Animism and Patterns of Economic Activity in the European Mesolithic
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2019-05-17

Ethnographic accounts of historic and contemporary hunter-gatherers show that economic decisions are often  structured  by  cultural  attitudes  towards  particular  animals,  plants,  and  places.  These  are underpinned by animist ontologies where entities other than humans are considered to be sentient and self-aware.  Interactions  between  humans  and  these  other-than-human  persons  are  often  articulated through prescribed forms of activity, including the careful treatment of animal and plant remains, the use or avoidance of particular places, and set ways of moving through the landscape. Drawing on data from across northwest Europe this paper argues that comparable sets of beliefs also structured patterns of  economic  activity,  settlement,  and  mobility  in  the  European  Mesolithic,  and  that  these  can  be identified though the analysis of artefact and faunal assemblages, and palaeoecological analysis.

Barry Taylor (University of Chester), Amy Gray Jones (University of Chester) and Nick Overton (University of Manchester)

TAG Deva 2018
Session: Relational Approaches to Past Hunter-Gatherer Worlds