Project Based Report #1 Monitor Diet Robert A.

Trone
Introduction to Archaeology (ID) ANTH-1030-042-F13 21 November 2013

For this project garbage was collected from 15 Sept to 21 Sept 2013. At the end of this period I dumped the garbage and divided the refuse based on the four different food groups. After that I inventoried each item that was in my refuse pile, writing down the weight of the package, can, wrapper, cartoon as if it was full (unconsumed food). My premise for doing this was that I could get a more accurate idea of the how much food was consumed based on the physical evidence. I based my determination of how many people created the trash on the following premise: The US Dept. of Agriculture estimates that an average person in the United States eats 4.7 lbs. of food per day. Based on this estimate then one person would eat 32.9 lbs. of food per week (4.7lbs x 7 days). Comparing the total weight of my garbage as if it were actual unconsumed food items I came up with 39.2 lbs for the week. The physical evidence also led me to believe that several meals were consumed outside the residence. I based this on the fact that most of the garbage was food items that would be consumed during breakfast or dinner meals (breakfast bars, tomato sauces, frozen beans). For this reason I postulated that due to the garbage weight being somewhat more than the individual weekly consumption, that two people consumed this food.
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Project Based Report #1 Monitor Diet Robert A. Trone

Introduction to Archaeology (ID) ANTH-1030-042-F13 21 November 2013

After this I went back to my garbage pile to answer my next question what type of diet did this household consume? Based on my original inventory I determined that the household consumed a fairly balanced diet; 43% fruits & vegetables (16.94 lbs), 15% meat (5.65lbs), 33% dairy (13.25 lbs) and finally 9% grains (3.31 lbs). Based on this breakdown my family was definitely omnivore in their eating habits, but tipping the scale more toward fruits and vegetables. Finally, I returned to my refuse pile to see if I could deduce other things such as religion, social status and gender of my couple. Due to the fact that about 85% of the refuse were ingredients that would only be cooked in a meal rather that ate individually I came to the conclusion that both adults in my scenario ate dinner together frequently. In contrast other meals throughout the week were consumed offsite. From this conclusion I then theorized that the couple would most likely be middle class requiring the income of two adults to sustain their lifestyle. Another indicator that pointed to the middle class income bracket was that several of the items consumed were generic brand, (Great Value brand), rather than the more expensive name brand equivalent. An indicator of maintaining a budget and ensuring cheaper items were purchased. What the garbage failed to tell me was gender or religion. There was no evidence of items such as kosher that would indicate a religion such as the
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Project Based Report #1 Monitor Diet Robert A. Trone

Introduction to Archaeology (ID) ANTH-1030-042-F13 21 November 2013

Jewish faith or the opposite pork that would rule out a religion such as the Muslim faith. Also the refuse lacked any indicators of gender or sex as might be determined of pulling garbage from a different location such as a bathroom where several daily use items are gender specific. Finally I went back through my detailed notes of what I consumed throughout the project period, now performing my comparison. What I found out was that I was relatively close in determining household size. I have a wife and a daughter that works outside of the home. This somewhat matched my refuse quantity, as most of the meals throughout the week are indeed eaten at work. Where the refuse did not paint an accurate picture was the refuse did not reflect items used to cook that were bought in bulk such as flour, seasoning, sugars and other staples of an American household. I think then the implications related to archaeology is that the refuse in this project lost its contextual relevance due to it not being found, for example in an actual kitchen area where we could have more accurately determined diet and menu, lifestyles, gender, family size and religion.

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