Cannibalism in the Early Modern Atlantic. (360G-Wellcome-105351_Z_14_Z)

Cannibalism in the Early Modern Atlantic is an edited book that seeks to bring together fields as diverse as food studies, history, archaeology, and literature, and scholars whose work demands travel to foster the transfer of knowledge. This application seeks funding to help fund a conference enabling such discussions. In taking advantage of recent public interest in the bone findings confirming the existence of cannibalism in Jamestown, Virginia, this project draws attention to questions about food scarcity in the areasAfrica, North and South America, the Caribbean, and coastal Europethat border the Atlantic Ocean. Participants at one 20-person, two-day conference in Southampton will begin to answer the question of what cannibalism tells interdisciplinary scholars about food production and consumption, contact between Europeans and indigenous peoples, naval provisioning issues, and networks in the Atlantic World from the sixteenth thru mid-nineteenth centuries. By placing the history of cannibalism within the larger realm of the Atlantic World, conference participants will be encouraged to produce accessible, jargon-free essays that tell readers about food, history, and the early modern Atlantic.