Through a glass darkly : finding values in obsidian stemmed tools from New Britain, Papua New Guinea
The ways of life of the inhabitants of prehistoric New Britain were almost unknown to archaeologists until the last quarter of the twentieth century. Until recently, the people who lived there during the early to mid-Holocene period, and who left scant traces in the archaeological record, were assumed to have been residentially mobile foragers living in simple societies. More recent research has shown that people were making and exchanging large, highly worked, obsidian tools. The inference was that these tools carried a component of social value and were used to signal status, and that the societies of mid-Holocene New Britain were more complex than previously thought. My aim is to demonstrate that a detailed study of a distinctive class of obsidian stemmed tools supports the proposition that networks, in which concepts of social value existed and symbolic capital was exchanged, flourished in West New Britain in the period 5900-3600 BP. This is achieved primarily by using a high-magnification use-wear analysis which, together with supplementary typological and raw material provenancing evidence, enables use-lives of individual artefacts to be constructed. An exploration of both the nature of value and of
Dickinson, Paul Tyrrell
Through a glass darkly : finding values in obsidian stemmed tools from New Britain, Papua New Guinea. The ways of life of the inhabitants of prehistoric New Britain were almost unknown to archaeologists until the last quarter of the twentieth century. Until recently, the people who lived there during the early to mid-Holocene period, and who left scant traces in the archaeological record, were assumed to have been residentially mobile foragers living in simple societies. More recent research has shown that people were making and exchanging large, highly worked, obsidian tools. The inference was that these tools carried a component of social value and were used to signal status, and that the societies of mid-Holocene New Britain were more complex than previously thought. My aim is to demonstrate that a detailed study of a distinctive class of obsidian stemmed tools supports the proposition that networks, in which concepts of social value existed and symbolic capital was exchanged, flourished in West New Britain in the period 5900-3600 BP. This is achieved primarily by using a high-magnification use-wear analysis which, together with supplementary typological and raw material provenancing evidence, enables use-lives of individual artefacts to be constructed. An exploration of both the nature of value and of
glass darkly finding value obsidian stem tool new britain new way_life inhabitant prehistoric new britain almost unknown archaeologist recently people_live period leave scant trace archaeological_record assume mobile live simple society recent show people make exchange large highly work obsidian tool inference tool carry component social value use signal status societies mid_holocene new britain complex previously_think aim detail_study distinctive class obsidian stem tool support proposition network concept social value exist symbolic capital exchange flourish west new britain period achieve primarily use high magnification use_wear analysis together supplementary typological raw_material provenancing evidence enable use lives individual artefact construct exploration nature value