Wendy Teeter

Author(s): Beaubien, Harriet F.; Emery, Kitty F.; Henderson, John; Joyce, Rosemary; Longstaffe, Fred L.; Masson, Marilyn A.; McKillop, Heather; Moholy-Nagy, Hattula; Pendergast, David M.; Pohl, Mary D.; Powis, Terry G.; Schwarcz, Henry P.; Seymour, Kevin L.; Stanchly, Norbert; Teeter, Wendy G.; Wake, Thomas A.; White, Christine D.; Winemiller, Terance; Wing, Elizabeth S. | Editor(s): Emery, Kitty F.

"This research utilizes faunal analysis to explore how population growth affected the environment, subsistence practices and ceremonial behavior at the Maya site of Caracol, Belize and the greater Maya area. Caracol was chosen for this study for many reasons, including its continuous occupation from around 600 B.C. to 300 B.C. (Middle Preclassic) depending on the area of the city, to about A.D. 1000 (Early Postclassic) and the intensive archaeological excavation which has produced a diverse and large faunal assemblage. Most notably Caracol developed from a small village to a large Classic Maya city with a population of over 100,000 people, necessitating a complex infrastructure to meet the subsistence needs of its residents. To meet the food requirements at Caracol agricultural terraces were integrated in all parts of the city, even within the center of town. What remains unanswered is how meat was supplied to the over 100,000 people, especially as the forests were cleared for new homes. The Maya may have traveled farther, imported meat, or relied on the commensal animals that tolerate a more urban environment, such as raccoons, opossums, and rodents. Resource availability may also have necessitated a change in the way in which animals were used for ceremonial activities (from public festivals to household offerings to ancestors) at the site. Faunal remains have been collected from trash deposits, living surfaces, burials, and caches throughout Caracol and represent a diverse population that inhabited all areas of the city. In this analysis emphasis is placed on the Late Preclassic and Late Classic (A.D.600-900) Periods because these eras embody the beginning and culmination of the development of Classic Maya society. It is at these periods that the greatest change and/or stress on resources should be evident and the Maya would have to address these situations. Previous ethnographic and archaeological research from the Maya area is reviewed to help interpret the Caracol data and understand Maya resource use strategies."

Faunal analysis can give clues to the quality of life for the elite and the general population. Many studies have discussed how a general Maya diet was affected by population pressure, but few have looked directly at the archaeological dietary remains. This paper looks at the adaptive responses to the increasing requirements for animal resources at Caracol, Belize, such as importation of animal products, specialization of animal use strategies, and animal management.

The hope has long been that the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) would finally bring ancestors and their cultural items home to their communities to be reconnected and rest. However, 30 years later, museums and academics still fear losing control of research and access in their intellectual pursuits. Far from true, museums have benefited in working with tribes in telling stories around their cultural history, present and future. This article shares experiences over the authors’ careers and counters the alarmist calls to arms against compliance with NAGPRA.

This article presents a non-zooarchaeological viewpoint, as a response to many of the themes presented in this special journal issue, and based on discussions that occurred dur- ing the 2003 Society for American Archaeology Forum, Zooarchaeology in the Humid Ameri- can Tropics: Making the Most of the Data. Our experience in the Maya region shows many areas in which zooarchaeology can provide valuable contributions to better understanding the past. A fundamental need is better collaboration between field directors and faunal specialists. We highlight both the importance of expanding the contributions that faunal specialists make in understanding larger societal questions, and the need for more training in zooarchaeology as well as more in-country comparative collections and specialists. Finally, we emphasize the need for funding to support this research, including the post-field analysis. RESUMEN: Como respuesta a muchas de las cuestiones presentadas en este volumen monogra- fico, ba...

