Food in California Indian Culture

Despite the importance and fascination of its subject, this is the first book devoted to the Native cuisines of California. It includes the food-related sections from many hard-to-find sources. Representing all regions of modern California, these detailed descriptions present the full range of Native food from gathering through storage, processing, cooking, and eating, as well as the role of food in myth and ritual. Selections on changes in food customs introduce comtemporary essays and photographs by Native Californians. An introduction by anthropologist Ira Jacknis focuses on cooking and eating. This richly illustrated volume will appeal to everyone with an interest in cooking and the natural world.

Ira Jacknis is a research anthropologist at the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology.

Acknowledgments

Classics in California Anthropology: Introduction to the Phoebe Hearst Museum Reprint Series

Introduction

Notes Toward a Culinary Anthropology of Native California by Ira Jacknis

--Selection of Ingredients

--Gathering

--Processing and Storage

--Cooking

--Eating

--Food as a Social Category

--Historical Perspectives

--A Note on the Selections

Overview

The Food Problem in California by Alfred L. Kroeber

Plants

Making Acorn Bread in Yosemite by Elizabeth Grinnell

The Acorn, A Possibly Neglected Source of Food by C. Hart Merriam

Photographic Portfolio: Sierran Acorns, ca. 1902-8 by C. Hart Merriam

California Indian Balanophagy by Edward W. Gifford

Animals

Photographic Portfolio: Ishi (Yahi) Hunting Deer and Rabbit, 1914 by Alfred L. Kroeber and Saxton T. Pope

Fish and the Miwok by Craig D. Bates

Shellfish Foods of the California Indians by Robert E. Greengo

The Army Worms: A Food of the Pomo Indians by Samuel A. Barrett

Tribal Accounts

Life and Culture of the Hupa by Pliny E. Goddard

The Northern Maidu by Roland B. Dixon

Wintu Ethnography by Cora A. Du Bois

Notes on Traditional Foothill Nisenan Food Technology by Norman L. Wilson

Photographic Portfolio: Elizabeth Enos (Nisenan Maidu) Processing Buckeyes, 1960 by Samuel A. Barrett and film crew

Ethno-botany of the Coahuilla Indians of Southern California by David P. Barrows

Ethnography of the Owens Valley Paiute by Julian H. Steward

Culinary Practices of the Mohave Indians by Kenneth M. Stewart

Myth, Ritual, and Oratory

Karuk Food Myths edited by Alfred L. Kroeber and Edward W. Gifford

A Pomo Food Tale edited by Samuel A. Barrett

A Chumash Food Tale edited by Thomas C. Blackburn

A Sierra Miwok Feast Oration edited by Edward W. Gifford

Photographic Portfolio: A Konkow Maidu Feast, 1903 by John W. Hudson

Subsistence Rituals in Native California by Sean L. Swezey

Historical Perspectives

Kashaya Pomo Memories of Food by Essie Parrish

Photographic Portfolio: Kashaya Pomo Foods, ca. 1960 by Samuel A. Barrett and film crew

Contemporary Perspectives

Venison, Acorns, and Fry Bread by David W. Peri

You'll Never Go Hungry and Crab Louis and the Jitterbug by Kathleen R. Smith

Contemporary Food Customs by Beverly R. Ortiz

Photographic Portfolios: Contemporary Food Customs by Dugan Aguilar

Notes

References