Search

Stone tools represent some of the best remaining evidence of pre-historic behavior and cognition. Interpreting this evidence properly requires models based on observable phenomena in the modern world. For this reason, ethnographic research was undertaken among the adze makers of the village of Langda in Indonesian Irian Jaya. This research, involving observation, interviews, and analysis of lithic products, revealed a technology of great sophis-tication and complexity. Adze-making skill is acquired through a period of apprenticeship that may last five years or more, during which time the community of adze makers provides a social scaffold for the learning process. Adze production is itself a so-cial phenomenon, defined as much by personal and group rela-tions, social norms, and mythic significance as by specific reduc-tion strategies and technical terminology. Adze-making ability is associated not only with well-developed perceptual-motor and cognitive skills but also with a wealth of technological knowl-edge. Although much of the complexity of the Langda adze in-dustry would be invisible to an archaeologist, evidence of knap-ping skill is preserved in attributes of the durable stone artifacts produced. This evidence may be used to develop productive hy-potheses about the psychological implications of prehistoric stone tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]