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A Taphonomic Analysis of Small Mammal Assemblages

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A Taphonomic Analysis of Small Mammal Assemblages AN ETHNOARCHAEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF SMALL PREY BONE ASSEMBLAGES PRODUCED BY FOREST FORAGERS OF THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC By JASON M. FANCHER A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY Department of Anthropology May 2009 © Copyright by JASON M. FANCHER, 2009 All Rights Reserved © Copyright by JASON M. FANCHER All Rights Reserved ii To the Faculty of Washington State University: The members of the Committee appointed to examine the dissertation of JASON M. FANCHER find it satisfactory and recommend that it be accepted. ___________________________________ Karen D. Lupo, Ph.D., Chair ___________________________________ Barry S. Hewlett, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Timothy A. Kohler, Ph.D. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, thank you to committee chair Karen Lupo, who has provided me with so many opportunities and possibilities over the years. Karen challenged me to make this dissertation the best it could be, and it is greatly improved as a result of her efforts. Special thanks to committee members Barry Hewlett and Tim Kohler for their encouragement, careful editing, and insightful comments. Many thanks to the Bofi and Aka for allowing us to work with them, the L. S. B. Leakey Foundation and National Science Foundation for supporting this research, and Karen Lupo and Dave Schmitt for inviting me to be a part of it. The people of Grima and Ndele were extremely helpful as we collected what must have seemed like the oddest assortment of information about their lives. This work would not have been possible without the patience and support of my family: The Bowers, Burresons, Fanchers, Hansens, and Hublers. Thanks to Annette Bednar, LeAnn Couch, Neal Endacott, Alain Kolet Guy, Chris Hall, Beth Horton, Dave Johnson, Kathy Johnson, Matt Landt, Gabi Mbera, Chris Nicholson, Joy Strunk, and so many more for their generous assistance and thoughtful advice. Finally, I am grateful to Jean Makenzi, whose humor and perspective continue to influence those who knew him, and to Jill and Emma Fancher who make it all worthwhile. iv AN ETHNOARCHAEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF SMALL PREY BONE ASSEMBLAGES PRODUCED BY FOREST FORAGERS OF THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC Abstract by Jason M. Fancher, Ph.D. Washington State University May 2009 Chair: Karen D. Lupo This dissertation is an ethnoarchaeological analysis of small prey (< 25 kg) bones produced by contemporary Bofi and Aka foragers of the Central African Republic. The interpretive benefits of understanding small prey use in prehistory are increasingly recognized, but specific data on processing and taphonomic patterning among small fauna are still relatively limited. This study contributes to the literature by descriptively detailing the taphonomic characteristics of culturally-produced damage (burning, cut marks, chop marks, and fracture patterns) for all prey species identified in the assemblage. It then explores these bone collections in a global context, comparing them to a range of other ethnographic, experimental, and archaeological studies, with an emphasis on the role of prey size in determining taphonomic damage patterns. Results suggest that the behavioral interpretation of small fauna requires a thorough re-evaluation of assumptions, primarily because conventional wisdom and theoretical expectations have so often been developed from studies of larger animals. v In addition to description and comparison, this study examines the ways that taphonomic expectations derived from foraging theory and tested on large prey apply to analyses of smaller fauna. Foragers, past and present, have had to make decisions about how to best extract energy from their environment, and from acquired resources. Among animal prey, contextual specifics such as carcass size and anatomy, prey availability, butchery technology, and cooking methods all impact the processing strategies employed by particular butchers. One compelling prediction of foraging theory is that butchers and consumers alter their investment in extracting resources (e.g., meat, marrow, and grease) from animal carcasses in relation to their abundance; as the availability of high-ranking prey species decreases, acquired carcasses of these species are expected to be processed more intensively. Ethnoarchaeological data from forest forager-produced bone assemblages are used here to evaluate commonly proposed zooarchaeological measures of processing intensity and their applicability to small prey. Results indicate that bone fragmentation has greater potential than cut or chop marks to link processing decisions and resulting taphonomic patterning in this context. