Pub Date : 2019-10-18DOI: 10.5252/anthropozoologica2019v54a14
D. Nance
The Gundestrup “cauldron” is a late Iron-Age silver ceremonial vessel found in Denmark in 1891. The busts depicted on the seven outer-plates – one is missing – are thought to represent deities but have not been confidently identified. This paper identifies the species of the birds on plate f and its symbolism allowing identification of the deity, the depicted event and its religious significance. The birds have the distinctive zygodactyl foot-morphology of the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus Linnaeus, 1758). This species is also identified on a number of other widespread European artifacts where it was previously thought to be a bird of prey. The plate depicts a goddess in triplicate flanked by two cuckoos releasing the first cuckoo of spring. The bird is an obligate brood-parasite, laying its eggs in other birds' nests, leading to misconceptions of its life cycle: no females, nests or identifiable eggs. It was assumed the male birds mated with the host females. Hence, the cuckoo symbolized male fertility across its Eurasian summer range and was associated with several widespread European goddesses of fertility who were probably also associated with mead and the planet Venus. The evidence presented strongly suggests that these deities were known in the Bronze Age.
{"title":"Plate f of the Gundestrup “cauldron”: symbols of spring and fertility","authors":"D. Nance","doi":"10.5252/anthropozoologica2019v54a14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5252/anthropozoologica2019v54a14","url":null,"abstract":"The Gundestrup “cauldron” is a late Iron-Age silver ceremonial vessel found in Denmark in 1891. The busts depicted on the seven outer-plates – one is missing – are thought to represent deities but have not been confidently identified. This paper identifies the species of the birds on plate f and its symbolism allowing identification of the deity, the depicted event and its religious significance. The birds have the distinctive zygodactyl foot-morphology of the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus Linnaeus, 1758). This species is also identified on a number of other widespread European artifacts where it was previously thought to be a bird of prey. The plate depicts a goddess in triplicate flanked by two cuckoos releasing the first cuckoo of spring. The bird is an obligate brood-parasite, laying its eggs in other birds' nests, leading to misconceptions of its life cycle: no females, nests or identifiable eggs. It was assumed the male birds mated with the host females. Hence, the cuckoo symbolized male fertility across its Eurasian summer range and was associated with several widespread European goddesses of fertility who were probably also associated with mead and the planet Venus. The evidence presented strongly suggests that these deities were known in the Bronze Age.","PeriodicalId":38558,"journal":{"name":"Anthropozoologica","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2019-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48358387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-09-27DOI: 10.5252/anthropozoologica2019v54a13
Jorge Gamboa
Now a global inhabitant, the Muscovy duck Cairina moschata (Linnaeus, 1758) was domesticated millennia ago by Pre-Columbian indigenous societies of America. Driven increasingly afar by humankind, the expansion of this species is an example of the successful dispersion of an animal known for its adaptability and resilience. This article examines various cases of husbandry, reproduction, and uses of Cairina moschata in the north and central coasts of Peru, Mexico, and North America. This exercise permits us to identify the various ways in which humans approach this versatile, charismatic, and always independent bird raised for its meat, unique behavior, or quality as companion animal or pet. As a hybrid animal, the Muscovies can also withstand extreme food conditions aimed to transform the mestizo duck in special human food. Cairina moschata ducks are a sign of belonging, tradition, innovation, and economy in Peru, Mexico, the United States, and digital communities. This analysis, in addition to allowing us to identify patterns, distinctions, and paths to new forms of human-animal relationships, permits us to explore a broader approach to the construction of the ontological nature and agency of an animal whose existence appears interwoven with our own.
