I chose Southeast Asia and Indonesia for this research because this area is well-known for the importance of feasting in its many traditional societies, and many accounts of feasts describe them as being given entirely for prestige, or “merit,” either in this world or the afterworld. Thus, it seemed to be a good test case for the ecological model.

• The ethnoarcheological work that I am pursing in Indonesia in conjunction with Ron Adams is focused on documenting:
  • The range of feasts in traditional Torajan society,
  • The costs and benefits of feasts, and
  • The way that feasts are used to create political alliances within and between communities.
  Traditional Torajan communities range from transegalitarian to simple chiefdom societies. Torajan funeral feasts are some of the most extravagant competitive displays that we know of in the contemporary world. More detailed analyses are presented in a preliminary report by myself, and in Adams’ MA Thesis. See also his in press article.

• Ron Adams has expanded this study to examine the role of feasting in creating megalithic monuments in Sumba and the benefits that megalithic construction confers upon those who organize and pay for their construction. Results of recent fieldwork are presented in a preliminary report by Adams (The Megalithic Tradition of West Sumba – PDF file). The analysis of Sumbanese megalithic building will be compared to megalithic traditions in the ethnographic literature of other societies in order to determine whether there are global commonalities in megalithic complexes and associated feasts.

• All this work follows on previous investigations among transegalitarian Akha hill tribes in Thailand carried out by myself in conjunction with Ralana Maneeprasert and Mike Clarke. In this work, we documented the importance of feasting in establishing lineage alliances (see reports by myself and Maneeprasert, Clarke’s MA Thesis,his published article, and his report (Hilltribe Report – PDF file)). Mike Clarke also documented a strong relationship between cooking vessel sizes and feasting activities.

Publications and Theses:

2009 Hayden, Brian

“Funerals as Feasts: Why Are They So Important?” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 19:29–52.

In press. Adams, Ron

“An ethnoarchaeological study of feasting in Sulawesi, Indonesia.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.

2003 Hayden, Brian

“Were luxury foods the first domesticates? Ethnoarchaeological perspectives from Southeast Asia.” World Archaeology 34:458–469.

2001 Adams, Ron

The ethnoarchaeology of Torajan feasting. Unpublished MA Thesis, Simon Fraser University: Burnaby, BC

2001 Clarke, Michael

“Akha Feasting: An Ethnoarchaeological Perspective.” In Feasts: Archaeological and ethnographic perspectives on food, politics, and power, edited by M. Dietler and B. Hayden, pp. 144–167. Washington, Smithsonian Institution Press.

2001 Hayden, Brian.

“Fabulous feasts: A prolegomenon to the importance of feasting.” In M. Dietler and B. Hayden (eds.), Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on Food, Politics, and Power. Smithsonian Institution Press: Washington, DC. Pp. 23–64.

2001 Hayden, Brian

“The Dynamics of Wealth and Poverty in the Transegalitarian Societies of Southeast Asia.” Antiquity 75: 571–81.

1998 Clarke, Michael

Feasting among the Akha of Northern Thailand. MA Thesis, Archaeology Dept., Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia.

Main

 
Torajan funeral feast
 
Sumban megaliths
 
Akha lineage women feasting