The Scarcity Slot: Excavating Histories of Food Security in Ghana

Amanda L. Logan

Open Access Published by University of California Press 2020

The Scarcity Slot

Excavating Histories of Food Security in Ghana

Amanda L. Logan

Volume 75 in the series California Studies in Food and Culture

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780520975149

Overview
Contents

About this book

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org.

The Scarcity Slot is the first book to critically examine food security in Africa’s deep past. Amanda L. Logan argues that African foodways have been viewed through the lens of ‘the scarcity slot,’ a kind of Othering based on presumed differences in resources. Weaving together archaeological, historical, and environmental data with food ethnography, she advances a new approach to building long-term histories of food security on the continent in order to combat these stereotypes. Focusing on a case study in Banda, Ghana that spans the past six centuries, The Scarcity Slot reveals that people thrived during a severe, centuries-long drought just as Europeans arrived on the coast, with a major decline in food security emerging only recently. This narrative radically challenges how we think about African foodways in the past with major implications for the future.

Author / Editor information

Logan Amanda L. :

Amanda L. Logan is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Prologue and Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Open Access Download PDF	1
1. Excavating Longue Durée Histories of Food Security in Africa Open Access Download PDF	19
2. Choosing Local over Global during the Columbian Exchange Open Access Download PDF	39
3. Tasting Privilege and Privation during Asante Rule and the Atlantic Slave Trade Open Access Download PDF	61
4. Creating Chronic Food Insecurity in the Gold Coast Colony Open Access Download PDF	95
5. Consuming a Remotely Global Modernity in Recent Times Open Access Download PDF	129
6. Eating and Remembering Past Cultural Achievements Open Access Download PDF	158
Appendix A. Methodology Open Access Download PDF	169
Appendix B. Archaeobotanical Data Open Access Download PDF	177
Appendix C. Wild Leaves Used by Modern Villages Open Access Download PDF	183
Notes Open Access Download PDF	187
References Open Access Download PDF	197
Index Open Access Download PDF	217

Language: English
Publisher: University of California Press
Pages
- Main content: 244

eBook

Published: December 8, 2020
ISBN: 9780520975149