Humans and Animals in the Early Middle Ages: Traumas, Transformations and Taboos

Abstract

The period from the fifth to the eighth centuries in Europe was a time of profound crisis: political, military and environmental trauma; a transformation of the socio-cultural environment; and new religions, religious practices and taboos. In this context, the nexus between humans and animals changed in several distinct ways. The development of the new discipline of zooarchaeology over the past two decades offers new possibilities for investigating these changes. The trauma of environmental change and migrations of new groups into the former Roman Empire significantly impacted practices of animal husbandry. The migrations of these new populations from central Asia, eastern and central Europe and Arabia brought with them transformations in the socio-political symbolism and mythology associated with different animals, particularly the horse. The growth of the religion of Christianity and the spread of Christian monasteries in Europe introduced new dietary taboos associated with religious practice. Different taboos operated within the religious and ethnocultural traditions of Jewish communities in Europe, and the conquest of parts of Europe by the Islamic Empire also brought religious and ethnocultural taboos. The early Middle Ages were a time of change in the human-animal nexus in which migration, identity, religion, and ethnocultural heritage all played a central part