00:00.00 ALEX And we are back with archaeo animals the podcastcast all about zoaraeology and we are talking about the zoaraeology of Asia today as part of our wear in the world miniseries and now we'll be looking at the domesticated species from this region. That and it definitely won't be just several different species of cattle at all. 00:25.69 S_ Granarius Well so so much slightly like furrier than others. 01:00.66 ALEX Yeah, but yeah, okay I'll be honest, folks. It's um, we did talk about this in a previous episode I think but domesticate species. Kind of similar throughout the world and obviously we do get different species but unsurprisingly we all have very similar needs and so very similar types of species were domesticated. So yeah. 01:36.13 S_ Granarius Yeah, so I guess we tried to go for domesticated species that are not quite what we'd find sort of across the board. So like you're moving aside from our chickens and our sheep and and so forth. 02:33.14 ALEX Although we obviously do cover those in various different species and I think that's been one of the kind of interesting things about this mini-series is seeing how you know even though we have every place kind of seems to have their own cattle their own sheep their own chicken. Really something adjacent to that. There are slight differences that are very you know, regional specific culturally specific so constants and variables I Guess which is interesting. That being said, oh. 03:07.85 S_ Granarius Yeah, like because like one I guess that's a no, not capital that and a find quite. They're quite interesting like 1 not quite species but various breeds of a given species are sort of all the sort of imperial chinese chicken breeds. 03:54.54 ALEX Yeah. 04:06.18 ALEX A. 03:45.90 S_ Granarius A mainly mother kept throughout the world now but mainly sort of us Orna chickens because but laying eggs that really not good. Um, but there's some um, some beautiful ah breeds of birds. 04:35.20 ALEX Yes, definitely and we love our our duck in China could have done duck to talk about that sentry egg which is still very gross to me apologies to my chinese family members. And don't get it anyway, we won't be talking about ducks or birds at all. Sorry did you have something to say yeah very much not birds really. 04:49.73 S_ Granarius Cut What just where we're talking about big unulates instead. 05:41.82 ALEX So we will start with the water buffalo. 05:21.71 S_ Granarius Bu balus BuBais which you think a very cute scientific name boalus boo bales. 05:58.78 ALEX That's oh it's so cute I love that name so much so urgently from South and Southeast Asia they are actually found throughout Europe which I actually didn't know and like many of these species. There are. Different types. So there are 2 distinct types of water Buffalo so there's the river buffalo which is found mainly in India and the swamp buffalo which is found in Southeast and Eastern Asia 06:30.50 S_ Granarius Yeah, like about the water buffalo being found in Europe said normally when you do find sort of Buffalo meat. It does tend to be water buffalo. 07:14.30 ALEX Ah, oh I would know that interesting Huh Wonder why. 07:05.83 S_ Granarius No easy to keep I don't know. 07:37.44 ALEX Yeah I mean so the modern day Water Buffalo is domesticated there is unsurprisingly again another theme in these episodes. There's some debate as to where the water buffalo was actually domesticated. And it's originally been assumed that it was domesticated in China but more recent or at least within the past Decade there's been genetic research that has suggested otherwise and None of the things about this we you know we were talking about how. There's only so many species that can get domesticated but None of the things you we'll find in this episode with kind of all the different cattle. We'll be talking about is that China not China Asia would end to me I was China as well being. As big as of a continent it is. It's very vast and varied when it comes to the types of environments that you deal with so a lot of these domesticated cattle are domesticated because of the very specific adaptations and characteristics that make it useful for the certain. Area they're in so with water buffalo per se they're suited to working in pady fields because of the wet and muddy environment and this's also used as a pack animal so that is exactly why you'd want a water buffalo and not necessarily say your your everyday. Ah, boss towers and yeah, it's so if you if you think or you look at images of say we're rural china ah these are the kind of domestics. You'll find in pattiess and it's also. As well as being used as a pack animal and as a beast burden is also used for dairying for meat which known as carib beef and their horns which they do have very distinctive horns. They're used in traditional instruments such as the caval. Of the Balkans and Anatolia and the ney of the Middle East 11:39.81 S_ Granarius Mean next is a another favorite as far as scientific names. Go um, there's the domestic yak bobs grunions just literally the grunting ox ah or the hairy cattle for. Obvious reasons if you if you look up a photo. Um the yak is found primarily in the himalayas and Northeast Asia and um, the domesticated speech that we have now descends from the wild yak obviously boss mutus which again sort of makes me chortle because. Boss mous. It makes me like mous think of mute like the mute arcs as opposed to the and when but it got domesticated and it started grunting I mean know what if I'm just like. 13:23.12 ALEX Mutus I here. Because it's doing all that work. 13:22.39 S_ Granarius Wild just like running free and then like oh know like it'll be a beast of burden work here like just grunting all the time um isn a yaca useful as pack animals. Um, and they provide ah meat as well as secondary products in the form of wool and dairy. Um the butter ma from their milk is. Arguably quite famous. Ah famously part of tibetan tea for parts of the himalayas without trees. Their dung is also quite vital. Ah as a fuel resource. Um the importance of the animals who are in general to the inhabitants of Tibet can be seen in material culture as well. So with iconography. Again, another one of the running themes. Um found in sculpture and pottery as well as remains left in context of note. 15:19.76 ALEX Yeah, the thing about using the dung as fuel. It's That's one other thing that I just generally never really thought about which is oh, there's a lack of trees in the himalayas huh like yeah, the. 15:19.90 S_ Granarius Best use something else If only there were a big ox that's grunting all the time. 15:56.46 ALEX As Well as I felt like I had to put a note to mention the Tibetan T because when I was a kid and was