Importance of natural sciences collections for biocultural research. A view from the Global South

MARIANA MONDINI; FLORENCIA AGLIANO; MARÍA FLORENCIA ARIAS; CAROLINA MOREANO; MÓNICA V. PIA; DAIANA COLL; CAMILA NEVEU COLLADO

Oxford

Conferencia; Trials and Triumphs: sharing practice across the museum sector. Annual Conference of the Natural Sciences Collections Association; 2024

Oxford University Museum of Natural History y Natural Sciences Collections Association

The Laboratory of Zooarchaeology and Taphonomy of Arid Areas (LaZTA, IDACOR), belonging both to the National Research Council for Scientific and Technical (CONICET) and the National University of Córdoba (UNC), is part of the public academic system in Argentina. It is oriented to support research in human-animal interactions and in the formation of the archaeological (and fossil generally) record. To that aim, it has built a reference collection of modern animal materials, consisting mainly of bones but also of other faunal materials –like hair and faeces– and animal traces –like bite and digestion marks–. All of these materials and traces have the potential –although variable– of preserving in the fossil record and are thus necessary in the reference collection, as they provide important, complementary information on the past. At the crossroads between social and natural sciences and intersected by historical sciences, archaeology is key to unravelling past human-environmental interactions, including the long-term roots of the Anthropocene. And natural science collections play a key role in those investigations on the past. Also, they are a significant reservoir of regional biodiversity, which is part of our biotic heritage, and is key to preserve in the face of its future loss. Both modern and archaeological biotic collections are also part of our biocultural heritage, as they inform of past and present human-environmental interactions. For these reasons, it is crucial to preserve these collections, and to do it in the countries where they are generated, which is often more difficult in the lower-rate countries. Some examples from the LaZTA will be shown to illustrate these ideas.