I've come across it in preparation of shellfish, especially crab. While the European way is to cook the crab, then separate the flesh from the shell, in some Southeast Asian countries, the whole thing is hacked into bits with a cleaver, either before or after cooking.
In terms of archaeological evidence of violence against animals, there is some supporting evidence for Hittite texts concerning the ritualised hacking-in-two or other mutilation of dogs and puppies, but none that I know of for ungulates.
Rachel
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From: Analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Adrienne Powell [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 13 April 2011 18:19
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] hacked animals
I've seen it in modern Albania in village contexts: spit roast lamb and goat chopped up into relatively uniformly sized servings with little regard for joints, or meat to bone proportions in the resulting chunks, too bad if you got a piece of spine rather than thigh!
Adrienne
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