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- Title
Evaluating socioeconomic status using Sus scrofa food utility indices in historical faunal assemblages.
- Authors
Trusler, A.
- Abstract
A number of researchers have inferred socioeconomic status using zooarchaeological data in contexts suggested by artifacts to reflect a particular status level. Cuts of meat that are of relatively high yield (utility) should be more economically valuable than low-yield parts. A model of carcass-part utility assumes that people of high socioeconomic status will preferentially acquire greater relative frequencies of high-yield parts than people of low status. The model is applied to the Roman villa at San Giovanni di Ruoti, Italy, using a food utility index for pig ( Sus scrofa). Results indicate that for the early phases of the villa, as predicted, there are relatively more high-yield parts, reflecting high status, while the last phase contains relatively more low-yield parts. This supports conclusions of the original excavators that during later phases, the site was operating as a commercial farm. This test of the model demonstrates that food utility indices in conjunction with other contextual data can be used to identify socioeconomic status and interpret deviations from expectations of skeletal part frequencies.
- Subjects
SOCIOECONOMIC factors; WILD boar; MEAT; ZOOARCHAEOLOGY; SAN Giovanni di Ruoti Site (Italy)
- Publication
Archaeological & Anthropological Sciences, 2017, Vol 9, Issue 5, p831
- ISSN
1866-9557
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s12520-015-0306-8