Bone Chemistry and Paleodiet at the Ceremonial Center of Tibes

The reconstruction of past human diet is one of the most basic concerns of the archaeologist. Food production and distribution, besides being essential to survival, are defi ned by, and help to defi ne, a broad range of social, cultural, and political processes. In almost every society, food forms a key part of social and economic relations at multiple levels, as well as serving as a symbol related to different aspects of culture (e.g., ethnicity, political power, religion) and as an expression of forms of social identity (for a review on this topic see, for example, Ashley et al. 2004; Farb and Armelagos 1983; Harris 1985; Mintz and Du Bois 2002). In particular, the use and control of food can become an arena where power and prestige are negotiated (Appadurai 1981; Danforth 1999; Hastorf and Johannessen 1993; Ross 1987). Thus, it is important to recognize that food is a dynamic entity in a wide range of social relations in both private and public spheres. Within the cultural historic framework of Caribbean archaeology, however, most studies have treated diet, subsistence, and food only as fossil indexes of chronological or cultural periods. Rainey (1935, 1940) was the fi rst to do so when he used diet as a marker for shifts in ethnic identity in Puerto Rico. During his excavation in Ponce, Rainey noted that Cedrosan Saladoid subseries assemblages contained high concentrations of crab claws, while those from the later Elenan and Chican Ostionoid subseries contained high quantities of shellfi sh instead. This led him to defi ne these deposits as belonging to successive peoples of the “Crab” and “Shell” cultures, respectively. In more recent years, deFrance (1989) conducted a more detailed analysis of Cedrosan Saladoid and Elenan Ostionoid assemblages from Maisabel in order to investigate and test Rainey’s dichotomy of Crab and Shell cultures. In the 1980s and 1990s, Yvonne Narganes Storde (1985,