ACRD (3–4):9-16.Google Scholar
Cameiro, Robert L. 2000 The Evolution of the Tipití: A Study in the Process of Invention. In Cultural Evolution: Contemporary Viewpoints, edited by Gary M. Feinman and Linda Manzanilla, pp. 61-93. Kluwer Academic/Plenum, New York.Google Scholar
Cassá, Roberto 1974 Los Taános de la Española. Editorial de la Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.Google Scholar
Conrad, Geoffrey W., Foster, John W., and Beeker, Charles D. 2001 Organic Artifacts from the Manantial de la Aleta, Dominican Republic: Preliminary Observations and Interpretations. Journal of Caribbean Archaeology 2:1-20.Google Scholar
Cusick, James G. 1989 Culture Change and Pottery Change in a Taíno Village. Paper presented at the 13th International Congress for Caribbean Archaeology, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles.Google Scholar
de Las Casas, Bartolomé 1875 Historia de Las Indias. Vol. 2. Press of Miguel Ginesta, Madrid.Google Scholar
de Las Casas, Bartolomé 1876 Historia de Las Indias. Vol. 5. Press of Miguel Ginesta, Madrid.Google Scholar
Deal, Michael 1998 Pottery Ethnoarchaeology in the Central Maya Highlands. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Dole, Gertrude 1960 Techniques of Preparing Manioc Flour as a Key to Culture History in Tropical America. In Men and Cultures: Selected Papers of the Fifth and Sixth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, edited by Anthony F. C. Wallace, pp. 241-248. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Domínguez, Lourdes 1991 Arqueología del Centro-Sur de Cuba. Editorial Academia, Habana.Google Scholar
Espenshade, Christopher T. 2000 Reconstructing Household Vessel Assemblages and SiteDuration at an Early Ostionoid Site from South-Central Puerto Rico. Journal of Caribbean Archaeology 1:1-22.Google Scholar
Farabee, William C. 1918 The Central Arawaks. Anthropological Publications No. 9, The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Fernández de Oviedo, Gonzalo 1851 Historia General y Natural de Las Indias, Islas y Tierra Firme de la Mar Océano. Vol. 1. Press of the Royal Academy of History, Madrid.Google Scholar
García Arévalo, Manuel A. 1978 Influencias de la dieta Indo-Hispánica en la cerámica taína. Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress for the Study of Pre-Columbian Cultures of the Lesser Antilles, edited by Jean Benoist and Francine-M. Mayer, pp. 263-277. Centre des Etudes Caraïibes, Universite de Montreal, Montreal, Canada.Google Scholar
Gillin, John 1936 The Barama River Caribs of British Guiana. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 14, No. 2. Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Gillin, John 1948 Tribes of the Guianas. In Handbook of South American Indians, Vol. 3, The Tropical Forest Tribes, edited by Julian Steward, pp. 799-860. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143. Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Goody, Jack R. 1982 Cooking, Cuisine, and Class: A Study in Comparative Sociology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Guarch Delmonte, José M. 1972 La Cerámica Taína de Cuba. Serie Arqueológica, No. 2. Academia de Ciencias de Cuba, Havana.Google Scholar
Guarch Delmonte, José M. 1994 Yaguajay, Yucayeque, Turey. Publicigraf, Holguín.Google Scholar
Guarch Delmonte, José M., Arce, Cesar Rodríguez, and Pedroso, Roxana 1987 Investigaciones Preliminares en el Sitio El Chorro de Maíta. Revista de Historia, Año 11, 3:5-40. Holguín, Cuba.Google Scholar
Hagstrum, Melissa B., and Hildebrand, John A. 1990 The Two-Curvature Method for Reconstructing Ceramic Morphology. American Antiquity 55:388-403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hally, David J. 1983 The Interpretive Potential of Pottery from Domestic Contexts. Mid-Continental Journal of Archaeology 8:163-196.Google Scholar
Hally, David J. 1984 Vessel Assemblages and Food Habits: A Comparison of Two Aboriginal Southeastern Vessel Assemblages. Southeastern Archaeology 3:46-64.Google Scholar
