Technological Efficiency and Tool Curation | American Antiquity | Cambridge Core (original) (raw)

Abstract

Archaeologists frequently explain tool curation by its efficiency. Such explanations ignore the fact that curation is a complex activity and that its component parts are efficient in different ways. I argue that the nature and distribution of lithic resources critically affect technological efficiency and I discuss two aspects of curation, maintenance and recycling, asserting that they are responses to raw material shortages. Shortages result from regional geological conditions and from behavior patterns that restrict access to raw material in certain contexts. Ethnographic and archaeological examples support this hypothesis and highlight the relationship between subsistence-settlement organization, raw material distribution, and technology.

Type

Research Article

References

Arnold, Jeanne E. 1979 The Crude Bifaces, or Preforms, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Ms. on file, Social Process Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar

Bamforth, Douglas B. 1983 The Chipped Stone Evidence for Prehistoric Land-use Patterns on the San Antonio Terrace, Vandenberg Air Force Base. Social Process Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar

Bamforth, Douglas B. 1985 The Technological Organization of Paleoindian Small-Group Bison Hunting on the Llano Estacado. Plains Anthropologist 30: 243–258.CrossRef Google Scholar

Binford, L. R. 1973 Interassemblage Variability— The Mousterian and the “Functional” Argument. In The Explanation of Culture Change, edited by Renfrew, Colin, pp. 227–254. Duckworth, London.Google Scholar

Binford, L. R. 1977 Forty-seven Trips, la Stone Tools as Cultural Markers, edited by Wright, R. V. S., pp. 24–36. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra.Google Scholar

Binford, L. R. 1979 Organization and Formation Processes: Looking at Curated Technologies. Journal of Anthropological Research 35: 255–273.CrossRef Google Scholar

Binford, L. R. 1980 Willow Smoke and Dogs’ Tails: Hunter-gatherer Settlement Systems and Archaeological Site Formation. American Antiquity 45: 1–17.CrossRef Google Scholar

Cowgill, George L. 1977 The Trouble with Significance Tests and What We Can Do about It. American Antiquity 42: 350–368.CrossRef Google Scholar

Frison, George 1978 Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar

Glassow, Michael 1983 Prehistoric Chronology. In Archaeological Investigations on the San Antonio Terrace, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, in Connection with M-X Facilities Construction, pp. 7. 1-7. 7. Chambers, Consultants and Planners, Stanton.Google Scholar

Grivetti, Mark 1983 Chert Source Identification. In The Chipped Stone Evidence for Prehistoric Land-use Patterns on the San Antonio Terrace, Vandenberg Air Force Base by Bamforth, Douglas B.. Social Process Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar

Holliday, Vance T., and Welty, Curtis M. 1981 Lithic Tool Resources of the Eastern Llano Estacado. Bulletin of the Texas Archaeological Society 52: 201–214.Google Scholar

Hudson, Jean 1983 Report on the Analysis of Vertebrate Faunal Remains from M-X Related Archaeological Collections. Social Process Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar

Johnson, Eileen 1985 Lubbock Lake: Late Quaternary Studies on the Southern High Plains. The Center for the Study of Early Man, Orono, Maine, in press.Google Scholar

Keeley, L. H. 1980 Experimental Determination of Stone Tool Uses. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar

Keeley, L. H. 1982 Rehafting and Retooling: Effects on the Archaeological Record. American Antiquity 47: 798–809.CrossRef Google Scholar

King, Chester 1971 Chumash Inter-village Economic Exchange. The Indian Historian 4: 31–43.Google Scholar

Landberg, L. C. W. 1975 The Chumash Indians of Southern California. Southwest Museum Papers no. 9. Los Angeles.Google Scholar

Lee, Richard B. 1979 The IKung San. Cambridge University Press, New York.Google Scholar

Moore, Jerry D., and Snethkamp, Pandora 1982 Prehistoric and Historic Land-use Strategies on the San Antonio Terrace: A Research Design to Guide Archaeological Studies in Support of the M-X Missile Test Facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Rev. Ed. Chambers, Consultants and Planners, Stanton, California.Google Scholar

Mueller, J. F., and Schuessler, K. F. 1961 Statistical Reasoning in Sociology. Houghton-Mifflin, Boston.Google Scholar

Serena, J. 1983 Analysis of Marine Shellfish Remains from M-X Related Archaeological Collections. Social Process Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar

Snethkamp, Pandora 1981 Prehistoric and Historic Land-use Strategies on the San Antonio Terrace: A Research Design to Guide Archaeological Studies in Support of the M-X Missile Test Facility on Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Chambers, Consultants and Planners, Stanton, California.Google Scholar

Spanne, Lawrence W. 1975 Preform or Finished Artifact? In Papers on the Chumash. San Luis Obispo County Archaeological Society Occasional Papers no. 9, pp. 48–59.Google Scholar

Torrence, Robin 1983 Time Budgeting and Hunter-gatherer Technology. In Pleistocene Hunters and Gatherers in Europe, edited by Bailey, G., pp. 11–22. Cambridge University Press, New York.Google Scholar

Yellen, John E. 1977 Archaeological Approaches to the Present. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar

Yerkes, Richard 1983 Microwear, Microdrills, and Mississippian Craft Specialization. American Antiquity 48: 499–518.CrossRef Google Scholar