Animals and Inequality in the Ancient World

✍ Scribed by Benjamin S. Arbuckle, Sue Ann McCarty (eds.)

• Publisher: University Press of Colorado
• Year: 2014
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 412
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

'Animals and Inequality in the Ancient World' explores the current trends in the social archaeology of human-animal relationships, focusing on the ways in which animals are used to structure, create, support, and even deconstruct social inequalities.

The authors provide a global range of case studies from both New and Old World archaeology - a royal Aztec dog burial, the monumental horse tombs of Central Asia, and the ceremonial macaw cages of ancient Mexico among them. They explore the complex relationships between people and animals in social, economic, political, and ritual contexts, incorporating animal remains from archaeological sites with artifacts, texts, and iconography to develop their interpretations. 'Animals and Inequality in the Ancient World' presents new data and interpretations that reveal the role of animals, their products, and their symbolism in structuring social inequalities in the ancient world. The volume will be of interest to archaeologists, especially zooarchaeologists, and classical scholars of pre-modern civilizations and societies.

✦ Table of Contents

List of Figures xi
List of Tables xvii
Acknowledgments xix
Animals and Inequality in the Ancient World: An Introduction / Benjamin S. Arbuckle and Sue Ann McCarty 1
1. Animals and the State: The Role of Animals in State-Level Rituals in Mesoamerica / Nawa Sugiyama, Gilberto Pérez, Bernardo Rodríguez, Fabiola Torres, and Raúl Valadez 11
2. Entering the Underworld: Animal Offerings at the Foot of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan / Leonardo López Luján, Ximena Chávez Balderas, Belem Zúñiga-Arellano, Alejandra Aguirre Molina, and Norma Valentín Maldonado 33
3. The Luxury of Variety: Animals and Social Distinction at the Wari Site of Cerro Baúl, Southern Peru / Susan D. deFrance 63
4. Shifting Patterns of Maya Social Complexity through Time: Preliminary Zooarchaeological Results from San Bartolo, Guatemala / Ashley E. Sharpe, William A. Saturno, and Kitty F. Emery 85
5. Animals as Symbols, Animals as Resources: The Elite Faunal Record in the Mississippian World / H. Edwin Jackson 107
6. The Parrots of Paquimé: A Look at the Role of Aviculture in Thirteenth-Century Northern Mexico / Abigail Holeman 125
7. Ritual, Cuisine, and Commensal Politics at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico / Adam S. Watson 145
8. Pelts and Provisions: Faunal Remains and the Emergence of Social Inequality in Central Coastal California / Charlotte K. Sunseri 167
9. Animals and Social Change: A Case of the Middle Neolithic in the North European Plain / Arkadiusz Marciniak 187
10. Inequality and the Origins of Wool Production in Central Anatolia / Benjamin S. Arbuckle 209
11. Tracing Inequality from Assur to Kültepe-Kanesh: Merchants, Donkeys, and Clay Tablets / Levent Atici 231
12. Animal, Human, God: Pathways of Shang Animality and Divinity / Roderick Campbell 251
13. Inequality on the Surface: Horses, Power, and Community in the Mongolian Bronze Age / Joshua Wright 275
14. Pythons, Pigs, and Political Process in the Hueda Kingdom, Benin, West Africa AD 1650–1727 / Neil L. Norman 295
15. 'Tails' of Romanization: Animals and Inequality in the Roman Mediterranean Context / Michael MacKinnon 315
16. Wool Production, Wealth, and Trade in Middle Saxon England / Pam J. Crabtree and Douglas V. Campana 335
17. The Rhetoric of Meat Apportionment: Evidence for Exclusion, Inclusion, and Social Position in Medieval England / Naomi Sykes 353
List of Contributors 375
Index 377