Butchery as craft and social practice

Butchery is an expression of technological knowledge and culture embedded in action; it has defined our relationship with animals through time. Uniquely, this project is based on seven years of vocational experience gained by Seetah as a professional butcher in London. Early research on this project concentrated on archaeological materials from prehistoric to medieval period sites in Europe. By subsequently combining ethnographic research with Maasai in Kenya, new ethnographic insights led to a more holistic understanding of the topic.

Butchery serves as the mechanism by which human agents manipulate and transform animal flesh into meat. This project combines the scientific assessment of cut marks with a broader review of how butchery influences and is influenced by human society: a marriage of scientific and social archaeologies. Thus, for this research, ‘butchery’ is conceptualized as a distinct subject grounded in technological and social developments that reflect human culture, drawing on theory that observes human-animal relationships as socially constructed and interdependent. The transformation of ‘flesh’ to ‘meat’ serves as a constructive means to probe human, animal, environmental, social, and economic relationships. These levels of interrelationship capture why butchery is of importance to discourse on food, production, cognition, and activity, serving as a lens on urbanization, transitions in technology, and the social role of ‘makers’. The research ultimately aims to harness this view of butchery and connect it to modern concerns. An archaeological narrative is critical for explaining our dependence on patterns of meat consumption that are damaging both human and environmental health.