ABSTRACT
In 1983, the University of Idaho began a long-term anthropological study of Pierce, Idaho, an historic placer gold mining community (see Stapp, Chapter 1 herein, Figure 1). Research to date has concentrated on the Chinese who inhabited the locality between 1864 and 1932. This chapter focuses upon one aspect of the Pierce Chinese diet, meat consumption; documentary data are used to describe the manner in which the Pierce Chinese obtained, prepared, and consumed meat products. To identify the meat system, we have integrated the documentary and oral historical data from the Pierce locality with basic information about animal husbandry, meat, butchering, cooking, and Chinese foodways. We then move to the archaeological database and evaluate it within the context of the proposed meat system. A major concern here is to identify contributions that the archaeological record can make to the defmition of the meat system. A second concern is the application that the faunal data may have for answering other questions regarding the Chinese experience in Pierce. We then conclude with a design for future faunal studies in Pierce, which may have application to research being conducted in other areas.
