RSS FeedUpcoming EventsFrom Farming to Importing Food: Colonial Racial Capitalism, Sovereignty, and Cuisine in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico from 1919 to the present (Natasha Fernández-Preston), April 3https://events.berkeley.edu/arf/event/242597-from-farming-to-importing-food-colonial-racial-capita

This talk will take place in person at the ARF and on Zoom (you must have a Zoom account to attend). Register for online attendance here.

Abstract: 

The purpose of this research is to trace food practices, landscape changes, and cuisine changes in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico for the last century (1919-2018) relating them to the processes of colonial racial capitalism and sovereignty. Since the mid-twentieth century, Puerto Rico went from being a mostly agricultural archipelago to an archipelago where there is barely any agriculture and that imports 85% of the food it consumes. This transformation was led by the development strategies that were initiated in 1947, under the political banner of bringing a better quality of life to the archipelago. However, there is a lack of specific knowledge of how agriculture was abandoned, and political narratives tend to blame individuals who did not want to continue farming. Most people are familiar with the result, which is the 85% importation of food, but not how these changesrelate to sociopolitical and economic decisions, broadscale inequities, and day-to-day cooking practices. Preliminary data from this dissertation illustrates how the abandonment of subsistence agriculture and development strategies such as industrialization by invitation could have been purposeful and necessary steps for establishing a secure market for U.S. food products in Puerto Rico. This is especially so since after World War II, U.S. agriculture experienced an increased growth in the production of surplus products due to Green Revolution technologies. While this was happening in the U.S. mainland, agriculture was being abandoned in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, and national identities and “traditional” dishes (cuisine), many of which are composed of imported ingredients, were becoming emblemized and institutionalized as part of “Puerto Rican culture.” Thus, the central questions that will guide this research are: How do food practices and cuisine relate to the processes of colonial racial capitalism? How do food practices and cuisine relate to ideas and enactments of sovereignty? I will explore the material traces left of past food practices in archival records (censuses, importation and exportation records, and cookbooks) to understand agricultural landscape uses, food trade, and cooking practices. These food practices will be visualized in GIS maps, as well as graphs and tables. With cuisine enacted through these food practices, I will then analyze what is the role of cuisine in the perpetuation or breaking of broader political-economic systems with the concepts of colonial racial capitalism and sovereignty.

 

https://events.berkeley.edu/arf/event/242597-from-farming-to-importing-food-colonial-racial-capita
Isobiographies of enslavement – How isoscapes enable us to assess individual life histories within the transatlantic slave trade (Vicky M. Oelze, UC Santa Cruz), April 10https://events.berkeley.edu/arf/event/244068-isobiographies-of-enslavement-how-isoscapes-enable-us

This talk will take place in person at the ARF and on Zoom (you must have a Zoom account to attend). Register for online attendance here.

Abstract: 

Between the 15th and 19th centuries, at least 12.5 million Africans were abducted, enslaved, and transported to the Americas and Europe in the largest forced migration event known in human history. Although the transatlantic slave trade is well documented, archeologists and historians have struggled to identify the actual geographic origins of victims of the slave trade whose mortal remains found their final resting place in the African Diaspora. While isotopic evidence obtained from these human remains has the potential to identify individuals who were native to the African continent, only the development of African isotope landscapes (isoscapes) enables the assessments of their individual regional origins in Africa. My team recently developed a strontium isoscape for Angola, and now even for most of sub-Saharan Africa, using substantial on-the-ground sampling and a random forest modeling approach. These isoscapes allow us to re-evaluate published strontium isotope data obtained from archeological individuals in the African Diaspora, and to assess the probability of origin for individuals from large burial complexes containing human remains of formerly enslaved Africans discovered in Europe and the Atlantic. I will demonstrate how the combined use of radiogenic and stable isotope systems, as well as aDNA, has the potential to identify an enslaved individuals most likely origins and even the timing of capture and deportation. This allows us to return to them and the communities of their descendants at least some information of their regional roots and cultural heritage. 

https://events.berkeley.edu/arf/event/244068-isobiographies-of-enslavement-how-isoscapes-enable-us
Nemea 100: from Blegen to Berkeley and Beyond, April 15https://events.berkeley.edu/live/events/229484-nemea-100-from-blegen-to-berkeley-and-beyond

The Nemea Center for Classical Archaeology is pleased to present an international conference in honor of the 100th anniversary of the first excavation at Nemea AND the 50th anniversary of UC Berkeley’s involvement at the site: Nemea 100: From Blegen to Berkeley and Beyond! The event brings together speakers from the United States and Greece who have a history of interest and expertise in the archaeology of Nemea and its surrounding region. Presentations will highlight past, present, and future research.

