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"Suitable food for old and worn out persons...": Archaeological evidence of institutional foodways in Australia
Abstract
The archaeology of institutions holds an outsized place in Australian historical archaeology. This is in part due to their continued physical presence in the cultural landscape, but also stems from a popular narrative which cites the origins of the Australian identity in convictism, in particular, and institutionalisation, more broadly (Casella and Fredericksen 2004). While only a small proportion of Australian migrants in the early colonial period experienced confinement in institutions, focusing on food highlights the impact that these places had on culture beyond their walls. For example, we see how forms of institutionalisation spread beyond the confines of prisons and barracks into whaling camps, ration depots and the domestic sphere. Surprisingly limited attention has been given to the specific roles of food both within Australian residential institutions and in Australian society more broadly by archaeologists to date. This is a significant oversight given the ways in which food has been used to control and manage populations historically, but also how significant it has been in the formation of identities and as a means of resistance. This chapter provides an overview of the emergent archaeology of institutional food in Australia, showing how institutional forms of consumption have shaped Australian foodways and colonial identities more widely. At the same time, this survey points to the need for improved methodologies and increasingly sophisticated analytical frameworks that are specifically adapted for historical archaeology in Australia.
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2025
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ConnorSuitableFood.pdf
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The author
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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
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Connor, K. (2025), “‘Suitable Food for Old and Worn Out People…’: Archaeological Evidence of Institutional Foodways in Australia.” In The Archaeology of Food in Australia, edited by Madeline Shanahan, Sydney University Press, pp. 147-170.
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Anthropology
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https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.13163