Cooking and Community: An Exploration of Oneota Group Variability through Foodways

For many years, archaeological research regarding the Oneota tradition has focused on broad similarities and trends among groups spread over a wide geographical area. While this research is important for understanding the tradition, examinations of synchronic variability between Oneota groups have been underdeveloped. Exploring this variability may help archaeologists better understand how different groups adapted to various social and environmental circumstances and the processes that led to the emergence of different historical social groups in the upper Midwest and eastern prairies. In order to begin exploring this variability in core practices, a pilot study was completed comparing cooking and foodways practices found during an analysis of vessel function on stylistically Oneota pots recovered at the Tremaine site (47Lc95) in Wisconsin and the Morton Village site (11F2) in Illinois. Preliminary results show that food practices between these two groups varied, possibly as a response to different social circumstances.