[Aztlan] Listeros-more info on First Americans diet

[michael ruggeri]

Listeros,

A few days ago, I posted an article citing a discovery that has been  
made concerning the importance of camas bulbs as a dietary mainstay  
among the most ancient North Americans. Catherine Jefferson posted  
some very good information on this as a reply at sci.archaeology that  
I thought most of you would find of interest.

Here it is;

"Camas was mashed and pounded with a mortar and pestle into a dough
shaped into loaves and baked. The ovens have been dated from between
7000 BCE up to 1600 AD. The food fell out of favor due to long cooking
  times, take longer to grow and provide fewer calories per pound than
corn. "

Her Reply

Not everywhere.  Camas bulbs remained the staple carbohydrate in the
diet of many tribes in the Pacific Northwest coast into historic times,
and was then replaced by European carbohydrates, mostly wheat, not corn.
Camas is still eaten on occasion by the tribes there; I ate it when
attending an event hosted by a local tribe along the Columbia River.
By the way, Camas is a wild food, gathered not grown, at least in the  
Pacific Northwest.  The tribes in that especially rich biome were  
aware of agriculture, but never used it to any significant degree.  (I  
believe a few of them cultivated tobacco, but no food crops.)  The  
Pacific Northwest coast had a complex culture and relatively large  
population without agriculture, I believe one of the few places in the  
world where humans managed to develop a non-stone-age culture and  
population levels without agriculture.

Catherine Jefferson