really getting interested in you know world cultures and anthropology and things like that I remember reading About. Tibetan Tea which is basically just tea and they would put yak butter in it and I was so obsessed with that concept and I'm still am and I'm very curious I would love to have it one day because it's just it's fascinating to me like I want to know what that tastes like. 16:39.95 S_ Granarius Ah, just should look at it yakso with the little saddles or they look so cute. 17:19.70 ALEX They're so cute. They are so adorable. But yeah, they're also just they're extremely important to the inhabitants of Tibet and is just so seen and so much of the iconography there and they're they're very cute. So why not? Why wouldn't you put it there. I mean come on I get it and again they're also just so important because of let's be real. It's extremely cold up there and so having such a resource for thick wool as well as. Very calorie heavy dairy that could be used to keep you fueled and warm up there again. It's that kind of example of a species domesticated for very specific reasons and I guess we'll go to our next. Cattle going away from the himalayas and a bit down further to the Bali cattle so it is a domesticated descendant of the wild band tang. Thank you? which. 18:50.37 S_ Granarius Bos Javanicus domesticus. 19:01.10 S_ Granarius The Bos jabaticus. 19:39.40 ALEX Potentially from a domestication event from about none so the Bali cattle are found in Southeast Asia and like the other domesticated ba wines. We've come to talked about this episode. They are actually used mostly for plowing rice patties as well as for their meat and. And addition, they're known for being particularly resistant to most diseases and have very high fertilityity rates so they are very hardy domestic animal to have around and you can understand why people domesticate these these animals and I believe they do. Sometimes cross-breed them with other bovine but for the most part I believe the ballycoddle or just just doing their thing being themselves being hardy hardy animals shout shout out to hardy animals everywhere. 20:46.17 S_ Granarius The very hardy animal go and route Google. 21:01.55 S_ Granarius Me Hashtag Hardy animal. 21:28.10 ALEX Around the world Hashtag card animals. How hashtag chunky does. 21:15.41 S_ Granarius Yeah, and our last bovine ah for the day is the be guyal boss from palace um, just yeah, another type of ox. Ah I mean like. Clearly again, another like takeaway of today so because to repeat after me so one pandas are not tape his and number 2 is there a surprising amount of diversity of fulbits in Asia which actually surprises no one probably? um. Yeah, the gael are also known as the drunk ox and are found in Southern And Eastern Asia so the gule ah are considered to ah to be only semi-omesticated. So I think reindeer so I guess more of a managed species. But they still sort of have a very significant cultural and economical importance among many ethnic groups in India um, sorry because even though he's been ah silent for the entire episode. Our producer Tristan is very much still here on the. Thinks is great to distract us with jokes on the chat of a recording software. Um, but yes, go back to the gule. um yes um I was talking about if it's. Significant sort of cultural and economic importance among many ethnic groups in India so that includes the naga and the Adi um and the gule is often seen as a symbol of social status and is used ritually as sacrifices. Originally, we should have already mentioned that at the beginning and that. It originates from the wild goer also known as the indian bison subbi some gourru. 25:36.56 ALEX Yeah I mean unsurprisingly the reason why that was at the end of that note is because there's been a lot of debate as to the domestication status of the guile and again another running theme is that. Looking at genetics is really hard and still very much a difficult thing so a lot of these species. We've been talking about. It's only been in the last say decade or so that we've really gotten an understanding as to. Where they may have been domesticated from and I think one of the issues is that you know as we were saying. There's so many different species of bovids in Asia that there's a potentiality to kind of crossbreeding and things like that so you could you know without genetics make arguments for. Some kind of similar lineage among a lot of these bovids. But yeah, we are making so progress in that area I guess. 27:16.91 S_ Granarius Yeah I think like we have a new Hashtag here looking at the Gule Chunky horns. It's got real chunky horns. 27:51.94 ALEX Ah, they are chunky moments I think that's actually one of the things. Ah I was really interested in when we were doing this episode is that even though we have done let's see none None 4 different kind of cattle. Species for this part of the episode. They're all very different looking I mean they they all do if you looked at them. You would say oh that's like a cow but they are very distinctively different from each other which is kind of cool to see I mean. Asia is a massive continent That's obviously going to have a lot of biodiversity there. But I think when we're kind of grouping them into these groups of you know domesticates and even though at the end of the day. These species are more or less used or at least. You know bread for very similar purposes whether it's to do pack being pack animals doing plowing being used for secondary products. They're still themselves very different and very diverse. 29:47.13 S_ Granarius Well because I guess also in a way they're not all cattle strictly speaking as in that they're not some don't even but most don't even belong to the genus's boss I Believe it's just the Baly Catt or that does And in fact, it is the animal that most resembles sort of your stereotypal sort of. 30:20.30 ALEX Oh yeah course. 30:25.55 S_ Granarius Cattle even though they seem to have horns a little bit all over the place. It seems to be a lot of individual variation on the shape of the horns because they tend to be quite small. The some are facing down some are facing up and some go backwards like a goat which is very interesting to see on a cattle like animal. Um, but. 30:58.22 ALEX So. 31:01.29 S_ Granarius Yes, I mean the majority of them are not really cattle per say they are just yeah big bovins. Big chunky boys. 31:37.82 ALEX Big boys, big bovind boys Hashtag well I think the the moment we start making a hashtags I think it's time to take a break for a bit and. We'll come back with as we said before the the part of the show that only us think is the best part of the show but whatever what we say goes we will see you after this break for the case studies.