Terry and Naomi have both made valid points regarding zooarchaeological navel gazing,
I do however think that the recent crop of zooarchaelogy papers/session at themed conferences that I have attended do in fact point to an increasing intergration and maturity of the discipline - I think zooarchaeology is central to many agendas in prehistory/vikings at least (or maybe that is just at the conferences I have recently attended).
I am however aware of the need to deliver accessible papers - 'zooarchaeology-lite' - at these venues and I would prefer a forum that would compliment - AND NOT REPLACE - these events. Many phd students are not ready to present at this type of conference until later in their work. I would like to see more encouragement of students/researches to tell us about the questions they are addressing, the techniques they are using and the initial stages of their research as well as their polished results. Thus they can benefit from the input of others outside their immediate environment and addresss more experimental/methodological concerns.
I would hope that with greater encouragement/feedback/intergration and support zooarchaeologists can become even more embedded and relevant to the wider debate.
Jacqui
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