Reading spoor: Epistemic aspects of indigenous knowledge and its implications for the archaeology of prehistoric human traces

Lenssen-Erz T, Pastoors A (2021)

Publication Type: Book chapter / Article in edited volumes

Publication year: 2021

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Edited Volumes: Reading Prehistoric Human Tracks

ISBN: 9783030604066

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-60406-6_6

Abstract

The spoor of animals and humans alike contain rich information about an individual and about a momentary activity this individual performed. If the-arguably hard-wired-human ability to read spoor and tracks is sufficiently trained, a footprint allows to glean from it various physical, kinetic, medical, social and psychologic data about an individual, as has been observed among various populations across the globe. The Ju|'hoansi San from northern Namibia still today practice traditional hunting so that tracking is a skill that is required and trained on a daily base. For a good tracker, the information she or he gets from spoor is equally rich on animal and human footprints, and it is not necessary that the tracker has been exposed before to the individual whose spoor she/he reads. In order to allow an assessment of how tenable are the interpretations by contemporary hunter-gatherers of prehistoric human footprints, this chapter elucidates methodological aspects of tracking and situates this ability in an epistemological framework.

Authors with CRIS profile

Andreas Pastoors Lehrstuhl für Ur- und Frühgeschichte

Involved external institutions

Universität zu Köln DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Lenssen-Erz, T., & Pastoors, A. (2021). Reading spoor: Epistemic aspects of indigenous knowledge and its implications for the archaeology of prehistoric human traces. In Andreas Pastoors, Tilman Lenssen-Erz (Eds.), Reading Prehistoric Human Tracks. Springer International Publishing.

MLA:

Lenssen-Erz, Tilman, and Andreas Pastoors. "Reading spoor: Epistemic aspects of indigenous knowledge and its implications for the archaeology of prehistoric human traces." Reading Prehistoric Human Tracks. Ed. Andreas Pastoors, Tilman Lenssen-Erz, Springer International Publishing, 2021.

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