Project

Discipline

nutrition; botany; history; chemistry; Foodways; residue analysis; zoology; archaeology; Senegal; pottery function; West Africa; food systems; ethnography

Lead
Ce projet propose une approche interdisciplinaire de l’alimentation et de son évolution au fil des deux derniers millénaires au Sénégal. La méthode vise à croiser les résultats d’analyses relevant des sciences naturelles (botanique, zoologie, chimie) et des sciences humaines et sociales (archéologie, histoire, socio-anthropologie), obtenus à partir de plantes et d’animaux consommés, de poteries ayant servi à leur préparation ou consommation, ainsi que d’archives et d’entretiens de recherche.
Lay summary
Alimentation en Afrique de l’Ouest : une approche intégrée des poteries, des animaux et des plantes  Objectifs L'alimentation en tant que marqueur social, économique et culturel a émergé comme un thème d'intérêt transversal à traiter dans une perspective interdisciplinaire. Ce projet, centré sur le Sénégal des deux derniers millénaires, a pour but de développer une nouvelle méthode pour approcher l’histoire de l’alimentation en combinant différentes analyses des poteries (morphométrique, tracéologique, chimique, phytolithique), ainsi que des plantes et animaux consommés. La reconnaissance des fonctions et contenus des poteries, puis la comparaison entre données ethnographiques et archéologiques permettront de documenter les changements de cuisines sur la longue durée. De plus, des études historiques et socio-anthropologiques basées sur les archives, l'histoire orale et l'observation participante visent à approfondir l'évolution des pratiques aux époques du commerce atlantique dès le XVesiècle, de la colonisation et de la mondialisation. Contexte scientifique du projet de recherche A l'échelle du Sénégal, cette recherche permettra de comprendre les changements alimentaires survenus au fil du temps et contribueront à la sauvegarde d'un patrimoine culinaire menacé. A l'échelle de l'Afrique, les données bio-archéologiques combleront les lacunes des données portant sur l’émergence et la circulation des plantes et animaux domestiques. Plus largement encore, la méthodologie développée pour l’identification des fonctions des céramiques et de leurs résidus d’origine animale et végétale sera utile pour tous les archéologues. Par ailleurs, le lien avec la situation actuelle fournira des informations clé sur les aspects institutionnels et politiques de la sécurité alimentaire et de la nutrition, notamment pour la compréhension des facteurs entravant la diversité alimentaire actuelle.

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 16.09.2019

Natural persons

Number	Title	Start	Funding scheme

Food as social, economic and cultural marker has emerged as a topic of great scholar interest that needs to be addressed with an interdisciplinary perspective. Our project will foster innovative results on two levels. First, it will develop a new interdisciplinary method for identifying foodways by combining different types of analyses based on pottery, plants and animals. Then, based on this multi-proxy approach and on comparisons between ethnographic and archaeological evidence, it targets the reconstruction of the history of agricultural practices and foodways over two millennia in West Africa, with a special focus on Senegal, a favourable country to undertake this kind of study. Our approach consists in building present-day reference databases in the fields of ethnoarchaeology of ceramics, botany, zoology and biomolecular investigations. The acquisition of new data in various communities of Senegal will allow for the construction of interpretative keys to address food resources and consumption in the past. The identification of lipids, proteins, phytoliths and starch grains in residues of ethnographic pottery will contribute to this dataset and allow development of more effective protocols for archaeological sampling. Similarly, samples of faunal and floral components of present-day meals will be collected at various transformation stages in order to offer a comparative dataset for the identification of archaeological remains. Study of archaeological ceramics as well as plant and animal remains from different sites will draw a first sketch of the variability of food practices during pre-colonial times and allow evaluating the impact of post-depositional factors. In addition, historical and socio-anthropological studies based on manuscript archives, oral history and participant observation will show the changes in foodways under the influence of the Atlantic trade since the 15th century, and from colonial times to current globalisation. This project is highly interdisciplinary and depends on the combined expertise of researchers from disciplines specific to Humanities and Social Sciences (social anthropology, archaeology, history) and to Natural Sciences (chemistry, botany, zoology). All fields will contribute to the dialogue between the present and the past. The strength of the project lies in the close collaboration between members from complementary scientific fields: among the co-applicants, Anne Mayor’s group (Department of Genetics and Evolution, Anthropology Unit, University of Geneva) has expertise in ceramic ethnoarchaeology, African archaeology, archaeobotany and archaeozoology. Martine Regert’s group (CNRS, CEPAM, Université Côte d’Azur) is widely recognized for lipid analysis of residues, and will lead collaborations with other researchers for complementary innovative methods analysing lipidomics, proteins, starches and phytoliths in residues. Tobias Haller’s group (Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Bern) is specialized in social anthropology and food system approaches. Partners from the Botanical Gardens and Natural History Museum of Geneva, the History Department of the University of Bern, the University of Paris Nanterre, IFAN and UCAD in Dakar complete the team. The impact of this research will be significant at different scales. At the scale of Senegal, the results will allow to construct scenarios of food changes in various historical, cultural and environmental contexts. They will also contribute to the safeguarding of an endangered culinary heritage and the understanding of the institutional factors hindering current food diversity and resilience. At the scale of Africa, the bio-archaeological data will contribute to a better understanding of the circulation of knowledge about the use of domesticated plants and animals. At an even broader scale, the methodology developed for the analysis of animal and plant residues and the transcultural references will provide useful tools for all archaeologists. The link to current food diversity situations will also provide important data on institutional-political aspects of food security and nutrition.