Abstract:

This study investigates how foodways interacted with identity, labor, and politics during the Shang-Zhou transition in Bronze Age China. Drawing on comparative data from Yinxu and Zhouyuan, it integrates experimental fermentation, microfossil residue analysis, and stable isotope analysis to explore food production and consumption in both everyday and ritual contexts. The results reveal multiple brewing methods, diverse grain combinations, and socially differentiated diets associated with status, gender, and sociopolitical identity. In addition to analyzing brewing techniques and ingredients, the study examines the functions of related vessels, the organization of alcohol production, and the ritual and sociopolitical settings in which alcohol was consumed. Alcohol and broader dietary practices are understood as processes embedded in craft organization, social differentiation, and political integration. The study offers an integrative framework that views foodways as dynamic practices central to sociopolitical transformation in ancient China.

Bio:

Jingbo Li is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the American School of Prehistoric Research, Harvard University. She received her PhD in Chinese Archaeology from Stanford University in 2025. Her research examines how foodways, especially alcohol production and consumption, interacted with identity, ritual, and politics in Neolithic and Bronze Age China, combining archaeobotany, residue chemistry, and stable isotope analysis with anthropological approaches to reconstruct ancient diets, fermentation practices, and craft organization. She has conducted fieldwork at major Bronze Age sites including Zhouyuan and Yinxu, and co-directs the Yangguanzhai Archaeological Field School in Shaanxi.