Lunch Club provides affiliates of the Stanford Archaeology Center with a community-oriented forum for engagement with current issues in archaeology. On April 22, 2026,  we will host Dr. Junko Habu from UC Berkeley.

Abstract:

This presentation aims to contribute to the interdisciplinary discussion on the relationship between food/subsistence diversity and biodiversity in Japan, examining its continuity and change through time from the Jomon period to the 1950s. Traditional food and subsistence practices in Japan, up to the 1950s, emphasized the importance of subsistence diversification, environmental management, long-term storage of starchy foods (including rice, millets, and nuts), and communal land ownership (iriaichi). These practices were key strategies for the resilience of foodways and lifeways. Archaeological data from the prehistoric Jomon period support the hypothesis that subsistence diversity was critical for the long-term sustainability of human-environment interactions. The presentation introduces relevant case studies primarily from northeastern Japan in both archaeological and ethnographic contexts.