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Foodways represent a dynamic tradition in which ingredients, culinary objects, and preparation techniques form an interconnected system shaped by prolonged human–environment interactions. These culinary implements and gastronomic techniques are closely connected to plant foods, whose adaptive nature enables their consumption in diverse forms and nuanced flavor expressions. Considering the intriguing links between plant foods and culinary crafts, this study examines how plant foods were the driving force behind the development of a distinct material culture in a region. Drawing on ethnographic methods such as activity-area mapping, material culture analysis, and semi-structured interviews with the descendant groups, the study generates empirically grounded analogies. These resemblances are then employed as heuristic devices to identify patterned correlations between plant-food processing requirements and the form, function and spatial distribution of material culture. Hence, using an ethnoarchaeological case study in central India, among the Gond and Baiga communities, it highlights how food-related objects embody cognitive development, environmental adaptation, and cultural modification.
Srivastava et al. (Mon,) studied this question.