Program > By speaker > David Éva

One of the most accomplished anthropological research on symbolism based on the relationship between human societies and subsistence (Hell, 2012) indicates the high cultural value of the use of wild animal. Regardless the chronological frame in Europe, going back to the 1rst century BC (Méniel 1988), wild game represents only a tiny part of our meat diet despite all attempts at economic profit that have recently been achieved to consume it more (from the breeding of deer or bison, for instance, etc.). Thus, culture is more important than food : some animal species reach a specific meaning for Humans when others that are also consumed never bear any particular status, remaining "just" as food. This dichotomy, it seems, is already shaped in the practices of certain communities of the Later Mesolithic (6e millennium BC – Schulting 2005), notably in the Teviecian culture (Marchand 2005). There, whereas the subsistence is mainly turned towards coastal animal resource for protein diet (Bailey et al. 2013, Dupont et al. 2009), only the game from the inland participate to social representation. In the use of bone material from the Téviec and Hoëdic sites (Brittany), it will be argue for an archetypal symbolism through the need to gain from a specific (psycho-pump) animal species -the red deer-, used to ensure a secure afterlife.

Bailey G.N., Hardy K., Camara A. (Eds) (2013) - Shell Energy Mollusc Shells and Coastal Resources. Oxbow, Oxford.

Dupont C., Tresset A., Desse-Berset N., Gruet Y., Marchand G., Schulting R. (2009) – Harvesting the seashores in the Late Mesolithic of north-western Europe. A view from Brittany? Journal of World Prehistory, 22, 2, p. 93-111.

Hell, B. 2012. Sang noir : Chasse, forêt et mythe de l'Homme sauvage en Europe. Paris, Éditions OΙ l'œil d'or (essais & entretiens).

Marchand, G. 2005. Le Mésolithique final en Bretagne : une combinaison des faits archéologiques. In, G. Marchand & A. Tresset (eds.), Unité et diversité des processus de néolithisation sur la façade atlantique de l'Europe (6e-4e millénaires av. J.-C.). Table ronde de Nantes, 26-27 avril 2002. Paris, Société préhistorique française (Mémoire 36), 67-86.

Méniel, P. 1988. L'animal dans l'alimentation humaine, les critères de choix. Anthropozoologica, numéro spécial.

Schulting, R.J. 2005. Comme la mer qui se retire : les changements dans l'exploitation des ressources marines du Mésolithique au Néolithique en Bretagne. In, G. Marchand & A. Tresset (eds.), Unité et diversité des processus de néolithisation sur la façade atlantique de l'Europe (6e-4e millénaires av. J.-C.). Table ronde de Nantes, 26-27 avril 2002. Paris, Société préhistorique française (Mémoire 36), 163-171.