Captive Birds and Pet Keeping in Ancient Mesoamerica: The Case of Scarlet Macaws from Vista Hermosa (Tamaulipas, Mexico, 1300–1500 AD)

Summary

In Mesoamerica, the tropical colourful birds were highly valued for their feathers. Among them, the scarlet macaw (Ara macao) provided bright red, blue and yellow feathers that were traded to the Central Mexican Highlands and, beyond Mesoamerica, until the American Southwest. As suggested by ethnohistoric records, some birds may have been maintained in captivity and harvested to supply the demand in feathers. In spite of examples of large-scale macaw management in the American Southwest, there is no such archaeological evidence for Mesoamerica, and in particular within their native regions. In this presentation, we investigate the osseous remains of two scarlet macaws from the Postclassic site of Vista Hermosa, Southern Tamaulipas, Mexico (1300-1500 AD) to clarify their relationship with the Huastecan population. Using osteological markers and stable isotopes, we show that the birds were kept in captivity, maybe as pets. By identifying captive birds outside of the major political centres of Central Mexico, these results shed new light on aviculturist practices in ancient Mesoamerica. In addition, the archaeological evidence of captive macaws in the Huasteca is consistent with ethnohistoric observations, and could help to understand the origin of the captive-reared scarlet macaws found in the American Southwest.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20794