Archaeol. Res. Asia | Valuing animal use in the agropastoral societies of the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages in north China

Recently, Associate Professor Shi Tao from the Center for Archaeological Sciences, Sichuan University published a research article titled "Valuing animal use in the agropastoral societies of the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages in north China" in the renowned international archaeological journal *Archaeological Research in Asia*. Based on a contextual analysis of animal remains from the Longshan to Erlitou periods in the northern Great Wall zone, the article explores the process of constructing value systems for major animal resources as reflected by different usage contexts during this era. Associate Professor Shi Tao from the Center for Archaeological Sciences and the School of Archaeology and Museology, Sichuan University, is the sole author of this paper.

At the beginning of the paper, the author proposes that the Longshan to Erlitou era was a significant period for changes in China's cultural and social landscapes. The rise of societies in the northern region during this period drastically altered the cultural pattern of the Chinese Neolithic Age. During this time, the introduction of cattle, sheep, and goats greatly influenced and changed the subsistence economic patterns of the populations in this region. These introduced herbivores, together with the traditional domesticated animal—the pig—constituted the animal husbandry system of the area. However, questions need to be raised: How did the populations in the northern region view these newly introduced animals during this period? In their ideology, how did the importance of these animals differ from that of pigs in terms of culture, society, and daily life?

The author introduces relevant theories of "value" to help answer these questions. First, the author reviews research on value theory. Discussions on value are abundant, with economics and anthropology being particularly significant. In economics, especially among classical economists like Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Marx, value is divided into use value and exchange value, considered to be derived primarily from labor and scarcity. However, the anthropologist's concept of value is mainly built upon Mauss's "Gift" theory, deriving forms such as social value and symbolic value. The plurality of value implies that value needs to be discussed in a multifaceted way, paying particular attention to the differences in value manifestation under different cultural backgrounds. In archaeology, besides different cultural backgrounds, attention must also be paid to the depositional context of artifacts, which may highlight different value constructions regarding the objects.

The author attempts to explore the value of animal remains in the northern Great Wall zone. First, the author summarizes the depositional contexts of animal remains in the northern region into three broad categories: subsistence context, mortuary context, and divination context. Among these, in the subsistence and divination contexts of most sites, the proportion of exotic species like cattle and sheep is generally high, highlighting their importance in the subsistence economy and divination. In the mortuary context, pigs occupy an absolute dominant position. These different preferences for animal use in different contexts may reveal distinct cognitions of animal value.

Subsequently, the author demonstrates the connections between different archaeological contexts and forms of value. Among them, the subsistence context likely reflects use value, while the divination context likely reflects symbolic value. Animal use in the mortuary context is particularly worth discussing. Currently, animal remains in burials in the northern Great Wall zone are mostly unearthed in positions within the tomb that are distant from the deceased (such as on the second-level ledge, at the foot end, or in niches). In mortuary theory, tomb spaces distant from the deceased may reflect the public ritual aspect of the funeral, manifesting the social nature of the rites. The interred animal bones might be feasting items in the funeral or gifts from mourners, reflecting a role in mediating social relations. Therefore, the author believes that pig bones in mortuary contexts predominantly reflect social value.

Why do these differences in value forms exist? The author suggests this may be caused by multiple factors such as environment and animal habits. Criteria for judging value are numerous; in archaeology, value is generally assessed through scarcity, difficulty of acquisition, and complexity of production. The diets of cattle and sheep are not competitive with humans; compared to pigs, cattle and sheep are more conducive to rearing. Therefore, in the northern region, raising cattle and sheep had advantages in the subsistence economy and was more favorable for expanding production. This led to the high use value of cattle and sheep. However, the dietary competition between pigs and humans indicates that humans needed to expend more resources (resources related to humans) to raise pigs, making production potentially more difficult than for cattle and sheep, especially in the northern region where resources and the environment were unstable. Additionally, the subsistence context indicates that pigs were actually scarcer animals in daily life, which may also be the reason for their higher social value. Regarding the higher symbolic value of cattle and sheep, the author believes this may be related to the nature of divination activities. It is generally believed that divination is the act of predicting the future based on supernatural or mystical methods, through which diviners and the public "seek certainty in an uncertain world" or obtain oracles for problems beyond human wisdom. Compared to agriculture, pastoralism is a highly uncertain mode of subsistence, with greater fluctuations in land and labor. Therefore, the author argues that using cattle and sheep as the primary animals for divination may represent the northern populations using animals from an unstable economic form as material carriers to seek certainty in real life. Of course, the use of cattle and sheep in divination does not necessarily mean it was directly used to predict the pastoral economy, but rather more likely served as a material metaphor.

This article was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China Youth Project (21CKG005).