On April 15, 1924, the young American archaeologist Carl Blegen initiated excavations at the Sanctuary of Zeus at Nemea, Greece. The work he began 100 years ago was renewed fifty years later, in 1974, by Stephen G. Miller and the University of California, Berkeley. Since 2005, restoration and excavation work at the site continues under the leadership of Dr. Kim Shelton (DAGRS).

On April 15, 2024, our international conference will celebrate much more of Nemea’s unique and multifaceted history in the company of archaeologists, students, colleagues, supporters, friends, and donors. We cannot wait to share all we have in store with you! We will gather in person on the UC Berkeley campus to mark the occasion (370 Dwinelle Hall) together for two days (continuing on Tuesday, April 16, beginning at 9:00am). For those of you far and wide who cannot join us in person, however, we invite you to join us virtually! To register: https://nemeacenter.berkeley.edu/nemea-100/

/live/events/229484-nemea-100-from-blegen-to-berkeley-and-beyond
Researching Outstanding Universal Value for the Murujuga Cultural Landscape World Heritage Nomination (Professor Jo McDonald, Director, Center for Rock Art Research and Management), April 15https://events.berkeley.edu/arf/event/243950-researching-outstanding-universal-value-for-the

About: Murujuga is the name given by its custodians to the Dampier Archipelago, in north-western Australia. The Murujuga Cultural Landscape has been nominated to the World Heritage List in 2023. This talk will focus on the collaborative research undertaken over the last decade by archaeologists and rock art specialists with the custodians of this land. This work has focused on contextualising what is thought to be a 50,000 year old artistic record of human habitation, and responses to extreme climate changes over that time, as this interior desert landscape transformed to a seascape with the sea level rise after the last Ice Age.

About the Speaker: Jo McDonald is the Director of the Center for Rock Art Research and Management at the University of Western Australia, and has led several research projects documenting the art, excavating the living sites, finding underwater (drowned) sites and working with multidisciplinary teams to try and date the rock art.

https://events.berkeley.edu/arf/event/243950-researching-outstanding-universal-value-for-the
Sitting on a throne or working with vases: from deities to ordinary women in Phoenicia (Dr. Tatiana Pedrazzi), April 18https://events.berkeley.edu/arf/event/219464-sitting-on-a-throne-or-working-with-vases-from

This lecture is part of the series Women and Gender in the Phoenician Homeland and Diaspora. This program of public lectures takes place monthly on Thursdays at 9:30 AM Pacific, from October 2023 through May 2024. See the list of lectures and dates below.

Watch on the ARF YouTube channel here: https://bit.ly/arf-channel or watch later on the ARF & Badè YouTube channels.

 

November 2, 2023 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Bärbel Morstadt - “Ashtart and Co. as female role models in Phoenician society”

 

December 7, 2023 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Wissam Khalil and Karim Fadlallah - “The cult of Astarte within the coastal grottos of Adloun and Kharayeb in southern Lebanon”

 

January 25, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Becky Martin - “Gender representation on anthropoid coffins”

 

February 22, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Jessica Nitschke - “Dress and representation of women in Phoenician visual culture”

 

March 7, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Agnès Garcia Ventura and Dr. Mireia Lopez Bertran - “On Phoenician/Punic music and musicians: a gender approach”

 

March 21, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Mireia Lopez Bertran - “Punic women as ritual agents: evidence from material and visual culture”

 

March 28, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Maroun Khreich - “Phoenician women in textual documentation (epigraphical and literary)”

 

April 18, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Tatiana Pedrazzi - “Sitting on a throne or working with vases: from deities to ordinary women in Phoenicia”

 

May 2, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Adriano Orsingher - “Gender and masks. A look through the Phoenician/Punic lens”

 

May 16, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Ida Oggiano - “Ritual actions of Phoenician women in the Levant in the 1st millennium BC: purposes and modalities”

https://events.berkeley.edu/arf/event/219464-sitting-on-a-throne-or-working-with-vases-from
Forests and Foods of Ancient Arenal, Costa Rica (Venicia Slotten), April 24https://events.berkeley.edu/arf/event/242599-forests-and-foods-of-ancient-arenal-costa-rica-venici

This talk will take place in person at the ARF and on Zoom (you must have a Zoom account to attend). Register for online attendance here.

