New Directions in Southwestern Zooarchaeology

Zooarchaeology has occupied a peculiar place within the archaeology of the American Southwest. While archaeologists with an interest in animal bone have worked here from the nineteenth century onward, and the presence of taxa such as macaws, domestic dogs, and domestic turkeys as well as taxa more commonly used in subsistence in southwestern zooarchaeological assemblages is of interest to archaeologists outside the Southwest as well as within it, the southwestern record has not figured prominently within the history of North American zooarchaeology. In the hopes of increasing the reach of southwestern zooarchaeology, this special issue presents three papers, each reflecting a potential new direction in southwestern zooarchaeology.