Abstract
This thesis composes a discussion on food procurement, animal economy and the connection between archaeological deposits and social stratification and socio-political organization. The site in focus is Khami, a late Iron Age site, placed within the settlement model of Zimbabwe Pattern (ZP). According to this model Khami is a hierarchy where the elite occupy the elevations surrounded by dry walls, and the commoners subsides on the flatter areas below. The site is an agro-pastoral community with given animal economies and subsistence strategies that are connected to different management strategies of animal resources. Scholarly discourse has voiced certain issues with this model, which in this thesis is examined through an approach of human-animal relationship theory and osteological and isotopic analysis. Source material employed are faunal remains from kitchen middens are examined in light of the apparent social stratification to determine food procurement and distribution patterns.