Different ethnic groups in Botswana not only have different ways of butchering cattle, but the different cuts of meat are distributed in a particular way too. This study shows that the distribution of cattle bones in a settlement may yield clues about the gender and social rank of the consumers. Of course, in an archaeological site with several superimposed butchery episodes, such patterns become smeared. Nor do all ethnic groups have the same, clearly defined rules of meat distribution. But nonetheless, the findings of this ethnoarchaeological study point to a new and potentially rewarding way of looking at cattle bone distributions on archaeological sites.
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