In every society a wide variety of social constructs and practices touch upon some aspect of food: its production, acquisition, preparation, consumption, or discard. Social groupings or rivalries, power structures, conceptions of identity, ritual practices and gender roles can all shape how individuals and groups feed themselves. Archaeologically visible patterns of food-related behavior can thus be used as an avenue of investigation into fundamental social structures. This course investigates the theoretical and methodological approaches used by archaeologists to study food and foodways and explores some of the cultural issues commonly addressed through the archaeological study of food.