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii ABSTRACT iv LIST OF TABLES xiv LIST OF FIGURES xviii DEDICATION xxv CHAPTER 1. ETHNOARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY OF SMALL PREY USE 1 Introduction 1 Ethnoarchaeology 2 Analogy 2 Ethnographic Analogy and Ethnoarchaeology 3 Limitations of Ethnographic Analogy 12 Source-Side Issues 12 Subject-Side Issues 17 General Theory in Ethnoarchaeology 20 Processual Ethnoarchaeology 20 Postprocessual Ethnoarchaeology 27 Processual-Plus, Processual Pluralism, or a General Theory of Behavior? 33 Human Behavioral Ecology 35 vii Models of Optimal Foraging 38 The Prey Choice Model 40 The Patch Choice Model and Marginal Value Theorem 49 Foraging Theory and the Archaeological Record 56 Resource Depression 56 Resource Intensification 58 The Zooarchaeology of Resource Depression and Intensification 60 Small Fauna in Archaeology and Taphonomy 67 Small Mammals in Archaeology 68 Non-Culturally Accumulated and Modified Small Mammal Bones 70 Culturally Processed Small Mammal Bones 74 Conclusion 77 2. ENVIRONMENT AND PREHISTORY OF THE STUDY AREA 79 Introduction 79 Washington State University Ethnoarchaeological Project in the Central African Republic 79 Rain Forest Ecology 82 Modern Environment 83 The Guineo-Congolian Rain Forest 83 Environmental Variation Within the Ngotto Forest: viii Grima and Ndele 86 Paleoenvironment 88 Pleistocene: The Maluekian Phase (70-40,000 B.P.) 90 Pleistocene: The Ndjilian Phase (40-30,000 B.P.) 90 Pleistocene: The Leopoldvillian Phase (30-12,000 B.P.) 91 Terminal Pleistocene/Holocene: The Kibanguian Phase (12,000 B.P.-Present) 93 The Prehistory of Central Africa 98 Ethnographic Approaches to the Wild Yam Question 100 The Cultivated Calories Hypothesis 101 The Possibility of Independent Foraging 102 Early Stone Age 108 Middle Stone Age 111 Late Stone Age 115 Origins of Food Production in Central Africa 117 Iron Age 124 Recent History 126 Slavery 127 Trade 128 Twentieth Century Political History 129 3. FOREST FORAGERS IN THE SOUTHWESTERN CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC 132 ix Contemporary African Forest Foragers 132 Economy and Subsistence 136 Flora 136 Fauna 142 Interdependent Relationships with Farmers 144 Mobility and Settlement Patterns 149 Village Camps 152 Forest Camps 155 Hunting Methods and Technology 160 Prey Processing: From Capture to Bone Discard 165 Meat Sharing 172 Cooking Methods and Consumption 176 Bone Discard 179 Conclusion 181 4. METHODS AND BONE ASSEMBLAGES 182 Introduction 182 Bone Collection Methods 182 Zooarchaeological Laboratory Methods 183 Data Recorded 184 Categorization of Taphonomic Damage 184 Taphonomic Damage 185 Descriptions of Bone Assemblages 190 Taxonomic Composition and Collection Locations 190 x Skeletal Part Representation 193 Conclusion 208 5. TAPHONOMY 209 6. PREY SIZE AND TAPHONOMY: THE BOFI AND AKA COLLECTIONS IN GLOBAL CONTEXT 250 Burned Bone 252 Burn Analyses 256 Prey Size and Burned Bone Frequency 257 Prey Size and Burning Intensity 259 Butchery Patterns and Burned Bone 260 Camp Context and Burning Frequency 261 Cut Marks 264 Prey Size: Cut Mark Frequency, Distribution, and Function 265 Do Large Carcasses Require More Cuts, in More Places for More Purposes? 265 Exceptions to the Positive Correlation Between Prey Size and Cut Mark Frequency 268 Why Do Cut Mark Characteristics Vary with Prey Size? 271 Cut Mark Analyses 273 Prey Size and Cut Mark Frequency 273 Prey Size and Cut Mark Diversity 275 xi Prey Size and the Functional Interpretation of Cut Marks 277 Chop Marks 278 Chop Analyses 281 Forms of Blade-produced Butchery Damage 282 Prey Size and Chop Mark Frequency 285 Camp Context and Chop Mark Frequency 287 Specific Size-related Patterns of Element Breakage 288 Fractures 289 Fracture Analyses 294 Fractured Bone 295 Bone Fragmentation 296 Summary and Conclusions 301 Summary 301 Conclusions 305 7. RESOURCE INTENSIFICATION AND PROCESSING INTENSITY 306 Theoretical Background 306 Resource Depression and Intensification 306 Processing Intensity 309 Resource Depression and Intensification in Grima? 315 Taxonomic Diversity in Grima and Ndele 317 The Duiker Index 323 Processing Intensity and Cut Marks 325 xii Cut Marks and Processing Intensity Analyses 327 Cut Marks and Element Utility 335 The Blue Duiker Food Utility Index 337 Discussion: Evaluating Processing Intensity with Cut Mark Data 342 Processing Intensity and Chop Marks 343 Chop Marks and Processing Intensity Analyses 343 Discussion: Evaluating Processing Intensity with Chop Mark Data 347 Processing Intensity and Bone Fragmentation 348 Fragmentation and Processing Intensity Analyses 352 Extent of Fragmentation 354 Intensity of Fragmentation 357 Discussion: Evaluating Processing Intensity with Fragmentation Data 358 Summary and Conclusions 363 8. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 367 Ethnoarchaeology and Human Behavioral Ecology 367 The Prehistory of
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