Dear Colleagues,

Apologies for any cross-listings. This is a call for participants to take part 
in a session on island faunal translocations at the 2010 International Council 
for Archaeozoology meeting in Paris, France. We are hoping to draw a diversity 
of participants and expand the range of topics typically addressed with this 
dataset. We invite you and any of your colleagues to contribute by submitting 
an abstract no later than April 25th, 2009.

Additionally, we would appreciate it if you could help us to publicize the 
session by forwarding the announcement below to anyone whom you think might be 
interested. A flier is attached. Many thanks and hope to see you there.

Best,

Christina Giovas and
Jacqui Mulville


CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS

11th International ICAZ Conference
Paris, France
August 23-28, 2010

Island Faunal Translocations

Session Abstract

Archaeozoological evidence for the human transport of non-native animals to and 
from islands extends to at least 20,000 BP. During the Holocene, with the 
colonization of new island regions and the development of animal husbandry, 
this phenomenon becomes increasingly recurrent and widespread. Prehistoric 
faunal translocations to islands provide a record of human agency, ecological 
impacts, morphometrical and genetic changes, social and economic priorities, 
population movement, cultural ingenuity, human folly and more. This session 
will explore the many aspects of island faunal translocations, from specific 
cases and their significance to the archaeozoological methods and models used 
for interpreting them.

We invite participants to make contributions on the suggested topics below or 
on others they may be interested in exploring. In particular, we welcome papers 
examining the socio-political or symbolic roles of introduced species and the 
archaeological means for identifying these. The session aims to bring together 
researchers with interests in these topics to promote collaboration and the 
exchange of ideas. A central objective is to explore how the study of 
introduced animals can lead to new insight into prehistoric and historic 
societies and to discover novel ways of utilizing this unique dataset to 
promote archaeological goals.

●Problems in detecting or confirming human introduction of animals to islands

●Standards or minimum criteria for establishing translocation

●Ecological impact of faunal introductions on biodiversity, habitat, etc.

●Comparisons between mainland and island populations in behaviour, biology, 
ecology (e.g., the evidence for island dwarfism)

●Ecological versus (zoo)archaeological perspectives in the definition and 
significance of faunal introductions

●Translocation of wild/feral versus domestic/managed species

●Use of species introductions to trace human colonisation and island 
interaction

●Determining intentional versus accidental translocation

●Faunal introductions by food producers as compared to those of 
hunter-gatherers

●Economic role of translocated species (e.g., diet, industrial materials)

●Social or religious role of translocated species (e.g., symbolic 
representation, status marker, etc.)

●Historical review or survey of animal translocations to islands (e.g., 
earliest examples, etc.)

●The long term viability of animals introduced to islands (examples of 
extinctions, populations turned feral, etc.)

●Biomolecular studies of translocated species


INSTRUCTIONS FOR CONTRIBUTORS

Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words with full name, 
affiliation, and mailing and email address to one of the following session 
organizers by April 25th, 2009.

Christina Giovas
University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
email: [log in to unmask] 

Jacqui Mulville
Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
email: [log in to unmask] 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ja
cqui Mulville (PhD)
Zooarch Listowner,
Senior Lecturer in Bioarchaeology,
School of History and Archaeology
Cardiff University
Humanities Building
Colum Drive
Cardiff
CF10 3EU
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/hisar/people/archaeology/jm1/

Tel: + 44 (0) 29 2087 4247
Fax: + 44 (0) 29 2087 4929