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A Method of Calculating the Dietary Percentage of Various Food Animals Utilized by Aboriginal Peoples*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Theodore E. White*
Affiliation:
River Basin Surveys, Smithsonian Institution, Lincoln, Nebraska

Extract

The renewed activity in Plains Archaeology as a result of the salvage program of the River Basin Surveys of the Smithsonian Institution and cooperating agencies has reemphasized some very striking differences in the types of animals used for food by prehistoric peoples. Some groups, such as the Woodland and Upper Republican, set an extremely varied “table” while others appear to have subsisted almost entirely on one species of food animal. With those groups which subsisted on a variety of game, the question naturally poses itself: “What percentage does each species contribute to the diet of the people?” Although complete data on the “dressedout” weights of the various food animals found in archaeological sites is not available, calculations based on the data and procedure outlined here should provide a means of arriving at a reasonably reliable answer to the above question.

Type
Facts and Comments
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1953

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Footnotes

*

Published by permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

References

Cahalane, Victor H. 1947. Mammals of North America. Google Scholar
Martin, Alexander C. and L. Nelson, Arnold 1952. Every Ounce Counts. Sports Afield, Vol. 128, No. 3, pp. 17–23.Google Scholar