The Hunting-versus-scavenging debate

The hunting-versus-scavenging debate has focused primarily on ascertaining the order of access by hominids to carcass resources. Primary access implies either confrontational scavenging (Bunn, 1995, 1996) or hunting, while secondary access suggests passive scavenging. As the previous chapter indicated, after 25 years the meaning of the earliest archaeological sites is still controversial. However, most Africanists would now agree that some sites were created by hominids repeatedly carrying carcass parts and stones to particular places on the landscape (Bunn, 1982, 1983a, 1991; Potts, 1982, 1988; Isaac, 1983; Bunn and Kroll, 1986; Blumenschine and Bunn, 1987; Blumenschine, 1988, 1991, 1995; Blumenschine and Marean, 1993; Bunn and Ezzo, 1993; Schick and Toth, 1993; Blumenschine et al., 1994; Domínguez-Rodrigo, 1994a; Oliver, 1994; Selvaggio, 1994; Capaldo, 1995, 1997; Rose and Marshall, 1996; Cavallo, 1998). This consensus stands as one of the most important achievements of Plio-Pleistocene archaeological taphonomy.