Frontiers of cuisine: persistence and substitution in the evolution of porridges in south Central Africa

Following Haaland's work on “porridge and pot” cuisine and Stahl's “cartographies of taste” as a means of exploring cultural and ecological dynamics, this paper highlights the continuities and important variations of cuisine in South Central Africa. This paper expands archaeobotanical discussions beyond subsistence to consider how cuisine and cookery reflect the broader dynamics of plant materiality, environment, and cultural and social expressions over time. We begin by contextualising the archaeology of food systems in the region, before examining how environmental conditions and ecology can serve as infrastructures that shape food systems and cuisine across the Zambezian Bioregion. We then consider how research theory and methods can provide a more nuanced understanding of the historical geography of porridge as a cuisine in South Central Africa. We conclude by outlining the implications of treating cuisine and cartographies of taste as significant expressions of individual and collective values embedded into both regional and hyperlocal environments.