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Butchers and Shamans: Zooarchaeology at a Central Mexican Hacienda

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Abstract

Zooarchaeological analysis conducted on remains recovered during two seasons of excavations at the Hacienda San Miguel Acocotla illuminates patterns of consumption among indigenous workers during the 19th century. Ethnographic research among modern butchers and at markets in Puebla, Cholula, and Atlixco, Mexico informs and contextualizes the results. When compared with data drawn from faunal remains on plantations in the United States, the results suggest that class analysis is of central importance to understandings of social dynamics of multiethnic sites throughout the Americas. In spite of this, some remains hint at the maintenance of pre-Columbian religious practices on the hacienda in the 19th century, suggesting that ethnicity was also salient to the inhabitants of the workers’ quarters at Acocotla.

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  1. State University of New York, Stony Brook Southampton, 252 Chancellor’S Hall, 239 Montauk Highway, Southampton, NY, 11968-6700, USA

    Elizabeth Terese Newman

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Newman, E.T. Butchers and Shamans: Zooarchaeology at a Central Mexican Hacienda. Hist Arch 44, 35–50 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03376793

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