Wendy Teeter

• PhD, RPA
• Curator of Archaeology at University of California, Los Angeles

People have influenced Earth’s biodiversity for millennia, including numerous introductions of domestic and wild species to islands. Here, we explore the origins and ecology of the Santa Catalina Island ground squirrel (SCIGS; Otospermophilus beecheyi nesioticus), one of only five endemic terrestrial mammals found on California’s Santa Catalina Isl...

Understanding how human activities have influenced the foraging ecology of wildlife is important as our planet faces ongoing and impending habitat and climatic change. We review the canine surrogacy approach (CSA)—a tool for comparing human, dog, and other canid diets in the past—and apply CSA to investigate possible ancient human resource provisio...

Over the past few decades, research on geochemical characterization of obsidian archaeological artifacts and geological samples from the greater American Southwest has been extensive, primarily for provenience purposes (Eerkens et al 2008, Eerkens et al 2007, Eerkens and Rosenthal 2004, Ericson et al 2004, Ambroz et al 2004). Using different techni...

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) claims process can be frustrating for Native American communities due to hindrances such as the lack of provenience and provenance of collections. Through historic research on and preliminary analysis of Santa Catalina Island archaeological collections assembled by Ralph Glidden an...

Analyses of the faunal remains from Cerro Portezuelo indicate that the site's pre-Hispanic residents made use of both wild and domesticated animals commonly found near lakeshores and agricultural fields. Most of the faunal assemblage examined comes from a Postclassic period residential structure, providing information regarding the animal species u...

IntroductionImportance of CurationWhat Is Movable Cultural Material?Law and PolicyRepositories and CurationConsiderations of Objects' CareCuration CostsOrphaned CollectionsDeaccessioningIntellectual Property and Final ReportsEducation and Exhibiting CultureConclusions References

Textiles formed a major part of any ancient Mesoamerican economy. Based on ethnohistory and iconography, the Maya were great producers of cloth for both internal and external use. However, the archaeological identification of textile production is difficult in any tropical area because of issues of preservation. This paper examines the evidence for...

Faunal analysis can give clues to the quality of life for the elite and the general pop- ulation. Many studies have discussed how a general Maya diet was affected by population pres- sure, but few have looked directly at the archaeological dietary remains. This paper looks at the adaptive responses to the increasing requirements for animal resource...

This article presents a non-zooarchaeological viewpoint, as a response to many of the themes presented in this special journal issue and based on discussions that occurred during the 2003 Society for American Archaeology Forum, Zooarchaeology in the Humid American Tropics: Making the Most of the Data. Our experience in the Maya region shows many ar...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 2001. Vita. Bibliography leaves 428-452. The Maya and animals: an introduction -- Resource mobilization & social organization -- Zooarchaeology, Mesoamerica, and Caracol -- Methodology in faunal analysis -- Fish -- Amphibians -- Reptiles -- Birds -- Mammal: subsistence use -- Mammal: ceremonia...

In the debate about indigenous cultural property, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of the United States has de-veloped and implemented an unorthodox concept of "cultural affiliation." The act entitles Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations to claim repatriation of their cultural property—comprising human...