HADZA BONE ASSEMBLAGES AND HYENA ATTRITION - AN ETHNOGRAPHIC EXAMPLE OF THE INFLUENCE OF COOKING AND MODE OF DISCARD ON THE INTENSITY OF SCAVENGER RAVAGING

Recent research has shown that spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) select ively scavenge bone assemblages produced by humans, in part, as a func tion of the amounts and types of nutrients associated with the bone. B ut the amounts and types of nutrients associated with bone in human-pr oduced assemblages depend on how the bone was originally processed and subsequently discarded. Modern human populations often expose bones t o heat and flames during food processing and trash disposal activities . The resulting bone assemblages contain very little nutritional resid ues and may be less attractive to scavengers with other options. This paper examines the influence of cooking and burning on subsequent scav enger behavior. Data derived from bone assemblages created by contempo rary East African Hadza hunter-gatherers suggest that hyena scavenging behavior is modified when bones are cooked or exposed to fire. These data show that bones that have been intensively exposed to heat or fla mes display low levels of hyena-induced surface damage. In some of the Hadza bone assemblages described here, low-density bones survive hyen a ravaging in higher frequencies than might be expected from prior exp erimental research. (C) 1995 Academic Press. Inc.