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Patterns Of Elite Faunal Utilization In Moundville, Alabama, H. Edwin Jackson, Susan L. Scott

Faculty Publications

In recent years, zooarchaeological research has begun to examine the roles of animals as part of the suite of symbols employed at the ongoing social, ceremonial, and political dynamics of prehistoric cultural systems. In the southeastern United States, studies of late prehistoric Mississippian chiefdoms have documented differences in species composition and meat cuts associated with particular social contexts of consumption-for instance, ceremonial feasting vs. private meals-and also with gross distinctions in social rank-elite vs. commoner. Differences in the latter reflect elite control of procurement as well as cultural rides that assign meanings to certain species, which in so doing regulates …