The Ancient Story of Chocolate
Dr. Rosemary Joyce
Just in time for Valentine’s Day! The story of chocolate grew from a local Mesoamerican drink (probably as a by-product of beer production) to an internationally-coveted sweet. It is the story of many cultures and continues to deepen and broaden as new discoveries are being made. Learn more about the delicious, sensuous treat we have all come to love from Dr. Rosemary Joyce, one of the archaeologists who has been at the forefront of research on cacao. What a gift South America gave the world!
About Rosemary Joyce
Rosemary A. Joyce is an internationally renowned expert on gender, sexuality, and the body; on how the use of alcoholic beverages as social lubricants provided the surprising stimulus to develop chocolate; and on how archaeologists can rethink social life by attending more carefully to the most common intersection archaeologist have with people in the past: their death and burial. She is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, was a Fulbright Senior Scholar, and has received numerous other awards for her scholarship. She has conducted field work in Honduras since 1977.
Professor Joyce joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1994, following a decade of faculty and leadership roles with Harvard University. She was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2011 to serve as one of eleven members of the Federal Cultural Property Advisory Committee and was reappointed in 2017 before Obama left office. In this role, she advises the State Department on its response to foreign nations requesting protection of their cultural heritage from looting and antiquities trafficking. A former curator and assistant director of Harvard University’s Peabody Museum, Professor Joyce came to UC Berkeley to join its anthropological archaeology faculty and was also the Director of UC Berkeley’s Hearst Museum of Anthropology (1994–1999). She has directly supervised or co-advised scores of doctoral students and is dedicated to increasing diversity among both faculty and students.
Dr. Joyce received her A.B. in Anthropology and Archeology from Cornell University and her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois-Urbana. She has taught and lectured around the world and is the author or editor of fifteen books, including The Oxford Handbook of Archeology; Ancient Bodies, Ancient Lives; The Languages of Archaeology; and Material Relations. As a chair of the Department of Anthropology (2006–2009), a member of the Advisory Committee on GSI Affairs (2002–2009), a member of the Graduate Council of the Academic Senate (2008–2010), an Associate Dean of the Graduate Division (2011–Spring 2014 and Spring 2015), and Interim Dean for Fall 2014, Professor Joyce has led in designing and guiding academic programs to advance Berkeley’s commitment to excellence and access.