Love and Death: Theoretical and Practical Examination of Human-Animal Relations in Creating Wild Animal Osteobiography

Abstract

Osteobiographies are a common form of presenting the archaeological analysis of the life history of an individual. This form of analysis, however, is usually reserved for human subjects. Writing an osteobiography of a nonhuman person is complicated by the lack of human understanding of animal thought and experience. Such analysis is further complicated when the subject is not a companion animal, and isolated from human funerary rituals which may shed light on the animal’s life. The skeletal remains of an injured wild caribou from Alberta who was collected as a museum specimen presents a unique opportunity to understand an individual animal’s life, as well presents an example of the complexities of human-animal relationships in an analytical setting. This study examines both the life of an extraordinary nonhuman person and the impact of reconstructing nonhuman life histories on the analyst.