{"title":"The modern ontological natures of the Cairina moschata (Linnaeus, 1758) duck. Cases from Perú, the northern hemisphere, and digital communities","authors":"Jorge Gamboa","doi":"10.5252/anthropozoologica2019v54a13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5252/anthropozoologica2019v54a13","url":null,"abstract":"Now a global inhabitant, the Muscovy duck Cairina moschata (Linnaeus, 1758) was domesticated millennia ago by Pre-Columbian indigenous societies of America. Driven increasingly afar by humankind, the expansion of this species is an example of the successful dispersion of an animal known for its adaptability and resilience. This article examines various cases of husbandry, reproduction, and uses of Cairina moschata in the north and central coasts of Peru, Mexico, and North America. This exercise permits us to identify the various ways in which humans approach this versatile, charismatic, and always independent bird raised for its meat, unique behavior, or quality as companion animal or pet. As a hybrid animal, the Muscovies can also withstand extreme food conditions aimed to transform the mestizo duck in special human food. Cairina moschata ducks are a sign of belonging, tradition, innovation, and economy in Peru, Mexico, the United States, and digital communities. This analysis, in addition to allowing us to identify patterns, distinctions, and paths to new forms of human-animal relationships, permits us to explore a broader approach to the construction of the ontological nature and agency of an animal whose existence appears interwoven with our own.","PeriodicalId":38558,"journal":{"name":"Anthropozoologica","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2019-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45500960","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-09-06DOI: 10.5252/anthropozoologica2019v54a12
E. Buffetaut
The huge eggs of the giant extinct bird Aepyornis, from Madagascar, attracted much attention when they were first described by Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1851). However, before 1900, only one illustration of such an egg was published in a scientific paper, by Rowley (1878). By contrast, illustrations of Aepyornis eggs appeared in various other types of publications, notably popular magazines, where they illustrated short items about the giant bird. The first one was published in 1851 in Le Magasin pittoresque (Anonymous 1851a), only a few months after Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire's original description. Similarly, in 1887 the popular science magazine Scientific American published a drawing of an Aepyornis egg (Anonymous 1887). An engraving of an Aepyornis egg was published by Ward (1866) in a catalogue advertising the casts of fossils he was selling. Yule (1871) used a lithograph of an Aepyornis egg as a frontispiece for his translation of Marco Polo's book of travels, in the belief that the eggs of this giant bird had been the source of the legend of the roc bird mentioned by Polo. In 1885, in a popular book on eggs in plants and animals, Guillaume Capus published an engraving of an Aepyornis egg to illustrate the size range of bird eggs (Capus 1885). These early illustrations are reproduced here. They testify to the appeal these huge eggs had for the general public, while scientists working on Aepyornis apparently did not find them sufficiently informative to warrant illustrations.
{"title":"Early illustrations of Aepyornis eggs (1851-1887): from popular science to Marco Polo's roc bird","authors":"E. Buffetaut","doi":"10.5252/anthropozoologica2019v54a12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5252/anthropozoologica2019v54a12","url":null,"abstract":"The huge eggs of the giant extinct bird Aepyornis, from Madagascar, attracted much attention when they were first described by Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1851). However, before 1900, only one illustration of such an egg was published in a scientific paper, by Rowley (1878). By contrast, illustrations of Aepyornis eggs appeared in various other types of publications, notably popular magazines, where they illustrated short items about the giant bird. The first one was published in 1851 in Le Magasin pittoresque (Anonymous 1851a), only a few months after Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire's original description. Similarly, in 1887 the popular science magazine Scientific American published a drawing of an Aepyornis egg (Anonymous 1887). An engraving of an Aepyornis egg was published by Ward (1866) in a catalogue advertising the casts of fossils he was selling. Yule (1871) used a lithograph of an Aepyornis egg as a frontispiece for his translation of Marco Polo's book of travels, in the belief that the eggs of this giant bird had been the source of the legend of the roc bird mentioned by Polo. In 1885, in a popular book on eggs in plants and animals, Guillaume Capus published an engraving of an Aepyornis egg to illustrate the size range of bird eggs (Capus 1885). These early illustrations are reproduced here. They testify to the appeal these huge eggs had for the general public, while scientists working on Aepyornis apparently did not find them sufficiently informative to warrant illustrations.","PeriodicalId":38558,"journal":{"name":"Anthropozoologica","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2019-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42979940","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-08-16DOI: 10.5252/ANTHROPOZOOLOGICA2019V54A11
C. Y. Gündem
The absence of written evidence from prehistoric periods makes it difficult to understand the origins of sacrifice or offering ceremonies. Archaeological finds from prehistoric periods are the only solid evidence for these acts and rituals. One probable case of animal sacrifice or offering in the Neolithic period has been found at the site of Tepecik-Çiftlik Höyük in central Turkey. This study is focused on a single unique pit, which contained only animal bones and was found in an open space. The contents clearly indicate that this pit can not be interpreted simply as mixed kitchen garbage since an almost complete cattle skeleton as well as sixteen left front leg remains from sheep were placed in the pit after a social, or more specifically, ritual act. Similar pit with similar content was found neither in the close region to Tepecik-Çiftlik nor within Anatolia. The main aim of this study is to introduce a special archaeological find group, those were left after certain prehistoric activity.
