Epilogue to the thematic issue Anthropozoology of the red deer. Archaeological, historical, and ethnographic evidence

This thematic collection of seven articles published in volumes 60 (2) and 61 (1) of Anthropozoologica follows the workshop on “Human-Deer (Cervus) Relations in their material and symbolic expressions”. Organized as part of a seminar by UMR 7209 of the CNRS and MNHN (then titled Archaeozoology, Archaeobotany: Societies, Practices, and Environments – AASPE), this event took place in Paris on October 10, 2022. Under the patronage of François Poplin (Honorary Director of the UMR), this seminar focused on the rich field of connections that shape the construction and evolution of human societies and their interactions with their animal and plant environments. These were examined through their often foundational roles —both materially, socio-economically, and symbolically— as well as in the realm of popular or scholarly knowledge. Through this lens, it is possible to address broad or more specific issues such as food, medicine, crafts, the transformation and production of equipment, forms of acquisition (hunting, fishing, gathering, livestock raising, agriculture and horticulture…), types of social organization (concept of territory, collective or individual action, sedentary vs. nomadic lifestyles…), or the integration of these elements into mythologies and cosmogony, and finally the development of cultural and ritual practices and their intertwining with other practices.