TY - JOUR
T1 - Feminine knowledge and skill reconsidered: Women and flaked stone tools.
AU - Arthur, Kathryn Weedman
N1 - Arthur, K.W. (2010). Feminine knowledge and skill reconsidered: Women and flaked stone tools. American Anthropologist, 112(2), 228-243. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1433.2010.01222.x
PY - 2010/1/1
Y1 - 2010/1/1
N2 - Archaeologists continue to describe Stone Age women as home bound and their lithic technologies as unskilled, expedient, and of low quality. However, today a group of Konso women make, use, and discard flaked stone tools to process hides, offering us an alternative to the man-the-toolmaker model and redefining Western “naturalized” gender roles. These Konso women are skilled knappers who develop their expertise through long-term practice and apprenticeship. Their lithic technology demonstrates that an individual's level of skill and age are visible in stone assemblages. Most importantly, they illustrate that women procure high-quality stone from long distances, produce formal tools with skill, and use their tools efficiently. I suggest in this article that archaeologists should consider women the producers of Paleolithic stone scrapers, engaged in bipolar technology, and as such perhaps responsible for some of the earliest-known lithic technologies.
AB - Archaeologists continue to describe Stone Age women as home bound and their lithic technologies as unskilled, expedient, and of low quality. However, today a group of Konso women make, use, and discard flaked stone tools to process hides, offering us an alternative to the man-the-toolmaker model and redefining Western “naturalized” gender roles. These Konso women are skilled knappers who develop their expertise through long-term practice and apprenticeship. Their lithic technology demonstrates that an individual's level of skill and age are visible in stone assemblages. Most importantly, they illustrate that women procure high-quality stone from long distances, produce formal tools with skill, and use their tools efficiently. I suggest in this article that archaeologists should consider women the producers of Paleolithic stone scrapers, engaged in bipolar technology, and as such perhaps responsible for some of the earliest-known lithic technologies.
KW - Women
KW - Flaked stone tools
KW - Gender
KW - Skill
UR - https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/fac_publications/515
UR - https://login.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/login?url=http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1548-1433.2010.01222.x/pdf
M3 - Article
JO - Default journal
JF - Default journal
ER -