{"title":"Archaeozoological study of a unique Late Neolithic pit from Tepecik-Çiftlik, central Turkey","authors":"C. Y. Gündem","doi":"10.5252/ANTHROPOZOOLOGICA2019V54A11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5252/ANTHROPOZOOLOGICA2019V54A11","url":null,"abstract":"The absence of written evidence from prehistoric periods makes it difficult to understand the origins of sacrifice or offering ceremonies. Archaeological finds from prehistoric periods are the only solid evidence for these acts and rituals. One probable case of animal sacrifice or offering in the Neolithic period has been found at the site of Tepecik-Çiftlik Höyük in central Turkey. This study is focused on a single unique pit, which contained only animal bones and was found in an open space. The contents clearly indicate that this pit can not be interpreted simply as mixed kitchen garbage since an almost complete cattle skeleton as well as sixteen left front leg remains from sheep were placed in the pit after a social, or more specifically, ritual act. Similar pit with similar content was found neither in the close region to Tepecik-Çiftlik nor within Anatolia. The main aim of this study is to introduce a special archaeological find group, those were left after certain prehistoric activity.","PeriodicalId":38558,"journal":{"name":"Anthropozoologica","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2019-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47021986","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-07-26DOI: 10.5252/ANTHROPOZOOLOGICA2019V54A10
Matías E. Medina, M. R. Campos, N. Avila, E. Soibelzon, F. Fernández
How prehispanic foragers adjusted their foraging activities to plant cultivation is a question that drives much of the modern archaeological research. As a result, the spread of food-producing economies during the Late Prehispanic Period (c. 1500-360 BP) from Sierras of Cordoba, Argentina, has been recently defined as a dynamic sociocultural process, where a mixed foraging and cultivation economy was accompanied by a flexible land-use strategy. However, the economic organization has only been superficially assessed. Thus, the aim of this article is to present the study of faunal remains recovered during the excavation of the open-air site Boyo Paso 2 in order to provide primary data on the properties of the animal food remains left by late prehispanic people and the characteristics of site occupation. Faunal remains suggest a complex sequence of reoccupations where bones were deposited, accidentally reburned and fragmented by trampling. The diversity of exploited prey also sheds light on the fact that a broad hunting spectrum continued playing a key role in the daily subsistence. Nevertheless, cultigens were a fluctuating component in a diverse foraging economy in which wild resources as guanaco (Lama guanicoe Muller, 1776), small-vertebrates and Rheidae eggs continued to be extensively used. The study of Boyo Paso 2 faunal assemblage is relevant because it helps to improve the current understanding of the economic importance of foraging wild resources and would constitute a model to interpret other archaeological cases during the Neolithic or Formative transition, where the boundaries between farming and foraging were fluid, but remained relatively invisible according to the existing terminology.
{"title":"Animal food during the Late Prehispanic Period at Sierras of Córdoba, Argentina. A zooarchaeological view from Boyo Paso 2","authors":"Matías E. Medina, M. R. Campos, N. Avila, E. Soibelzon, F. Fernández","doi":"10.5252/ANTHROPOZOOLOGICA2019V54A10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5252/ANTHROPOZOOLOGICA2019V54A10","url":null,"abstract":"How prehispanic foragers adjusted their foraging activities to plant cultivation is a question that drives much of the modern archaeological research. As a result, the spread of food-producing economies during the Late Prehispanic Period (c. 1500-360 BP) from Sierras of Cordoba, Argentina, has been recently defined as a dynamic sociocultural process, where a mixed foraging and cultivation economy was accompanied by a flexible land-use strategy. However, the economic organization has only been superficially assessed. Thus, the aim of this article is to present the study of faunal remains recovered during the excavation of the open-air site Boyo Paso 2 in order to provide primary data on the properties of the animal food remains left by late prehispanic people and the characteristics of site occupation. Faunal remains suggest a complex sequence of reoccupations where bones were deposited, accidentally reburned and fragmented by trampling. The diversity of exploited prey also sheds light on the fact that a broad hunting spectrum continued playing a key role in the daily subsistence. Nevertheless, cultigens were a fluctuating component in a diverse foraging economy in which wild resources as guanaco (Lama guanicoe Muller, 1776), small-vertebrates and Rheidae eggs continued to be extensively used. The study of Boyo Paso 2 faunal assemblage is relevant because it helps to improve the current understanding of the economic importance of foraging wild resources and would constitute a model to interpret other archaeological cases during the Neolithic or Formative transition, where the boundaries between farming and foraging were fluid, but remained relatively invisible according to the existing terminology.","PeriodicalId":38558,"journal":{"name":"Anthropozoologica","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2019-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43654567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-07-05DOI: 10.5252/ANTHROPOZOOLOGICA2018V54A9
P. Vidal-González
Extensive Spanish cattle ranching boasts a strong, deeply rooted tradition: the use of completely black sheep, the offspring of white mothers, as magical elements to protect flocks from bad luck. Conditions are very specific, so they are unique, exceptional animals. These characteristics make them special, sacred sheep that are kept in the herd with special care until their death. There is an explanation for this symbolic and magic practice: it has existed to sustain, before Mendel discovered the laws governing genetics, the purity of white wool in sheep by isolating mutations in black ones. In this text we examine the scope of this practice and analyse it from the perspective of the anthropology of symbolism.
