Dear Colleagues, 

We are delighted to report that the session "Food Provisioning in Complex Societies" has been accepted for inclusion in the scientific program of the 12th ICAZ Conference to be held in San Rafael (Mendoza) in September 2014. Although we have a series of papers already lined up for the session we would welcome additional contributions from Mesoamerica, South America, North America, South Asia, China and/or Egypt. If you are interested in participating please send an e-mail to Levent Atici at [log in to unmask]  AND Benjamin Arbuckle at [log in to unmask]

The abstract submission deadline is March 1, 2014. Please use the link below to see the session abstract:

http://www.icaz2014argentina.com/inicio/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18&catid=3&Itemid=7&lang=en

The objective of this session is to probe food provisioning systems in early and later complex societies and urban centers with a special emphasis placed on approaches integrating zooarchaeological and historical records. The vastness of our spatio-temporal coverage will most likely generate a wide range of issues with rich and diverse methodological and theoretical approaches. Although we appreciate and welcome the potential of an intellectual feast, we encourage contributions incorporating food production, distribution, consumption, and disposal patterns into an explanatory framework that integrates broader socio-political aspects of complex societies. Specific examples of research themes may include, but are not limited to, urban-rural dynamics; centralized vs decentralized, direct vs indirect, and/or public vs private food provisioning systems; food preservation, storage, and surplus management; imported vs local products; wild vs domestic resources; marine vs terrestrial resources; correlations between food and ethnic identity; and differential and stratified access to animal resources. This integrative approach is more likely to generate a cohesive and comparative framework and to facilitate dialogue among zooarchaeologists studying ancient food provisioning systems across time and space.

Sincerely,

Session Organizers:

Levent Atici
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Department of Anthropology
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
4505 S. Maryland Pkwy, Las Vegas, NV 89154-5003 U.S.A.
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and

Benjamin Arbuckle
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Department of Anthropology
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
207 E. Cameron Ave. Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3115 U.S.A.
[log in to unmask]