Non-human Animals and People: Interactions, Agents and Materialities

Animals are agency-bearing beings and are able to bond in emotional relationships with people. In these various associations, the boundary between human and nonhuman is permeable according to the degree of human-animal familiarity. Across time and space, humans and nonhuman animals have co-modelled their relationships in diverse interspecific interactions. Throughout human history, animals have been hunted, bred, domesticated, eaten, feared, and venerated. This book presents several papers from the symposium Animals and people: interactions, agents and materialities, held in the XXI Congreso Nacional de Arqueología Argentina, which took place in Corrientes city, Argentina in July of 2023. Through eight chapters, authors explore: human-camelid interactions, comprising hunting, pastoralism, domestication and current management; human-felids interaction; the role of animals in the construction of social identity; the configuration of spatial interaction networks at various scales; and theoretical issues from a relational approach. These topics are approached from many different materialities and perspectives, including zooarchaeological data, stable isotope information, rock and mobile art, current animal management, hides and fleece and ethnographic information. The contributions focus on southern South America, including northern Chile, northwestern Argentina and Argentine Central, Patagonia and Pampas regions. This book delves into the complexity of interactions between humans and nonhuman animals and the material derivatives of those relationships. The volume's interdisciplinary perspectives that integrate theoretical proposals and case studies will be references for archaeologists, anthropologists and ethnologists examining the interplay among people and nonhuman animals.