“Why Can't People Feed Themselves?”: Archaeology as Alternative Archive of Food Security in Banda, Ghana

Abstract

Today, food insecurity is associated with both severe climatic shifts and pervasive poverty. What is less well understood is how the problem of hunger came to take its present-day form, especially in the African continent, where the highest prevalence of undernourishment is found. In this article, I propose that archaeology can be used as an alternative archive of food security. Material remains provide a from-the-hearth-up view of changing foodways and political economy and can be used to trace the shape of processes that led to modern-day patterns of food insecurity. Combining archaeobotanical, ethnoarchaeological, and environmental data, I provide a case study that shows how food insecurity was avoided during a centuries-long drought in Banda, Ghana, and emerged only much later, in the 19th and 20th centuries, as market economies and colonial rule took hold. I suggest that archaeology is essential for making such processes of "slow violence" visible, particularly in areas that lack rich historical archives.[Africa, food security, Ghana, archaeobotany, slow violence] RESUMEN Hoy, la inseguridad alimentaria está asociada tanto con cambios climáticos severos como con pobreza extrema. Lo que es menos entendido es cómo el problema del hambre llegó a tomar su forma presente, especialmente en el continente africano, donde se encuentra la prevalencia más alta de desnutrición. En este artículo propongo que la arqueología puede ser usada como un archivo alternativo de la seguridad alimentaria. Restos materiales proveen una vista desde el foso del fuego de las formas de alimentarse cambiantes y la economía política, y pueden ser usados para rastrear el tipo de procesos que llevaron a los patrones de hoy de la inseguridad alimentaria.Combinando datos arqueo-botánicos, etno-arqueológicos, y ambientales, presento un estudio de caso que muestra cómo se evitó la inseguridad alimentaria durante una sequía de siglos en Banda, Ghana, y emergió sólo mucho más tarde, en los siglos XIX y XX, en la medida que las economías de mercado y el régimen colonial se establecieron.Sugiero que la arqueología es esencial para hacer visibles tales procesos de "violencia lenta", particularmente eń areas en las que faltan archivos históricos valiosos. [África, seguridad alimentaria, Ghana, arqueo-botánica, violencia lenta] RÉSUMÉ Aujourd'hui, l'insécurité alimentaire est associée et aux changements climatiques sévères età la pauvreté invasive. Ce qui est moins bien compris est la manière dont le problème de la faim en est arrivéà sa forme actuelle, surtout sur le continent africain, où se trouve la plus grande concentration de sous-alimentation. Dans cet article, je propose qu'on aborde l'archéologie en tant qu'archive alternative de la sécurité alimentaire. Les vestiges matériels fournissent une vue générale des processus alimentaires et de l'économie-politique de la perspective du foyer de la cheminée. Ils nous permettent de retracer les processus qui ont mené aux modèles modernes de l'insécurité alimentaire. En combinant les données arché...

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