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Fan and Tsai: Intracommunity Variation in Plant-Based Food Consumption at the Market Street Chinatown, San Jose, California

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Abstract

Most archaeobotanical research on Chinese immigrant communities in North America has relied on aggregate, site-wide data sets. The question of foodways variability within Chinese immigrant communities has been relatively neglected. An intrasite comparative approach is used here to investigate differences in plant-food consumption between residents of merchant households and those of tenement buildings in the Market Street Chinatown, a major urban Chinese immigrant community in San Jose, California, from 1866 to 1887. Residents of both household types consumed a nutritious diet rich in vegetables and fresh fruits; however, some merchant households consumed greater varieties of cereal grains, while residents of some working-class tenements consumed a wider range of legumes, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. These class-based differences were not consistent, however, suggesting that specific occupation, more than class position, may have influenced access to or preference for certain plant foods.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. PaleoResearch Institute, 2675 Youngfield Street, Golden, CO, 80401, USA

    Linda Scott Cummings

  2. Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305-2034, USA

    Barbara L. Voss

  3. Chinese Historical and Cultural Project, 12981 La Barranca Road, Los Altos Hills, CA, 94022, USA

    Connie Young Yu

  4. Paleo Research Institute, 2675 Youngfield Street, Golden, CO, 80401, USA

    Peter KováČik

  5. 734 Mockingbird Trail, Bailey, CO, 80421, USA

    Kathryn Puseman

  6. Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Gould-Simpson Building 1040 East 4th Street, Tucson, AZ, 85721-0077, USA

    Chad Yost

  7. Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, 701 E. Kirkwood Avenue, Bloomington, IN, 47405-7100, USA

    Ryan Kennedy

  8. Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305-2034, USA

    Megan S. Kane

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Cummings, L.S., Voss, B.L., Yu, C.Y. et al. Fan and Tsai: Intracommunity Variation in Plant-Based Food Consumption at the Market Street Chinatown, San Jose, California. Hist Arch 48, 143–172 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03376931

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