The Role of Proboscideans in Late Pleistocene Food Systems of North America

From sites located across North America we know that proboscideans (mammoth, mastodons, and their kin) were butchered and used by Pleistocene foragers, but what role did these animals play in the food systems of these communities? The identification and excavation of a domestic camp associated with butchered mammoth remains at the La Prele Mammoth site (Wyoming) allows us to reach past typical questions focusing on subsistence and technology into larger inquiries about Pleistocene foragers including understanding social organization, cooperation, and group mobility. New research incorporating these questions at additional Ice Age sites can help us to better understand how people used proboscideans as a food resource, their importance in past lifeways, and what changed when they went extinct. This presentation will discuss how we can reach beyond butchery in the Pleistocene to better understand the relationship between foragers and their environment.