As I recall, Perkins and Daly introduced the idea that people may have
left metapodials in hides, using the metapodials as handles and the
skin as a bag to drag the meat back to their base camp – hence the
term they coined, the “schlepp effect” (Perkins, D. and P. Daly,
1968. A hunters’ village in Neolithic Turkey. Scientific American 219,
96–106). However, I believe this conclusion was based solely on an
interpretation of cattle bones at an archaeological site, where
metapodials were common and axial bones (and upper limb bones?) rare,
rather than on ethnographic or historical evidence. Since then, many
zooarchaeologists invoke the schlepp effect to explain any differential
representation of body parts at prehistoric sites, rather than the
specific pattern Perkins and Daly described. And, of course, these
patterns are often the result of taphonomic destruction, rather than
transport decisions.
Cregg
>>> Lena Strid <[log in to unmask]> 07/08/04 05:50AM >>>
Well, the phalanges seem reasonable to leave in the hide. I'm more
trying to
hunt down the source for leaving the metapodials in the hide, in order
to
facilitate transporting of the hide.
/Lena
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