A Reconsideration of Animal Body-Part Utility Indices

American Antiquity - Tập 53 Số 3 - Trang 486-504 - 1988
Duncan Metcalfe1, Kevin T. Jones2
1Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112
2Issaquah, WA 98027

Tóm tắt

The animal body-part utility indices developed by Lewis Binford have been used to interpret faunal assemblages ranging from Plio-Pleistocene sites in East Africa to a late prehistoric bison kill in the High Plains of North America. Little attention, however, has been placed on refining or further developing these scales of economic utility. We examine Binford's derivation of the modified general utility index (MGUI) and demonstrate that it is needlessly complex. A nearly identical index, the food utility index (FUI), is presented. It simply scales variation in the amount of meat, marrow, and bone grease associated with different caribou body parts. We then use the insights provided by this simple scale to explore relations among economic utility, differential body-part representation, and human decision making.

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Tài liệu tham khảo

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American Antiquity

Tập 53 Số 3

486-504

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