How the arrival of cattle transformed life
and society in the Americas
In
this book, Nicolas Delsol compares zooarchaeological and material evidence from
sites across Mesoamerica and the Caribbean to show how the introduction of
cattle, beginning with imports by Spanish colonizers in the 1500s, shaped
colonial American society.
Before
European colonization, cows were vital in European and African societies but
were unknown to the Native communities of the Western Hemisphere. This book traces
their impact in the Americas by using a broad range of methods, such as ancient
DNA analyses on faunal collections from major postcolumbian sites. Delsol describes
the place of cattle in the colonial culture and landscape, beginning with the
transportation of cattle across the Atlantic and moving to herding practices in
new habitats, butchery techniques, and the production, trading, and use of cow
byproducts.
Cattle in the
Postcolumbian Americas
is the first large-scale regional archaeological
study of the introduction of a European domesticated species to the Americas. Using
both zooarchaeological and historical data, Delsol argues that the arrival of
cattle was a major consequence of European colonization with effects that have often
been overlooked.