There is widespread acknowledgement among anthropologists, archaeologists, ethnobotanists, as well as researchers in related disciplines that specific foods and cuisines are linked very strongly to the formation and maintenance of cultural identity and ethnicity.  Strong associations of foodways with culture are particularly characteristic of South American Andean cultures. Food and drink convey complex social and cultural meanings that can provide insights into regional interactions, social complexity, cultural hybridization, and ethnogenesis.  This edited volume presents novel and creative anthropological, archaeological, historical, and iconographic research on Andean food and culture from diverse temporal periods and spatial settings.

The breadth and scope of the contributions provides original insights into a diversity of topics, such as the role of food in Andean political economies, the transformation of foodways and cuisines through time, and ancient iconographic representations of plants and animals that were used as food. Thus, this volume is distinguished from most of the published literature in that specific foods, cuisines, and culinary practices are the primary subject matter through which aspects of Andean culture are interpreted.

Introduction.- Part I: Pre-Columbian Foods and Cultures.- Chapter 1. Grilling Clams and Roasting Tubers.- Chapter 2. Camelids as Food and Wealth.- Chapter 3. Feast, Food and Drinking on a Paracas platform.- Chapter 4. Cuisine and Social Differentiation in the Late Pre-Hispanic Cajamarca Highlands of Northern Peru.- Chapter 5. Ancient Paria, Bolivia.- Part II: Ethnoarchaeological Approaches to Andean Foodways.- Chapter 6. Identification of Chicha de Maíz through Starch Analysis.- Chapter 7. Ancient Wari Women, Megalith Grinding Stones, and ChichaProduction.- Part III: Food and Culture in Andean Imagery and Iconography.- Chapter 8. Sustainable Resources in Pre-Hispanic Coastal Ecuador.- Chapter 9. The Achumera.- Chapter 10. The Symbolic Value of Food in Moche Iconography.- Part IV: Foodways under Spanish Colonial Rule.- Chapter 11. Imperial Appetites and Altered States.- Chapter 12. Stimulant and AlcoholicBeverages among Hispanic and Indigenous Cultures.- Chapter 13. Guinea Pigs in the Colonial Andes.- Chapter 14. Introduced Species as Food Heritage in Humahuaca Ravine.- Chapter 15. Maize in Andean Food and Culture.- Part V: Contemporary Foodways in the Andean World.- Chapter 16. Commercializing the “Lost Crop of the Inca”.- Chapter 17. Pachamanca: A Celebration of Food and the Earth Conclusion.