Human-Animal Interactions in the Pre-colonial Americas: Insights from Stable Carbon Isotope Analysis

Abstract

The study of human-animal relationships provides insight and context to better understand the motivations behind past human behavior. Stable carbon isotope analysis serves as a tool to explore such relationships, particularly in the pre-colonial Americas where many domesticated crops utilize the C4 photosynthetic pathway and display divergent stable carbon isotope values relative to wild C3 plants. By studying biological tissues of animals and humans, the amount of C4 foods in the diet may be used as a natural tracer and questions involving human-animal interactions may be addressed. This chapter (1) provides an in-depth overview of carbon stable isotope analysis and discusses both its merits and limitations in relation to the study of human-animal interactions in the pre-colonial Americas; (2) presents case studies from North and South America illustrating how carbon stable isotope analysis has increased our understanding of the nature of the relationship humans shared with both domesticated and non-domesticated animals; and (3) provides suggestions for future research.