ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between diet and health. It focuses on variability in prehistoric access to meat and wild plant foods across the Southwest. The chapter analyses archaeological data relating to three alternative means of dealing with shortfalls in local meat availability: trade for meat, turkey husbandry, and harvest of plants containing nutrients found in meat. Trade for meat between eastern border Pueblo farmers and plains hunter-gatherers has been well documented. The chapter also focuses on beans and on wild plants high in iron and vitamin C. There is, however, compelling evidence that wild plants higher than corn in iron and vitamin C content were more extensively harvested at sites with lower artiodactyl indices. Vitamin B12 is available in substantial amounts only in animal products, meat or milk. Vegetarian diets, particularly vegan diets, which contain no animal products, have been documented to result in vitamin B12 deficiency.
