This edited volume presents seven case studies that examine how human-animal relationships can illuminate aspects of past lifeways beyond diet, making it broadly relevant to archaeologists across regions and periods. Organized by theme, the chapters span multiple methodologies and settings. Two address environmental and climatic forces: one considers mass guanaco die-offs in Patagonia, Argentina, during episodes of extreme cold and how such events appear in the archaeological record, while another uses osteometrics alongside paleoclimate data to explore long-term changes in cattle size and the possible influence of climate on that variation.
Other contributions take up economic and social questions through human-animal interactions across different continents and time periods, including a chapter on shark-tooth artifacts from Cahokia that uses zooarchaeological evidence to explore long-distance connections. The collection also includes methodology-focused chapters—one a review, another introducing newer approaches—while emphasizing collaboration with Indigenous and heritage communities as essential to interpretation.
The volume highlights methodological and technological developments that are reshaping faunal analysis. Among them is zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS), which identifies animal taxa by analyzing collagen peptide “fingerprints” using mass spectrometry—especially useful for highly fragmented bone that cannot be identified reliably by morphology alone. Stable isotope analysis, also discussed in zooarchaeology, is a separate technique that can help reconstruct ancient diets, mobility and ecological “niches.” Illustrated throughout, the book also includes Spanish translations for chapters focused on South America.
