| Abstract: |
When Europeans entered the New Guinea Highlands in the 1930s, they discovered peoples using two main kinds of stone implementpolished axes and simple flake tools. The prominence of the axe has been well documented (S. Buhner, 1964
R. and S. Bulmer, 1964
Salisbury, 1962
Tischner, 1939
Vial, 1940 et al.). Crucial to subsistence, it was also used widely in exchanges and payments of all kinds and had a value as a ceremonial object. This seems to have been the case throughout the Highlands. Nevertheless, there were probably variations in the precise range of uses to which the axe was put, and consequently in its value. This comment is prompted by a consideration of two societiesHagen in the Western Highlands and Wiru in the Southern Highlands Districtswhose traditional evaluations of the stone axe seem to have had differing emphases. In the past the axe was probably less important as a ceremonial object to the Wiru than it was to the Hageners, and its use as a tool more limited. The situation seems to have been correspondingly reversed in the case of the flake tool, however, which had generally more importance in Wiru.
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