{"title":"The symbolism of the black sheep as a talisman in extensive and transhumant ranching in Spain: an anthropological analysis","authors":"P. Vidal-González","doi":"10.5252/ANTHROPOZOOLOGICA2018V54A9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5252/ANTHROPOZOOLOGICA2018V54A9","url":null,"abstract":"Extensive Spanish cattle ranching boasts a strong, deeply rooted tradition: the use of completely black sheep, the offspring of white mothers, as magical elements to protect flocks from bad luck. Conditions are very specific, so they are unique, exceptional animals. These characteristics make them special, sacred sheep that are kept in the herd with special care until their death. There is an explanation for this symbolic and magic practice: it has existed to sustain, before Mendel discovered the laws governing genetics, the purity of white wool in sheep by isolating mutations in black ones. In this text we examine the scope of this practice and analyse it from the perspective of the anthropology of symbolism.","PeriodicalId":38558,"journal":{"name":"Anthropozoologica","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2019-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49633285","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-05-03DOI: 10.5252/anthropozoologica2019v54a6
Benjamín Ballester, Elisa Calás, R. Labarca, W. Pestle, F. Gallardo, Claudia Castillo, Gonzalo Pimentel, C. Oyarzo
ABSTRACT Along the Atacama Desert coast, fish has always been a staple food and by the Formative period (500 cal B.C.-700 cal A.D.) it had become a product in high demand by the inhabitants of the inland valleys, oases and ravines of the desert. In this paper we explore the technologies used in coastal fishing activities, the diverse species caught, and fish processing and preserving techniques. We further examine the circulation routes of the product through the desert and associated strategies, the agents involved in transporting it and consumption levels in inland villages. Our study employs a multivariate analysis that includes evidence from zooarchaeology, stable isotope analysis of deceased individuals, and the composition of human coprolites, all of which were recovered from domestic waste, funerary contexts, and rest stops associated with the circulation routes running between the coast and the inland desert regions. Our results suggest that in this ancient social context, food was not only used to quell hunger, but through its associated economic cycles of production, circulation and consumption, was part of a complex and extended web of social relations. Within that network, food functioned as material culture, and as such enabled social distinctions to emerge within local groups and cultural negotiations to be conducted among different localities. Fish circulation and consumption played an active role in the reproduction of a social structure characterized by close and firm ties between marine hunter-fisher-gatherers and agropastoral communities, despite their long distance from each other.
{"title":"The ways of fish beyond the sea: fish circulation and consumption in the Atacama desert, northern Chile, during the Formative period (500 cal B.C.-700 cal A.D.)","authors":"Benjamín Ballester, Elisa Calás, R. Labarca, W. Pestle, F. Gallardo, Claudia Castillo, Gonzalo Pimentel, C. Oyarzo","doi":"10.5252/anthropozoologica2019v54a6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5252/anthropozoologica2019v54a6","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Along the Atacama Desert coast, fish has always been a staple food and by the Formative period (500 cal B.C.-700 cal A.D.) it had become a product in high demand by the inhabitants of the inland valleys, oases and ravines of the desert. In this paper we explore the technologies used in coastal fishing activities, the diverse species caught, and fish processing and preserving techniques. We further examine the circulation routes of the product through the desert and associated strategies, the agents involved in transporting it and consumption levels in inland villages. Our study employs a multivariate analysis that includes evidence from zooarchaeology, stable isotope analysis of deceased individuals, and the composition of human coprolites, all of which were recovered from domestic waste, funerary contexts, and rest stops associated with the circulation routes running between the coast and the inland desert regions. Our results suggest that in this ancient social context, food was not only used to quell hunger, but through its associated economic cycles of production, circulation and consumption, was part of a complex and extended web of social relations. Within that network, food functioned as material culture, and as such enabled social distinctions to emerge within local groups and cultural negotiations to be conducted among different localities. Fish circulation and consumption played an active role in the reproduction of a social structure characterized by close and firm ties between marine hunter-fisher-gatherers and agropastoral communities, despite their long distance from each other.","PeriodicalId":38558,"journal":{"name":"Anthropozoologica","volume":"54 1","pages":"55 - 76"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2019-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43006193","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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