Abstract: 

Paleoethnobotanical investigations at multiple domestic structures in Arenal, Costa Rica, reveal the plant resources utilized by past peoples living in this volcanically active setting from 1500 BCE to 600 CE. Roughly 200 different genera of plants have been recovered and identified between the two sites (G-995 La Chiripa and G-164 Sitio Bolivar) from the preserved seeds, fruits, and wood charcoal including cacao, maize, beans, manioc, achiote, avocado, cashew, cherry, fig, guava, guanabana, jocote, mamey, nance, palms, ramon, sapodilla, and tobacco. These preserved plant remains represent the diverse assemblage of edible fruits, leaves, or vegetative material that the ancient inhabitants would have incorporated into their daily cuisine. The people of ancient Arenal were knowledgeable arboriculturalists who did not rely heavily on agriculture, but rather would have collected from a variety of trees and root crops for their subsistence needs. The macrobotanical results suggest that the ancient inhabitants employed mixed strategies for subsistence and may have preferred food resources that would have remained accessible during times of ecological stress.

https://events.berkeley.edu/arf/event/242599-forests-and-foods-of-ancient-arenal-costa-rica-venici
Gender and masks. A look through the Phoenician/Punic lens (Dr. Adriano Orsingher), May 2https://events.berkeley.edu/arf/event/219465-gender-and-masks-a-look-through-the

This lecture is part of the series Women and Gender in the Phoenician Homeland and Diaspora. This program of public lectures takes place monthly on Thursdays at 9:30 AM Pacific, from October 2023 through May 2024. See the list of lectures and dates below.

Watch on the ARF YouTube channel here: https://bit.ly/arf-channel or watch later on the ARF & Badè YouTube channels.

 

November 2, 2023 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Bärbel Morstadt - “Ashtart and Co. as female role models in Phoenician society”

 

December 7, 2023 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Wissam Khalil and Karim Fadlallah - “The cult of Astarte within the coastal grottos of Adloun and Kharayeb in southern Lebanon”

 

January 25, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Becky Martin - “Gender representation on anthropoid coffins”

 

February 22, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Jessica Nitschke - “Dress and representation of women in Phoenician visual culture”

 

March 7, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Agnès Garcia Ventura and Dr. Mireia Lopez Bertran - “On Phoenician/Punic music and musicians: a gender approach”

 

March 21, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Mireia Lopez Bertran - “Punic women as ritual agents: evidence from material and visual culture”

 

March 28, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Maroun Khreich - “Phoenician women in textual documentation (epigraphical and literary)”

 

April 18, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Tatiana Pedrazzi - “Sitting on a throne or working with vases: from deities to ordinary women in Phoenicia”

 

May 2, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Adriano Orsingher - “Gender and masks. A look through the Phoenician/Punic lens”

 

May 16, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Ida Oggiano - “Ritual actions of Phoenician women in the Levant in the 1st millennium BC: purposes and modalities”

https://events.berkeley.edu/arf/event/219465-gender-and-masks-a-look-through-the
Ritual actions of Phoenician women in the Levant in the 1st millennium BC: purposes and modalities (Dr. Ida Oggiano), May 16https://events.berkeley.edu/arf/event/219466-ritual-actions-of-phoenician-women-in-the-levant

This lecture is part of the series Women and Gender in the Phoenician Homeland and Diaspora. This program of public lectures takes place monthly on Thursdays at 9:30 AM Pacific, from October 2023 through May 2024. See the list of lectures and dates below.

Watch on the ARF YouTube channel here: https://bit.ly/arf-channel or watch later on the ARF & Badè YouTube channels.

 

November 2, 2023 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Bärbel Morstadt - “Ashtart and Co. as female role models in Phoenician society”

 

December 7, 2023 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Wissam Khalil and Karim Fadlallah - “The cult of Astarte within the coastal grottos of Adloun and Kharayeb in southern Lebanon”

 

January 25, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Becky Martin - “Gender representation on anthropoid coffins”

 

February 22, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Jessica Nitschke - “Dress and representation of women in Phoenician visual culture”

 

March 7, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Agnès Garcia Ventura and Dr. Mireia Lopez Bertran - “On Phoenician/Punic music and musicians: a gender approach”

 

March 21, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Mireia Lopez Bertran - “Punic women as ritual agents: evidence from material and visual culture”

 

March 28, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Maroun Khreich - “Phoenician women in textual documentation (epigraphical and literary)”

 

April 18, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Tatiana Pedrazzi - “Sitting on a throne or working with vases: from deities to ordinary women in Phoenicia”

 

May 2, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Adriano Orsingher - “Gender and masks. A look through the Phoenician/Punic lens”

 

May 16, 2024 @ 9:30am California time

Dr. Ida Oggiano - “Ritual actions of Phoenician women in the Levant in the 1st millennium BC: purposes and modalities”

https://events.berkeley.edu/arf/event/219466-ritual-actions-of-phoenician-women-in-the-levant