Notes on the Aboriginal hunting and butchering of cattle and buffalo
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11956580 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael Pickering (0000-0002-8085-3673, Tharawal Aboriginal, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1995 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 17-21 |
| Publication date | 1995-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Australian Archaeology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0312-2417 • E-ISSN: 2470-0363 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03122417.1995.11681542 |
| OpenAlex | W2339738549 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 6 |
Aboriginal people have exploited European and Asian cattle as a food resource since the introduction of these animals to Australia. Butchering techniques are usually simple and efficient and involve minimum disarticulation of the carcass or artefactual damage to bones. Subsequent residues often show little or no direct evidence of being a product of human activity. Similar 'optimum butchering' strategies may well have applied to the butchering of extinct Australian megafauna, particularly the Diprotodontidae , and would provide one explanation for the inconclusive evidence for human exploitation of megafauna. This paper comments on the Aboriginal hunting and butchering of cattle for non-commercial use. The descriptions provided are derived, firstly, from field observations over several years of Aboriginal hunting and the butchering of two buffalo and nine European cattle from several spatially separate regions of northern Australia; secondly, from interviews with Aboriginal informants; and, thirdly, from discussions with other field researchers. This description relies on qualitative data. Observations of hunting and butchering events were usually fortuitous, occurring in the course of other work, and collection of more detailed data suitable for quantitative analysis was simply not possible. Therefore, rather than describe the specifics of the limited number of observations, the observation and interview data have been combined to provide a summary of the general strategy. It is hoped that these notes will stimulate discussion, firstly, about the status of cattle in Aboriginal social and economic life and, secondly, about exploitive models applicable to certain species of Australian megafauna. Â
Archaeology · Disarticulation · Ethnology · Geography · Megafauna · Sociology · Ecology and biodiversity studies · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Psychology · Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
Looking for the archaeological signature in Australian Megafaunal extinctions
Modern emu ( Dromaius novaehollandiae ) butchery, economic utility and analogues for the Australian archaeological record
Investigating human and megafauna co-occurrence in Australian prehistory
Late Pleistocene Megafauna and Archaeology from Cuddie Springs, South-eastern Australia
The Getting of the Nganabbarru
Contact’ Rock Art and the Hybrid Economy Model
Re‐evaluating the evidence for late‐surviving megafauna at Nombe rockshelter in the New Guinea highlands
Re‐analysis of the “engraved” Diprotodon tooth from Spring Creek, Victoria, Australia
A large area archaeological excavation at Cuddie Springs
Hunter-gatherers today
New Guinea
Hunting Buffalo in North‐Central Arnhem Land
Man and Megafauna at Reddestone Creek, Near Glen Innes, Northern New South Wales
Humans and megafauna in a late Pleistocene environment from Cuddie Springs, north western New South Wales
Engraved Diprotodon tooth from the Spring Creek locality, Victoria
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1999 - 2022 (24) |
| Highly cited | No |