The history of “laundry lists” in North American zooarchaeology

North American zooarchaeologists regularly state that prior to about 1970, most zooarchaeological reports were made up of lists of the animal taxa identified, sometimes with taxonomic abundance data. These reports are typically labeled laundry lists or species lists, terms meant to be pejorative. Some reports that appeared between 1900 and 1979 are guides to taxonomic identification, others discuss analytical techniques, and some represent thoughtful analyses. A sample of 286 titles authored by zooarchaeologists that appeared between 1900 and 1979 shows that laundry lists made up 55 percent of the titles published between 1900 and 1959; 20 percent of the titles that appeared between 1960 and 1979 are laundry lists. Adding titles authored by zoologists increases the relative frequency of laundry lists to 68 percent between 1900 and 1959, and to 24 percent between 1960 and 1979. Ironically, the originator of the term laundry list and its derogatory implications (Stanley J. Olsen) produced only laundry lists after he introduced the concept. Laundry lists are part of the legacy of North American zooarchaeology, but previous characterizations of disciplinary history have not been based on empirical data and have been inaccurate. The data in laundry lists is today analytically valuable.