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 chaines operatoires 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.
Our 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 will take 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 will
allow us to suggest 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, we
will describe the function of polished stone blades in Irian Jaya
societies and the distribution of hafting styles, define and study
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 and exchanges. Finally, we will
conclude with a discussion of the ethnoarchaeological potential of
these contemporary observations.
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