Subsistence and Ritual: Animal Economy in the Bronze Age Qaidam Basin in Northwestern China

Subsistence and Ritual: Animal Economy in the Bronze Age Qaidam Basin in Northwestern China 

Thesis Defense

by Chengrui Zhang 

(Graduate Student, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University)

Understanding the diversity and complexity of human-animal interactions is essential for examining human adaptation to specific ecological conditions and for exploring various developments in ancient societies. In the latter half of the second millennium BC, the establishment of the Shang Dynasty in northern China marked the start of a period characterized by economic, cultural, and political innovations. While previous zooarchaeological research has provided significant insights into the crucial roles animals played in Shang society, less is known about contemporaneous communities outside the Shang territories. This research investigates the exploitation of animal resources in Bronze Age northwestern China during the latter half of the second millennium BC, with a focus on the Nuomuhong Culture, located in the high-altitude Qaidam Basin of the northeastern Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. The ongoing archaeological fieldwork at the large site of Xiaeryamakebu in present-day central Qinghai Province, have yielded a substantial amount of animal remains from both burial and non-burial contexts. By analyzing this extensive collection, this research characterizes the subsistence use of animal resources and highlights a ritualized set of mortuary practices in Nuomuhong society that differ from those observed in other contemporaneous societies. The large corpus of zooarchaeological data from Nuomuhong society can serve as a resource for cross-cultural and cross-regional comparative research on the human-animal interactions in Bronze Age China. It also allows for a better understanding of the anthropological discourse on the interconnections between subsistence economy and ritual practice in ancient societies.