Butchering patterns in Hispanic-Creole contexts at the end of the XVIII and beginning of the XIX centuries

Abstract

In this paper we want to discuss the particular butchering patterns of different species in colonial hispano-creole contexts of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The research is based on an analysis of the way acquisition units and preparation and cooking units are defined for diferent taxa in contemporary written sources -cookbooks, traveler’s reports, among others. From this information we infer zooarchaeological expectations of presence of anatomical units, as well as fractures and cutmarks, in order to contrast them against an archaeological sample from the site of Floridablanca. In this colony, inhabited from 1780 to 1784 on the shore of the province of Santa Cruz, domestic ungulates were used and consumed -Bos taurus and Sus scrofa- as well as local taxa -mainly Lama guanicoe. The comparison between written and archaeological evidence allows us to begin to understand the specific use and value of the different anatomical units in hispano-creole foodways of the time.