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Prehistoric Seal and Sea-Lion Butchering on the Southern Northwest Coast

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

R. Lee Lyman
R. Lee Lyman*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211
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Abstract

Ethnoarchaeological data indicate that various factors, including size of prey, influence both transport of animal parts and how animals are reduced to humanly usable or consumable portions. Remains of two taxa of pinnipeds of markedly different body size from two sites of similar age on the southern Northwest Coast of North America do not vary significantly in skeletal parts represented, which suggests similar transport histories. Butchering marks on bones of both taxa indicate that the butchery procedure was intertaxonomically similar for joint disarticulation and limb filleting. Bones of the larger taxon display significantly more butchery marks than bones of the smaller one, indicating the larger taxon was subjected to much more intensive butchery than the smaller one due to differences in body size.

Resumen

Resumen

Datos etnoarqueológicos indican que varios factores, entre ellos el tamaño de la presa, condicionan el transporte de las partes del animal y la manera en que éste es reducido a porciones utilizables o consumibles por seres humanos. Los restos de dos taxones de pinípedos con marcada diferencia de tamaño recuperados en dos sitios contemporáneos en el sur de la costa Noroeste de Norteamérica no varían significativamente en las partes esqueletarias representadas, sugiriendo que ambos poseen historias de transporte semejantes. Las marcas de destazamiento en los huesos indican que en ambos taxones se utilizaron procedimientos similares de desarticulación y fileteaje de las extremidades. Los huesos del taxón de mayor tamaño ostentan marcas en cantidades significativamente mayores que los huesos del taxón más pequeño, indicando que el primero estaba sujeto a un destazamiento más intensivo que el segundo debido a diferencias en el tamaño del cuerpo

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 57 , Issue 2 , April 1992 , pp. 246 - 261
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1992

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