Zooarchaeology, Shifting Baselines and a Rapidly Changing Climate

Summary

Anthropogenic climate change will both aggravate existing and create new situations in which local communities encounter the power of larger networks looking to either exploit or manage resources in their area. This paper will discuss a variety of ways in which zooarchaeological data investigated in a historical ecological mode might be useful in such circumstances. Zooarchaeology creates a deep context for human and animal dynamics. It investigates anthropogenic as well as environmental influences on communities in the past. Due to this, zooarchaeology should be in a position to help mediate future conflicts over the exploitation and management of animal species that will only increase in the face of anthropogenic climate change. This paper will focus on the relevance of shifting baseline data and zooarchaeological approaches to this phenomenon in the context of local communities and anthropogenic climate change.

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): 22417