Introduction Present-day Shuwa-Arab communities have adjusted to the vagaries of the shifting balance of power between the multiple communities of the Chad basin and Central Sudan. Many are now fully sedentary, relying more on agriculture than livestock husbandry. Others remain fully semi-nomadic, residing one part of the year in their main rainy season villages, while spending the dry season in camps that can be located as far as 150 kilo- meters away. Relationships to neighboring communi- ties, the inhabitants of which are predominantly seden- tary and employ agricultural and fishing subsistence strategies, are very complex (Holl 2003). They range from partnership to rivalry, articulated on unequal pow- er relationships. Even if they are sedentary and rely more on agricultural products, the management of live- stock and the handling of animal resources are what set the Shuwa-Arab apart in the Chadian plain ethnic mo- saic (Podlewski 1966, 1971, Lebeuf 1969, 1987, Zeltner 1970, 1979, 1980, 1988, Conte & Hagenburger-Sacri- panti 1977, Hagenburger-Sacripanti 1977a, b, Frantz 1981, Tijani 1986, Holl & Levy 1993). How are their socio-economic systems organized? How do they man- age their livestock resources? And what patterns of con- sumption of animal resources did they develop? These are the key issues addressed in this paper. The investigation of settlement structures and patterns of subsistence in contemporary societies is one of the suc- cess stories of ethnoarchaeological research (Yellen 1977, Binford 1978, Hodder 1982, Atherton 1983, Agorsah 1985, 1990, David & Kramer 2001, Holl 2003). This kind of research analyzes the patterns emerging from residual regional settlements. Despite the dominant optimism, the retrodiction of ethnoarchaeological findings to past ar- chaeological situations is severely handicapped by sig- nificant differences in scale. If ethnoarchaeology has any impact on archaeological research beside the obvious situation of documented historical and cultural continu- Shuwa-Arab economics: livestock management and animal consumption Augustin F.C. Holl Museum of Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, Center of AfroAmerican and Afri- can Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA Abstract / Zusammenfassung Shuwa-Arab communities reached the Chad basin in the late 14th century AD and from then on spread to their present day locations in the Chad republic, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria. The ethnoarchaeological research conducted on their settlements in the Houlouf region in northern Cameroon allowed for an interesting assessment of their patterns of subsistence, the importance of livestock in their daily life, as well as patterns of animal use and meat consumption. The taphonomic trajectories of faunal remains and their implications for the understand- ing of Shuwa-Arab economics are evaluated at three settlement types: permanent villages, semi-permanent vil- lages, and dry season camps, sampled during three separate seasons of fieldwork. Shuwa-Araber Gemeinschaften erreichten das Tschadbecken im späten 14. Jahrhundert AD. Von dort aus brei- teten sie sich zu ihren heutigen Ansiedlungen in Tschad, Kamerun, Niger und Nigeria aus. Die an ihren Fundplät- zen in der Houloufregion Nordkameruns durchgeführten ethnoarchäologischen Untersuchungen ermöglichen eine interessante Einschätzung hinsichtlich Subsistenzmuster, Bedeutung von Vieh im Alltag sowie Nutzung von Tieren und Fleischverzehr. Die taphonomischen Prozesse denen Tierreste unterworfen sind, sowie deren Konse- quenzen für das Verständnis der Wirtschaft der Shuwa-Araber werden anhand von drei Siedlungstypen evaluiert, nämlich Dörfern mit dauerhafter Bewohnung, Dörfern mit semi-permanenter Bewohnung und Trockenzeitlagern, deren Beprobung während dreier Geländeaufenthalte stattfand. Keywords Ethnoarchaeology, Shuwa-Arab, patterns of subsistence, site layout, livestock management, meat consumption, animal bones, pastoral economics Ethnoarchäologie, Shuwa-Araber, Subsistenzmuster, Fundplatzgrundriss, Viehwirtschaft, Fleisch- verzehr, Tierknochen, Weidewirtschaft