Animals in complex human societies are often both meal and  symbol, related to everyday practice and ritual.  People in such  societies may be characterized as having unequal access to such  resources, or else the meaning of animals may differ for  component groups.  Here, in this book, 28 peer-reviewed papers  that span 4 continents and the Caribbean islands explore in  different ways how animals were incorporated into the diets and  religions of many unique societies.  The temporal range is from  the Neolithic to the Spanish colonization of the New World as  well as to modern tourist trade in indigenous animal art.

 

The volume explores various themes including the interaction of  foodways with complex societies, the interaction between diet and  colonialism and the complex role that animals, and parts of  animals, play in all human societies as religious, identity  markers, or other types of symbols.  Organized according to these  themes, rather than geographic location or time period, the  papers presented here crosscut such divisions.  In so doing, this  book presents an opportunity for scholars divided by geography  especially, but also by temporal period, to explore each other's  research and demonstrate that different archaeological settings  can address the same problems cross-culturally.