Ecology of a Tool  
The ground stone axes of Irian Jaya (Indonesia)
Published by Oxbow Books
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ISBN: 9781789253870
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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 wholemanufacturing chaînes opératoires of polished stone felling tools, from quarryextraction to finished tool use. Research on the polished blades of PNG has evolvedover the years, following changing philosophies and research agendas. While it is clearthat an exceptional sum of information has been gathered, it remains centered on thatsmall part of the Highlands where conditions for field research were more pleasantthan elsewhere. Our presentation of Irian Jaya axes therefore tackles a topic thatremains mostly unexplored.Until now, stone tool research in New Guinea has followed an anthropocentricapproach, in which tools are seen more as vectors for social exchanges than as meansof acting on the environment. This monograph will take a different approach. Here,polished stone blades are placed at the center of the world, between, on one side, thetransformed natural environment, and, on the other, the social and economicenvironment. This approach will allow us to suggest new avenues of inference inarchaeology, as well as to test and abandon existing ones.In this volume, the stone blade is considered as a living being, existing in balancewithin 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, we will describe the function of polishedstone blades in Irian Jaya societies and the distribution of hafting styles, define andstudy the quarrying zones and the areas of diffusion and use of their production, and,if possible, the different trends noted in each area of polished blade production andexchanges. Finally, we will conclude with a discussion of the ethnoarchaeologicalpotential of these contemporary observations.
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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 wholemanufacturing chaînes opératoires of polished stone felling tools, from quarryextraction to finished tool use. Research on the polished blades of PNG has evolvedover the years, following changing philosophies and research agendas. While it is clearthat an exceptional sum of information has been gathered, it remains centered on thatsmall part of the Highlands where conditions for field research were more pleasantthan elsewhere. Our presentation of Irian Jaya axes therefore tackles a topic thatremains mostly unexplored.Until now, stone tool research in New Guinea has followed an anthropocentricapproach, in which tools are seen more as vectors for social exchanges than as meansof acting on the environment. This monograph will take a different approach. Here,polished stone blades are placed at the center of the world, between, on one side, thetransformed natural environment, and, on the other, the social and economicenvironment. This approach will allow us to suggest new avenues of inference inarchaeology, as well as to test and abandon existing ones.In this volume, the stone blade is considered as a living being, existing in balancewithin 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, we will describe the function of polishedstone blades in Irian Jaya societies and the distribution of hafting styles, define andstudy the quarrying zones and the areas of diffusion and use of their production, and,if possible, the different trends noted in each area of polished blade production andexchanges. Finally, we will conclude with a discussion of the ethnoarchaeologicalpotential of these contemporary observations.
Table of contents
  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • Dedication
  • 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 the realm 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 and the acceleration of exchanges
    • The Baliem and the realm of adzes
    • Axes and adzes, the prestige of stone blades
    • Partners and strangers: the limitations of exchanges
  • 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 the westward 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 the 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 between natural environment, modes of subsistence and population 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: segmentation of the chaîne opératoire
    • Shaping roughouts: raw material determinism
    • Manufacture and specialization
    • Grinding and grinding stones
    • Axes and adzes
    • 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
  • Plate section
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