Hally, David J. 1986 The Identification of Vessel Function: A Case Study from Northwest Georgia. American Antiquity 51:267-295.Google Scholar
Henrickson, Elizabeth F., and McDonald, Mary 1983 Ceramic Form and Function: An Ethnographic Search and an Archaeological Application. American Anthropologist 85:630-643.Google Scholar
Jardines Macías, Juan E., Guerrero, Antonio Toppe, and Roses, Jorge Calvera 2013 La Madera en la Arqueología de Cuba. Los Buchillones. Cuba Arqueología 6:9-29.Google Scholar
Laffoon, Jason E. 2012 Patterns of Paieomobility in the Ancient Antilles. An Isotopic Approach. Unpublished PhD. dissertation, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, Leiden.Google Scholar
Linton, Ralph G. 1944 North American Cooking Pots. American Antiquity 9:369-380.Google Scholar
Linton, Ralph G. 1948 The Tropical Forests: An Introduction. In Handbook of South American Indians, Vol. 3, The Tropical Forest Tribes, edited by Julian Steward, pp. 1-56. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143. Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Lovén, Sven 1935 Origins of the Tainan Culture, West Indies. Elanders Boktryckeri Aktiebolag, Goteborg, Sweden.Google Scholar
Martínez Arango, Felipe Martínez 1997 Los Aborígenes de la Cuenca de Santiago de Cuba. Ediciones Universal, Miami, Florida.Google Scholar
Mickleburgh, Hayley L., and Pagán-Jiménez, Jaime R. 2012 New Insights into the Consumption of Maize and Other Food Plants in the Pre-Columbian Caribbean from Starch Grains Trapped in Human Dental Calculus. Journal of Archaeological Science 39:2468-2478.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nordenskiöld, Erland 1920 The Changes in the Material Culture of Two Indian Tribes Under the Influence of New Surroundings. Comparative Ethnological Studies 2. Elanders Boktryckeri Aktiebolag, Göteborg, Sweden.Google Scholar
Pérez Iglesias, Lourdes 2007 Estudio arqueozoológico de la unidad 9 de El Chorro de Maíta. Manuscript on file, Departamento Centro-Oriental de Arqueología, CISAT, Holguín, Cuba.Google Scholar
Pérez Iglesias, Lourdes 2008 Informe arqueozoológico de las unidades 10, 12, 14 y 16, El Chorro de Maíta, Banes, Holguín. Ms. on file, Departamento Centro-Oriental de Arqueología, CISAT, Holguín, Cuba.Google Scholar
Persons, Ashley Brooke 2013 Pottery, People, and Place: Examining the Emergence of Political Authority in Late Ceramic Age Cuba. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Plog, Fred 1985 Estimating Vessel Orifice Diameters: Measurement Methods and Measurement Error. In Decoding Prehistoric Ceramics, edited by Ben A. Nelson, pp. 243-253. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Reber, Eleanora A. 2010 Absorbed and Visible Lipid Residue Analysis of Six Sherds from the El Chorro de Maíta Site, Holguín, Cuba. Papers of the UNCW Residue Lab, No. 10. University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Wilmington, North Carolina.Google Scholar
Reber, Eleanora A. 2012 Absorbed Residue Analysis of 21 Sherds from the El Chorro de Maíta Site, Holguín, Cuba. Papers of the UNCW Residue Lab, No. 15. University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Wilmington, North Carolina.Google Scholar
Reber, Eleanora A. 2013 Sealing, Flavoring, Trade Item, Incense? The Role of Conifer Resin in the Pre-Columbian Caribbean. Paper presented at the 70th meeting of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Tampa, Florida.Google Scholar
Rice, Prudence M. 1987 Pottery Analysis: A Sourcebook. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Roth, Walter E. 1924 An Introductory Study of the Arts, Crafts, and Customs of the Guiana Indians. 38th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology for 1916–17, pp. 25-745. Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Rouse, Irving B. 1941 Culture of the Ft. Liberté Region, Haiti. Yale University Publications in Anthropology, No. 24. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Rouse, Irving B. 1942 Archaeology of the Maniabón Hills, Cuba. Yale University Publications in Anthropology, No. 26. New Haven, Connecticut.Google Scholar
