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A Comment on Nomenclature in Faunal Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Sandra L. Olsen
Affiliation:
Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721
John W. Olsen
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720

Abstract

The study of faunal remains from archaeological sites has been described using a variety of terms including: zooarchaeology, archaeozoology, osteoarchaeology, and ethnozoology. With such a broad spectrum of terms in current usage, we feel that the contradictions and errors inherent in some of this nomenclature need to be corrected. We prefer the term zooarchaeology, as a contraction of the word zoologico-archaeology proposed by Lubbock in 1865, to define the study of animal remains from archaeological sites and their relationship to humans.

Type
Comments
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1981

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References

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