Charmantier I. 2011. — L'ornithologie entre Renaissance et Lumières: le Traitté general des oyseaux de Jean B. Faultrier (1660). Anthropozoologica 46.1: 7–25.

Ornithology between Renaissance and Enlightenment: Jean B. Faultrier's Traitté general des oyseaux (1660)

The Traitté general des oyseaux was written in 1660 by Jean B. Faultrier, who was a controller of Louis XIV's falconries in the royal hunting lodge. The 787-page, un-illustrated manuscript was dedicated to Louis XIVs superintendent of the finances, the all-powerful Nicolas Fouquet, just one year before the latter's fall and imprisonment. This article aims to uncover how Faultrier worked and his aim in writing such a manuscript, which is one of the only ornithology works of seventeenth-century France. Analysis of the text reveals that Faultrier used an impressive variety of sources, from the natural history treatises of Aldrovandi and Belon, to falconry treatises, Italian bird-keeping manuals, Thevet's travel literature, and husbandry books. Faultrier's work brought together many facets of ornithology, and placed natural history, hunting and bird-keeping on the same level. Although on a par with Jonston's De avibus (1650), Faultrier's Traitté was never printed. In its form, the treatise recalls the ornithological encyclopaedias of the Renaissance, while in its scope and aims it prefigures the ornithological works of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment.

Faure M., Guérin C. & da Luz F. 2011. Les parures des sépultures préhistoriques de l'abrisous-roche d'Enoque (Parc National Serra das Confusães, Piauí, Brésil). Anthropozoologica 46.1: 27–45.

Adornments in the prehistoric burials of the Enoque rock-shelter (Serra das Confusões National Park, Piauí, Brazil)

The Enoque rock-shelter, in the Serra das Confusões (South-Eastern Piauí), yielded a very well preserved complex of graves dating from between 7570 and 6660 years BP and concerning about seventeen peoples, mainly young children, whose corpses were buried upon a very large engraved stone.

The human remains are associated with an abundant and various funerary material, namely numerous adornments made of hard animal material. The most important are collars, made of perforated teeth (canines and incisors) of various Felids (Panthera onca, Felis concolor, Felis pardalis), and of about 600 canines of the small Canid Cerdocyon thous; there are numerous collars of vegetal beards. Another very important kind of adornments are pendants: 145 are made from the metatarsals of the small Cervid Mazama gouazoubira, and some other are made from radii of large birds, a plate of a turtle and shells of mollusks. Other remains are several samples of enigmatic pieces constituted of armadillo dermic bones incrusted on clay fragments, large Gastropods, frequently colored with ochre, of the genus Megalobulimus, and numerous large blocks of ochre. Some unworked animal remains are present, like mandibular fragments of the peccary Dicotyles tajacu, mandibles of the neotropical porcupine Coendu prehensilis, antlers and adult and juvenile metapodials of Mazama gouazoubira.

Such a rich, abundant and various funerary material and the fact that the same place was used at several times for multiple burials make the Toca do Enoque an exceptional site. This site was probably in the center of the social and spiritual life of that group of hunters-collectors who lived in the North-Eastern Brazil more than 6600 years ago.

Graff G. 2011. — Les enjeux de l'iconographie des vases peints de Nagada II (Égypte, IV^e millenaire) : maintien de l'équilibre cosmique ou régénération de la vie? Anthropozoologica 46.1 : 47–64.

The stakes in the painted vases of Naqada II iconography (Egypt, IV^th millenium): preservation of the cosmic balance or life's regeneration?

One of the characteristic productions of the Egyptian Naqada predynastic culture is the painted vases. Between 3700 and 3400 BC, they frequently display scenes in which a male character presents short, curve objects, simple or double, to three other iconographic elements: women with arms over the head, addax or banners. These short objects have traditionally been interpreted as sticks of power, but an attentive examination leads us to reconsider this hypothesis. It could be interpreted more likely as horns of addax or ibex. Silhouettes drawn by the women and the banners correspond moreover to forms of horns, and the presence of addax and ibex in these scenes strengthens this association. This interpretation would lead to a new reading of that type of iconography, more closely related to a regeneration of life topic than the preservation of the cosmic balance held by the political ruler, as the classical reading in terms of sticks of power used to suggest.

Le Quellec J.-L. 2011. — Provoking lactation by the insufflation technique as documented by the rock images of the Sahara. Anthropozoologica 46.1 : 65–125.

The Saharan rock art iconography shows that the first diffusion of cattle in Africa came with several milking techniques, which contradicts for this continent Sherratt's hypothesis which considered milking as a “secondary revolution” which would have allowed a better exploitation of animals in arid zones.

Méchin C. 2011. — Une espèce protégée qui dérange : le Hamster commun (Cricetus cricetus L.) en Alsace. Anthropozoologica 46.1 : 127–139.

A disturbing protected species: The common hamster in Alsace

The Common Hamster (Cricetus cricetus L.) is a rodent which is specific in France of the plains of Alsace. It has long been regarded as a pest which destroys harvests. In Alsace, its eradication has been promoted into the 1980s. However, the Bern Convention, ratified by France in 1990, has ranked it among protected species. The transition from a much hated animal to a protected one, was not always accepted by farmers who are the main actors involved in the protective measures implemented in the convention.

This article focuses on the role played by the different actors in this conflict (local, national and international administrations, the associations for nature's conservation, the farmers, etc.) and it deals with the choices which are made according to the political, economic and societal trends of the moment.