ABSTRACT
Often a conference that seemed very cohesive and orderly has much less coherence when the conference talks become chapters in a book. While this collection appears disorderly in its diverse topics and methods, it is a thoroughly coherent representation of the many radical changes that are taking place in the way that archaeologists understand food. It rests in the turbulent confluence of a rapidly developing new field called ‘Food Studies’ and new approaches to material culture under the influence of Science and Technology Studies. This new terrain is fertilized by dramatic improvements in the techniques for recovering traces of past foodways, and a new openness to theorizing human relations with their environment. Borders are being crossed, migration is taking place and the subjects refuse to stand still. We are entering an era when an archaeology of food has become thinkable.
