Transitions to animal domestication in Southeast Asia: Zooarchaeological analysis of Cồn Cổ Ngựa and Mán Bạc, Vietnam

Abstract

The domestication of plants and animals was a pivotal process that significantly affected and shaped the trajectory of human history. However, this transition is still poorly understood in many parts of the world. For Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA), most researchers believe this transition was initialised by a migration of agricultural groups that spread from the Yangtze into MSEA following rivers and the coastline (Bellwood and Oxenham 2008; Matsumura et al. 2008; 2011). This hypothesis posits that these migrant populations brought domesticated crops and animals into the region and lived alongside indigenous hunter-gatherer groups. This thesis analyses the transition from hunting and gathering to domestication by comparing the taphonomic and taxonomic characteristics of the faunal assemblages of Cồn Cổ Ngựa (CCN) and Mán Bạc (MB) in northern Vietnam. Both sites were selected as they sit on either side of the presumed hunter-gatherer (CCN) and agricultural (MB) subsistence transition in Vietnam and have the potential to show crucial societal changes. Since CCN and MB are burial sites, human-animal interactions at the sites have the potential to portray the belief systems and ontology of the people. The ultimate aim was to contextualise CCN and MB within the framework of subsistence change in Southeast Asia (SEA) and determine how and whether human behaviour and human-animal relationships developed during this purported transitional phase in the Mid Holocene. A clear and perceivable shift in the faunal composition between CCN and MB was found, and this transition can be confidently attributed to the introduction of domesticated animals around 4,000 cal. BP to northern Vietnam. Further, results from the principal component analysis of sites throughout SEA showed that the relative proportions of certain taxa can be useful in separating hunter-gatherer and agricultural based sites across the region, as well as revealing outliers based on localised environments and/or choice. It was emphasised that this transition from ‘hunting to farming’ was by no means clear-cut. MB still had a strong emphasis on hunting wild taxa and fishing, and these permeable cultural-economic boundaries are also perceivable in other SEA sites. However, this thesis suggests that domestic and wild animals probably imbued different meanings and significance. Further, both CCN and MB were not ‘simply middens’ reflecting what people ate, rather they pose intriguing insights into human-animal interactions. At both sites there is a perceivable change in the engagement with animals and the landscape that, this thesis argues, involved a reconceptualising of this relationship.