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Hello, my co-organizer Susan DeFrance and I are looking for zooarchaeologists interested in presenting papers at the upcoming (August 2006) ICAZ conference in Mexico City, in the session we are chairing, "Animals and Complexity: What Can Archaeozoologists Contribute to the Study of Complex Society in the New and Old Worlds." We are especially interested in papers on assemblages from pre-middle ages sites in Europe, Asia and Africa, and wish to focus on topics having to do with Asian and African states, and European chiefdoms. If interested, please contact me with a proposed topic. Titles and abstracts will be due in the fall. The session abstract follows: Animals, both wild and domestic, have been used for a variety of purposes in complex societies (chiefdoms and states) -- for food, work, ritual, and a variety of secondary products such as wool, fiber, milk, and fuel. Beyond these proximate uses, the social differentiations within complex societies tend to filter down to the use of animals. Therefore, distinctions inherent in complex political systems are often visible in the remains of both past meals and animal refuse in general. In complex societies food is often differentiated along lines of ethnicity, religion, status, and the provisioning of urban locales with animal foodstuffs and products. Beyond a general overview of the contributions zooarchaeology is making to this realm of investigation, we hope in this session to demonstrate similarities and differences in New World and Old World approaches to the use of animals by complex societies. Through comparisons of method, theory, and application among diverse complex cultures in different geographic regions of the world we seekto establish dialog between researchers working on similar themes. The session will concentrate on archaeological periods covering the first emergences of complex societies and continue on to include more recent states and other forms of politically complex cultures. TOPICS: Animals that are good to think - Ritual animals Secondary products in complex societies Animals of transport and movement in complex cultures Trade and status animals importations of exotics Status differentiation who eats prime? Is it portion or the type of animal Feasting and Feting food for the masses, controlled consumption Mortuary Animals symbols for the deceased Contextual information elite vs. commoner contexts Ethnic differences within complex cultures Animal processing Urban provisioning Wild and domestic animal use