Women’s Work: Foodways and Ethnic Identity among Nineteenth-Century Overwintering Métis in Western Canada

Abstract

The question of Métis ethnic identity has been of interest to archaeologists for over half a century, but explorations of this topic have remained limited. In this paper, we present a new approach to Métis ethnic identity in archaeology that is based on the concept of foodways, using the example of late nineteenth-century Métis wintering (or hivernant) sites in Western Canada. This approach differs considerably from earlier studies by its use of a relational approach to key elements of Métis ethnic identity, namely kinship and the land, to discuss the role of foodways and food-related practices in the definition and enactment of that identity. We also argue that women stand out as key players in the relation between Métis community identity and foodways. While our conclusions remain theoretical at this stage, we demonstrate that archaeologists working on Métis archaeological materials are ready to move beyond hybridity frameworks and offer a few starting points for the application of the ideas presented in this paper.