Year of Award

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

Master of Arts (MA)

Degree Name

Anthropology

Department or School/College

Department of Anthropology

Committee Chair

Kelly Dixon

Committee Co-chair

Meradeth Snow

Commitee Members

Angela Hornsby

Keywords

Faunal Analysis, Chinese Diaspora, aDNA Analysis, Foodways

Subject Categories

Archaeological Anthropology | Biological and Physical Anthropology | Social and Cultural Anthropology

Abstract

In 2019, construction of a brewery called Cranky Sam Public House in downtown Missoula, Montana provided an unexpected opportunity to recover and preserve late nineteenth and early twentieth century archaeological evidence of a Missoula neighborhood that included a Chinese temple, a Chinese store, and dwellings with Chinese residents. The area, like many urban landscapes in the American West, also included a restricted, or red-light district. Teams of volunteer University of Montana graduate and undergraduate students conducted on-the-spot salvage archaeology monitoring and were able to recover a sample of artifacts and ecofacts from this once-bustling part of Missoula. The objectives of this thesis are based on analyses of the faunal remains from this collection, including both morphological analyses of the animal bones and shells, as well as ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis of bear paw fragments found at the site. Preliminary observations and contextual research indicated that the bulk of the faunal collection represented traces of meals, where some food items had the potential to serve as medicine, or memory foods for the consumers. Details about the origins of some of the remains sparked questions about transmuted foodways to the West and the diversity of procurement methods. The bear paw fragment influenced the use of aDNA methods to better understand the biocultural histories of bears and people in Chinese communities in places like Missoula in the American West. The information gathered from the faunal analysis revealed that non-domesticate species being utilized at the site included bear, turtle, multiple fishes, crab, multiples bivalves, and cuttlefish. The faunal analysis also concluded that local procurement surrounding Missoula, regional procurement from the Pacific Northwest, and international procurement from China were being used by the Chinese community at Cranky Sam Public House site to localize their food practices. Attempts at aDNA analysis of bear paw fragments found at the site revealed the need for methodological advances to obtain conclusive results that could speak to the procurement method of bear paw by the residents.

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© Copyright 2024 Sarah Elizabeth Grenfell