World Archaeoprimatology: Interconnections of Humans and Nonhuman Primates in the Past

Bernardo Urbani · Dionisios Youlatos · Andrzej T. Antczak

Aug 2022 · Cambridge University Press

About this eBook

Archaeoprimatology intertwines archaeology and primatology to understand the ancient liminal relationships between humans and nonhuman primates. During the last decade, novel studies have boosted this discipline. This edited volume is the first compendium of archaeoprimatological studies ever produced. Written by a culturally diverse group of scholars, with multiple theoretical views and methodological perspectives, it includes new zooarchaeological examinations and material culture evaluations, as well as innovative uses of oral and written sources. Themes discussed comprise the survey of past primates as pets, symbolic mediators, prey, iconographic references, or living commodities. The book covers different regions of the world, from the Americas to Asia, along with studies from Africa and Europe. Temporally, the chapters explore the human-nonhuman primate interface from deep in time to more recent historical times, examining both extinct and extant primate taxa. This anthology of archaeoprimatological studies will be of interest to archaeologists, primatologists, anthropologists, art historians, paleontologists, conservationists, zoologists, historical ecologists, philologists, and ethnobiologists.

About the author

Bernardo Urbani is Associate Researcher at the Center for Anthropology of the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research, Caracas, Venezuela, and an elected member of the Global Young Academy. Recently, he was selected as a Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the Leibniz Institute for Primate Research/German Primate Center, Göttingen, Germany. He has received the Martha J. Galante Award of the International Society of Primatology and the Early Career Achievement Award of the American Society of Primatologists.

Dionisios Youlatos is Professor of Vertebrate Zoology in the School of Biology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He has done field and laboratory research on both extant and extinct primates and other mammals in South America, Europe, East Africa, and South East Asia. His research has been financially supported by both national and international funding. He is the author of more than a hundred articles and book chapters on the ecology, behavior, anatomy, and evolution of mammals.

Andrzej T. Antczak is Associate Professor in Caribbean Archaeology in the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, and Senior Researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV-KNAW) in Leiden, the Netherlands. He is co-curator at the Unit of Archaeological Studies, Simón Bolívar University, Caracas, Venezuela, and recently served as chair of the Department of World Archaeology at Leiden University.