Food And Identity:Analysis Of Carbonized Plant Remains And Stable Isotope From Yinxu Village Resettlement Aera In Eastern Da’sikong Village

In this study,under the anthropological theory of diet and identity,the author uses the two kinds of materials comprised of carbonized plant remains and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope,to explore the interaction between food and identity of the ancestors of the late Shang Dynasty(ca.1300BC-1050BC).By analyzing the carbonized plant remains and stable isotope data of the three types of remains from dwelling sites,tombs and ceremonial sites,it is found that certain kinds of crops have the effect of indicating group identity while others can’t,which suggests that foods containing identity code nature have emerged during the late Shang Dynasty.As far as the food structure reflected by stable isotopes is concerned,massive data analyses indicate that the ratio of herbivorous food to meat consumption also has the effect of reflecting the identity of the ancestors.The identification of individual identity differences can be usefully inspired by the analysis of food structure.After analyzing the relationship between diet and identity of the ancestors in the East of Da’sikong Village at Yinxu site according to the provenance background,the research focuses on a comprehensive discussion of the analysis content,and combined with the relevant materials of other sites in the same period,trying to explore what elements of identity can be connected with food in the Shang Dynasty.It is proved that the diversity,the structure,the production and the processing of food can be linked to the gender,grade,occupation and the ideology of religion of the ancestors.These conclusions can not only confirm each other’s research on identity issues based on other archaeological materials,but combining the two can help us uncover identical information that has not been discovered or determined in the past.The present study does not attempt to solve the problem that whether the food strengthens the identity,or whether the identity characterizes the food in interaction between the food and identity during the late Shang Dynasty.What we hope is to illustrate that the connection between food and identity is an important representation of the highly complex national society of the late Shang Dynasty,which acts as an important impetus for turning the society towards higher level of complexity.