Certain humans, certain animals : attitudes in the long term

Do certain humans and animals have greater value than other humans and animals? The question will be discussed using some examples from pre-Christian burial practices and other depositions of human and animal bones in Scandinavia. During the pre-Christian period it seems that certain humans and certain animals were buried in graves made for the purpose, while other humans and animals were deposited in other contexts, for example in settlements and wetlands. The classification of species seems to be different from that in modern urban Western societies, and this raises questions concerning attitudes to animals and humans in the long term. Archaeological findings challenge the anthropocentric worldview of a stable human/animal division that has been one of the fundamentals for the development of modern Western societies.