Investigating Feather Harvesting of Captive Macaws at Wupatki Pueblo, Arizona

Summary

Macaws were imported into the pre-Hispanic American Southwest from central Mexico for hundreds of years; it is generally projected that the purpose of this practice was to supply feathers for ritual purposes. Recent zooarchaeological research has demonstrated that the wing feathers of Southwestern turkeys were regularly plucked, as evidenced by significant scarring on the birds’ ulnae. The author observed the presence of this scarring on the wing elements of archaeological macaw specimens from Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. This paper details a macroscopic analysis of macaw skeletal remains from another major husbandry center, Wupatki Pueblo in Arizona, to provide further evidence that Pueblo peoples from different regions were engaged in the regular harvesting of feathers from live macaws. This information lends insight into the practices of macaw husbandry in the prehistoric Southwest and the nature of interaction between different groups engaged in the care and utilization of these transplanted birds.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21533