International conference: Deer and People – Past, Present and Future
University of Lincoln, 8-11 September 2011 

To submit a paper proposal for the following session please download a form and submit via the website, sending an additional copy to [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask] by the 30th of April:

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/archaeology/research/conferences/deer-people.aspx 

Thinking about deer: Beliefs, concepts and worldviews 

REYNOLDS Ffion1 , MULVILLE Jaqcui2

1 School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University, UK, [log in to unmask] 
2 School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University, UK, [log in to unmask] 

This session focuses on how humans articulate their beliefs, concepts and worldviews through the diverse and often complex relationships they may develop with the deer species. Papers will discuss how deer are used to express concepts, how deer materialise beliefs, the role of the deer within ritual and the interplay between qualities such as image, material and performance. We invite papers that, drawing on these multi-disciplinary challenges, seek to develop integrated and theoretically informed approaches that deal with the social, ritual and spiritual aspects of the human:deer relationship. These may relate to the dynamic relationship between deer-environment-humans in anthropological, art historic, archaeological and cultural heritage studies or build on recent theoretical developments in animal biography, animism, shamanism, non-human agency and cultural ecology. 

The purpose of this session is to consider these issues, in both past and present contexts, and to establish whether analogous interpretative frameworks are used between those working with prehistoric, historical or modern societies, and between those working in different geographical contexts. How easy is it to identify social, ritual or spiritual aspects of deer in the archaeological record? How much similarity is there across different societies in the treatment of deer that have been made special or are considered taboo? Can concepts such as animism, totemism or shamanism help or hinder our search for spiritual and ritual human:deer association? How has the deer species been depicted in art? How has deer exploitation and use changed through time and can we tell if deer were being socially and ritually used for specific purposes? What insights can be gained about the religious paradigms and social systems of societies which have developed intricate and deep relationships with deer? Have such beliefs and concepts persisted into the 21st century, and what kinds of relationships do ‘real’ modern day groups have with deer? This session hopes to move interpretation beyond gross functionalist explanations that ultimately divorce human interaction with deer use and provide a base for working from wider social, symbolic, cognitive, religious and phenomenological contexts. 


Please could you circulate this call widely!

Thank you very much

Best, Ffion Reynolds

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