A Land of Plenty? Colonial Diet in Rural New Zealand

Abstract

Colonial New Zealand was built on the ideal of creating better lives for settlers. Emigrants came looking to escape the shackles of the class-system and poor conditions in Industrial Revolution period Britain. Colonial propaganda claimed that most emigrants achieved their aims, but the lives the colonists actually experienced upon reaching New Zealand remain relatively unexplored from a biosocial perspective. In this paper we present a pilot study of stable isotope results of bone collagen from seven adults interred in the St. John's Cemetery (SJM), Milton, New Zealand (ca. AD 1860-1900. We interpret the diet at Milton and broadly compare our isotopic results with contemporaneous samples from Britain. We show that, like 3 contemporary Britain, the diet of our studied individuals was focused on C3 crops and terrestrial meat sources. Despite higher 𝛿𝛿 15 N values in contemporary UK populations (which can simplistically be interpreted as indicative of higher meat intake), consideration of different local baselines makes it likely that this New Zealand population had relatively similar levels of meat intake. Interestingly marine resources did not form an important part of the Milton diet, despite the site's proximity to the ocean, hinting at the possible stigmatisation of local resources and the development of a European New Zealand (pākehā) food identity.

Extracting the truth through chemical analyses: Early life histories of Victorian‐era dental patients in Aotearoa New Zealand

“…We apply the same multi‐method approach to analyze the first molar of one modern individual and only enamel peptide analysis of another modern individual to compare with their known histories. We compare our results to other, recent, bioarcheological studies of colonial era New Zealanders (King et al, 2020; King et al, 2022; King, Buckley et al, 2021; King, Petchey et al, 2021) to place the Dee Street dental patients into a wider context of burgeoning colonization and urbanization in the antipodes during the Victorian period.…”

“…Even though most major cities were port towns during the Victorian period, marine resources were not a major food source for colonists. Bioarcheological work by King et al (2020), King, Petchey, et al (2021), and King et al (2022) of colonial period Milton individuals (~130 km northeast of Invercargill) showed that C 3 crops and terrestrial meat resources such as domesticated farm animals, and potentially freshwater fish and wild game (i.e., ducks, and other native birds) were the main food resources. Historic literature also emphasizes the reliance on root crops, wheat, barley, and oats by colonial settlers (Lynch, 1989).…”

“…Historic literature also emphasizes the reliance on root crops, wheat, barley, and oats by colonial settlers (Lynch, 1989). King, Petchey, et al (2021) interpreted this as a “pākehā food identity”—a suite of culturally preferred foodstuffs that focused on terrestrial, not marine, resources. Although some C 4 resources were used, such as sugar, it was expensive, with use typically limited to the wealthy and as a luxury of the other classes (Gelbier, 2005).…”

“…There are no native C 4 plants in Aotearoa, but during the Victorian period C 4 plant foods such as maize and sugarcane (in the form of sugar) would have been available. As such, C 3 plants would have been the principal crops, both for humans (e.g., wheat and potatoes), and for use as animal fodder (e.g., ryegrass, white clover) (Ballinger, 1953; King, Petchey, et al, 2021).…”

“…Over the Victorian period, farming, waterworks and gasworks industries began to boom in Invercargill, further promoting the city's development (Bailey, 1966). Recently, bioarcheological studies of colonial period cemeteries have shed light on the lives of Victorian New Zealanders in a small number of Otago farming and gold mining communities in Lawrence (Gabriel and Ardrossan Street Cemeteries) and Milton (St John's Cemetery) (Buckley et al, 2020; King et al, 2020; King et al, 2022; King, Buckley, et al, 2021; King, Petchey, et al, 2021; Snoddy et al, 2020). However, this is the first bioarcheological investigation of Victorian era people recovered from an urban center in Aotearoa.…”