This chapter contains sections titled:
    Introduction
    Importance of Curation
    What Is Movable Cultural Material?
    Law and Policy
    Repositories and Curation
    Considerations of Objects' Care
    Curation Costs
    Orphaned Collections
    Deaccessioning
    Intellectual Property and Final Reports
    Education and Exhibiting Culture

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) claims process can be frustrating for Native American communities due to hindrances such as the lack of provenience and provenance of collections. Through historic research on and preliminary analysis of Santa Catalina Island archaeological collections assembled by Ralph Glidden and held by museums across the United States, the authors have discovered that much of the documented provenience and provenance information is missing, wrong, or at best more complicated than previously thought. The authors assert that background research of collections is imperative to ensure that ancestral remains are returned to the appropriate lineal descendants or Native American descendant community. Further, the Glidden collections show that disputed provenience and provenance information has massive implications for NAGPRA claims made by non-federally recognized tribes, such as the Gabrielino/Tongva, the Indigenous inhabitants of Santa Catalina and the Los Angeles Basin.

For decades, Tongva (Gabrielino) community members, the original inhabitants of the Los Angeles Basin, have actively battled multiple misconceptions about the community and its origins: that they are extinct; are relative latecomers to southern California, arriving as part of the “Shoshonean Wedge”; or are an imagined community of Mexican Americans lying about their heritage for personal gain and notoriety. These misinformed interpretations have hindered the Tongva community’s ability to assert their sovereign rights over the treatment of their cultural items, sacred spaces, and ancestral remains under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).
As a result, Tongva community members have created a number of educational programs at local museums and heritage sites to provide accurate information. However, these public programs do not necessarily reach the archaeologists who shape the academic discourse regarding Tongva history and cultural lifeways. To combat this situation, the Tongva community is working with scholars to develop research programs, such as the authors’ Pimu Catalina Island Archaeology Project (PCIAP), to demonstrate that the Tongva are a vibrant living cultural community with a deep history within its southern California traditional territory. Most importantly, Ho’eexokre ’eyookuuka’ro, “We’re working with each other,” to ensure that Tongva history is represented in a way that honors the ancestors and told from a Tongva point of view.

Analyses of the faunal remains from Cerro Portezuelo indicate that the site's pre-Hispanic residents made use of both wild and domesticated animals commonly found near lakeshores and agricultural fields. Most of the faunal assemblage examined comes from a Postclassic period residential structure, providing information regarding the animal species utilized by the early inhabitants of the area and the types of household activities they engaged in using tools made from worked bone. Examination of the collections from another part of the site shows intriguing similarities to the animal selection practices previously identified in the Epiclassic period collections from Oztoyahualco, Teotihuacan.

"The Fowler Museum at UCLA contains an abundance of provenienced pottery from prehistoric and historic California Indian sites.
This paper inventories these ceramics for the first time, revealing
that archaeological pottery is more widely distributed in California
than is generally understood. Museum collections remain underutilized by archaeologists. A greater appreciation of the geographical range and chronological extent of archaeological pottery would undoubtedly occur with additional published compilations of ceramic inventories by other museums."

This research utilizes faunal analysis to explore how population growth affected the environment, subsistence practices and ceremonial behavior at the Maya site of Caracol, Belize and the greater Maya area. Caracol was chosen for this study for many
reasons, including its continuous occupation from around 600 B.C. to 300 B.C. (Middle Preclassic) depending on the area of the city, to about A.D. 1000 (Early Postclassic) and the intensive archaeological excavation which has produced a diverse and large faunal assemblage. Most notably Caracol developed from a small village to a large Classic Maya city with a population of over 100,000 people, necessitating a complex
infrastructure to meet the subsistence needs of its residents. To meet the food requirements at Caracol agricultural terraces were integrated in all parts of the city, even within the center of town. What remains unanswered is how meat was supplied to the
over 100,000 people, especially as the forests were cleared for new homes. The Maya may have traveled farther, imported meat, or relied on the commensal animals that tolerate a more urban environment, such as raccoons, opossums, and rodents. Resource availability may also have necessitated a change in the way in which animals were used for ceremonial activities (from public festivals to household offerings to ancestors) at the
site. Faunal remains have been collected from trash deposits, living surfaces, burials, and caches throughout Caracol and represent a diverse population that inhabited all areas of the city. In this analysis emphasis is placed on the Late Preclassic and Late Classic (A.D.600-900) Periods because these eras embody the beginning and culmination of the development of Classic Maya society. It is at these periods that the greatest change
and/or stress on resources should be evident and the Maya would have to address these situations. Previous ethnographic and archaeological research from the Maya area is reviewed to help interpret the Caracol data and understand Maya resource use strategies.