Domestic Stock Age Profiles and Herd Management Practices: Ethnoarchaeological Implications from Maasai Settlements in Southern Kenya
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Date
2005
Authors
Mutundu, K. K.
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Abstract
Age profiles of domestic stock from East African late Holocene archaeological
sites have been used to make inferences regarding the advent and development of early pastoral
economies ca 5000 to 2000 years ago. This ethnoarchaeological study among contemporary
pastoral Maasai of southern Kenya was undertaken to examine the basis of these inferences in
particular, and the interpretations that have been made regarding prehistoric herd management
practices generally. Age profiles at the Pastoral Neolithic sites and those of contemporary Maasai
settlements appear to be very similar. This supports the hypothesis that modes of subsistence
and herd management practices at the prehistoric sites may have been closely similar to modern
ones. Results also show that natural factors of mortality, rather than intentional culling contributed
significantly to faunal accumulation on the Maasai settlements studied. I suggest that
the reconstruction of prehistoric herd management on the basis of age profiles should consider
the role of natural causes of mortality, and the possibility that intentional strategies of culling
may play a more limited role in the formation of the zooarchaeological record than previously
suggested.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
Age Profiles, Pastoral Neolithic, Ethnoarchaeology, East Africa