Rouse, Irving B. 1948 The Arawak. In Handbook of South American Indians, Vol. 4, The Circum-Caribbean Tribes, edited by Julian Steward, pp. 507-546. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143. Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Serrano y Sanz, Manuel 1909 HistoriadoresdeIndias. Vol. I. Apologetica Historia de las Indias, by Bartolomé de Las Casas. Nueva Biblioteca de Autores Españoles. Bailly Balliére and sons, Madrid.Google Scholar
Shepard, Anna O. 1956 Ceramics for the Archaeologist. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Smith, Marion F. 1985 Toward an Economic Interpretation of Ceramics: Relating Vessel Size and Shape to Use. In Decoding Prehistoric Ceramics, edited by Ben A. Nelson, pp. 254-309. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Sturtevant, William C. 1961 Taino Agriculture. In The Evolution of Horticultural Systems in Native South America: Causes and Consequences, edited by Johannes Wilbert, pp. 69-82. Antropológica Supplement Public No. 2. Sociedad de Ciencias Nat-urales La Salle, Caracas.Google Scholar
Sturtevant, William C. 1969 History and Ethnography of Some West Indian Starches. In The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals, edited by Peter J. Ucko and G. W. Dimbleby, pp. 177-199. Aldine, Chicago.Google Scholar
Tabío, Ernesto E. 1989 Arqueología: Agricultura Aborigen Antilliana. Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, Havana.Google Scholar
Trincado Fontán, María N., and Ulloa Hung, J. 1996 Las comunidades Meillacoides del litoral suroriental de Cuba. El Caribe Arqueologico 1:74-82.Google Scholar
Valcárcel Rojas, Roberto 2002 Banes Precolombino: La Ocupación Agricultora. Ediciones Holguín, Holguín.Google Scholar
Valcárcel Rojas, Roberto 2008 Las sociedades agricultoras ceramistas en Cuba. Una mirada desde los datos arqueológicos y etnohistóricos. El Caribe Arqueológico 11:2-19.Google Scholar
Valcárcel Rojas, Roberto 2012 Interactión Colonial en un Pueblo de Indios En-comendados: El Chorro de Maáta, Cuba. PhXJ. Dissertation, University of Leiden, Netherlands.Google Scholar
Valcárcel Rojas, Roberto, Persons, Ashley B., Knight, Vernon J., and Iglesias, Lourdes Pérez 2007 Trabajos Arqueólogicos en El Chorro de Maíta, 2007. Manuscript on file, Departamento Centro-Oriental de Arqueología, CISAT, Holguín, Cuba.Google Scholar
Valcárcel Rojas, Roberto, Persons, Ashley B., Knight, Vernon J., and Iglesias, Lourdes Pérez 2008 Trabajos Arqueólogicos en El Chorro de Maíta, 2008. Manuscript on file, Departamento Centro-Oriental de Arqueología, CISAT, Holguín, Cuba.Google Scholar
Valcárcel Rojas, Roberto, and Arce, Cesar Rodríguez 2005 El Chorro de Maíta: Social Inequality and Mortuary Space. In Dialogues in Cuban Archaeology, edited by L. Antonio Curet, Shannon Lee Dawdy, and Gabino La Rosa, pp. 125-146. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Veloz Maggiolo, Marcio 1972 Arqueología Prehistórica de Santo Domingo. McGraw-Hill Far Eastern Publishers, Singapore.Google Scholar
Veloz Maggiolo, Marcio 1976 Medioambiente y Adaptatión Humana en la Prehistoria de Santo Domingo: La Formatión Agricultora, Vol. 2. Colección Historia y Sociedad, No. 30. Editorial de la Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.Google Scholar
Veloz Maggiolo, Marcio, Ortega, Elpidio, and Fuentes, Angel Caba 1981 Los Modos de Vida Meillacoides y Sus Posibles Orígenes: Un Estudio Interpretativo. Museo del Hombre Dominicano, Santo Domingo.Google Scholar
Welch, Paul D., and Margaret Scarry, C. 1995 Status-Related Variation in Foodways in the Moundville Chiefdom. American Antiquity 60:397-420.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Knight and Rojas Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material

Download Knight and Rojas Supplementary Material(PDF)
PDF 49 KB