Description
Iroquois Foods and Food Preparation is a reprint of the original monograph first published in 1916 by the Government Printing Bureau, Ottawa, as Memoir 86 in the Anthropology Division of the Geological Survey of Canada series. The publication is a classic in the anthropological literature on the Iroquois. Frederick W. Waugh (1872-1924) worked as an ethnologist for the Geological Survey of Canada, now the Museum of Civilization. His interest in Iroquois technology and material culture led to fieldwork from 1912-1915 at Six Nations of the Grand River and Oneida of the Thames in Ontario, Caughnawaga in Quebec, and the Tonawanda and Onondaga Reservations in New York. During these visits, his informants provided detailed information on planting, harvesting, storing, and cooking a variety of food products. Some of the 32 informants acknowledged in the text include Chief John Arthur Gibson and his wife, Chief David Skye, Chief David Key, and Seth Newhouse at Six Nations; Peter Sundown, Barber Black, and Alexander Snider at Tonawanda; and Mrs. David Williams, Anthony Day, Henry Danford, and Jacob Schuyler at Oneida. The text is organized into sections on horticulture, cookery and eating customs, utensils and implements, recipes, ceremonial food, and foods from hunting, fishing and gathering. The Iroquois are well known for their use of corn, beans and squash. In addition to detailed information on horticultural techniques, details on division of labour, planting customs, thanksgiving and ceremonies are also discussed. In the section on tools and utensils, a variety of baskets, bowls, dishes, as well as the mortar and pestle are described. At the end of the text there are illustrations and photographs of the various utensils and implements as well as archival photographs of people and places. Two plates are in full colour; one shows 15 varieties of corn and the other illustrates the 36 varieties of beans cultivated by the Iroquois. Throughout the text, the author includes the names of the plants, foods, and utensils in the five Iroquoian languages - Mohawk, Oneida, Seneca, Onondaga, and Oneida. This text is a comprehensive study of food and recipes used by the Iroquois at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is invaluable to anyone interested in Iroquois/Haudenosaunee culture, culinary arts, and the history of Iroquois cookery.