USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications
Feminine knowledge and skill reconsidered: Women and flaked stone tools.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2010
ISSN
0002-7294
Abstract
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.
Language
en_US
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell Publishing
Recommended Citation
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
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
Abstract only. Full-text article is available only through licensed access provided by the publisher. Published in American Anthropologist, 112(2), 228-243. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1433.2010.01222.x Members of the USF System may access the full-text of the article through the authenticated link provided.