Ecology of a tool : the ground stone axes of irian jaya (indonesia) / Pierre Pétrequin, Anne-Marie Pétrequin, Alexandre Michaud-Pelletier, Eugene Morin, Foni Le Brun-Ricalens, Josette Coras, Hélène Dartevelle, Alain Maitre, Michel Rossy, Polly Wiessner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pétrequin, Pierre, author.

Pétrequin, Anne-Marie, author.

Contributor:

Morin, Eugène, editor.

Le Brun-Ricalens, Foni, editor.

Michaud-Pelletier, Alexandre, translator.

Dartevelle, Hélène, illustrator.

Coras, Josette, illustrator.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Stone implements.

Indonesia.

Indonesia--Papua.

Papua (Indonesia)--Antiquities.

Papua (Indonesia)--Social life and customs.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (338 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : Oxbow Books, [2020]

Language Note:

Translated from the French.

Summary:

New Guinea, and especially Papua New Guinea, is the last country in the world where ethnologists were able to closely observe, film and photograph the whole manufacturing chaînes opératoires of polished stone felling tools, from quarry extraction to finished tool use. Research on the polished blades of PNG has evolved over the years, following changing philosophies and research agendas. While it is clear that an exceptional sum of information has been gathered, it remains centered on that small part of the Highlands where conditions for field research were more pleasant than elsewhere. This presentation of Irian Jaya axes therefore tackles a topic that remains mostly unexplored. Until now, stone tool research in New Guinea has followed an anthropocentric approach, in which tools are seen more as vectors for social exchanges than as means of acting on the environment. This monograph takes a different approach. Here, polished stone blades are placed at the center of the world, between, on one side, the transformed natural environment, and, on the other, the social and economic environment. This approach allows for a suggestion of new avenues of inference in archaeology, as well as to test and abandon existing ones. In this volume, the stone blade is considered as a living being, existing in balance within its biotope. This idea is not far removed from the beliefs of Irian Jaya farmers, for whom life animates certain objects of their material culture. Following a brief presentation of Irian Jaya, the function of polished stone blades in Irian Jaya societies and the distribution of hafting styles is described, defined and studied along with the quarrying zones and the areas of diffusion and use of their production. The different trends in each area of polished blade production and exchanges are also noted. Finally, it concludes with a discussion of the ethnoarchaeological potential of these contemporary observations.

Contents:

Cover

Book Title

Copyright

Dedication

Table of Contents

List of figures

List of colour plates

Acknowledgements

Translator's note

Abstract

Foreword to the English edition

Introduction

1. Ground stone blades as means of social and technical reproduction

A history of Irian Jaya in the global economy

Raw material determinism

Axes and adzes

Variability of hafting forms

Stone blades, at the heart of social reproduction

Stone blades as anthropomorphic symbols of therealm of men

2. The Yeleme quarries (Kp. Paniai) et the ground stone blades of Central Irian Jaya

Rocks from the upper Ye-I River

The Wang-Kob-Me quarry

The Brahire quarry in Ye-Ineri

Blocks from the bed of the Ye-I River

From roughout to axe in Wano country

The Axe Trail

Accessing roughouts: the Yamo Dani perspective

From roughout to axe among the Yamo Dani

The expansion of the Western Dani andthe acceleration of exchanges

The Baliem and the realm of adzes

Axes and adzes, the prestige of stone blades

Partners and strangers: the limitation ofexchanges

3. Material and social techniques of the Dani: black rocks and greenschists

The black rocks of Gomburu (Kp. Paniai)

The black rocks of Tagi (Kp. Jayawijaya)

Black rock axes and sacred objects

The quarries of Awigobi and greenschist blades

Ye-yao, the exchange axes

4. Adzes of the Eastern Highlands (Kp. Jayawijaya)

From rock to adze in Langda

Exploiting rocks from the river

A production controlled by specialists

The learning process

Grinding and hafting

Exchanges and diffusion

Stone blade production in the Phu Valley and thewestward expansion of adzes

The archaeological sites of Koropun

Yamyhl, Red Digul and the Seashell Trail

5. Ormu-Wari and the Lowlands axes

The Mumugo Valley and schist axes.

Ormu and marriage axes

Quarrying context in the Cyclops Mountains

Knapping and pecking

Grinding and varnishing

Technical and social production in Ormu

Village specialization and exchanges

6. The ground stone blades of Irian Jaya, a synthesis

A shared background: the balance betweennatural environment, modes of subsistence andpopulation density

Rocks and types of sources

Quarry access and the social context of quarrying

Quarrying techniques

Duration of the quarrying events

From rock to ground stone blade: segmentationof the chaîne opératoire

Shaping roughouts: raw material determinism

Manufacture and specialization

Grinding and grinding stones

Degree of grinding

Length of the stone blades

Handles for felling tools

Circulation of the blades

Stone blades for the living

7. Postface

Metal versus stone

Ceramic techniques and acculturation processes

Supernatural beings and cannibalistic cuisine

Gifting signs

Afterword to the English edition

Bibliography

Films

Geographic index

Thematic index

Index of linguistic groups

Back cover.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781789253894

1789253896

9781789253870

178925387X