Humans, Animals, and the Craft of Slaughter in Archaeo-Historic Societies

This book conceptualizes butchery as an expression of technological knowledge and culture embedded in action, defining the human-animal relationship.

Situating the relationship between practice, practitioner, and commodity resonates with the large body of scholars interested in food production, assembly, consumption, and the craft of cuisine. The book uses butchery as a point of departure for discussing the changing historical relationships with animal utility, symbolism, and meat consumption.In this book, Krish Seetah uses butchery as a point of departure for exploring the changing historical relationships between animal utility, symbolism, and meat consumption. Seetah brings together several bodies of literature - on meat, cut marks, craftspeople, and the role of craft in production - that have heretofore been considered in isolation from one another. Focusing on the activity inherent in butcher, he describes the history of knowledge that typifies the craft. He also provides anthropological and archaeological case studies which showcase examples of butchery practices in varied contexts that are seldom identified with zooarchaeological research. Situating the relationship between practice, practitioner, material and commodity, this imaginative study offers new insights into food production, consumption, and the craft of cuisine.