​​​A Culinary History of Collapse, Conquest, and Cultural Identity in Ancient Perú

How do archaeologists use food to tell the story of the past? Archaeologist Robyn Cutright, Marlene and David Grissom Associate Professor of Anthropology at Centre Colleg, addresses this question in the next talk in our 2022-23 lecture series.

Between 650-1450 CE, residents of the Jequetepeque Valley of northern coastal Perú experienced several large-scale sociopolitical disruptions, including the collapse of the Moche polity, the transition to the subsequent Lambayeque period in the context of highland and northern influences, and conquest by the expanding Chimú empire. This talk explores local experiences of these events, using cuisine as a window onto everyday life in rural communities. Culinary continuities and changes across three Jequetepeque Valley sites suggest that while collapse represented a deep rift in the fabric of rural daily life, conquest was marked by local accommodation and cultural persistence.

"A Culinary History" is part of an ongoing series of archaeology talks presented by the Kentucky Society of the Archaeological Institute of America with support from the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville Departments of Anthropology and History.