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Methodological Issues in Zooarchaeology

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Integrating Zooarchaeology and Paleoethnobotany

Abstract

The main goal of zooarchaeology, as a specialty within archaeology, is to interpret human and environment interactions based primarily on the animal remains recovered from archaeological sites. This chapter is not meant to be a comprehensive text on zooarchaeology; rather it is a guide to some of the analytical methods and terminology that are used commonly by practitioners of zooarchaeology. While each researcher has her/his own way of analyzing and interpreting animal remains, some methods, terms, and analytical tools are considered standard. The purpose of this chapter is to give the reader an overview of basic methodological issues and applications within zooarchaeology. I acknowledge that not all the faunal remains recovered from archaeological sites are related to subsistence activities; however, as the chapters included in this volume are centered on discerning s'bsistence behaviors through the integration of multiple datasets, I focus more on subsistence practices here. This chapter addresses taphonomic and recovery issues as well as sampling and analytical methods to enable the reader to understand the case studies included in this volume (for a similar treatment of paleoethnobotanical remains, see Wright, Chapter 3 this volume).

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Acknowledgments

The Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Middle Tennessee State University provided support during the research and writing of this chapter. I am grateful to Betsy Reitz, Renee Walker, and Amber VanDerwarker for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this chapter. Any omissions or errors, however, are mine.

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  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, 37132, USA

    Tanya M. Peres

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  1. College of Letters & Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, 93106, U.S.A.

    Amber M. VanDerwarker

  2. Dept. Sociology & Anthropology, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, 37132, U.S.A.

    Tanya M. Peres

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Peres, T.M. (2010). Methodological Issues in Zooarchaeology. In: VanDerwarker, A., Peres, T. (eds) Integrating Zooarchaeology and Paleoethnobotany. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0935-0_2

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