Ref ID:	35185
Ref Type:	Journal Article
Authors:	Fredericksen, Clayton
Title:	Points of discussion. obsidian blade technology in the Admiralty Islands, 2100 BP to 50 BP
Date:	2000
Source:	Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association
Notes:	Indo-Pacific Prehistory: The Melaka Papers, Vol. 4
Abstract:	Variation in retouched obsidian blade (point) form on Lou Island is examined for the last 2100 years. A sequence of change is proposed, in which heavily modified points are replaced between approximately 1600 and 700 years ago by simplified forms resembling those recorded ethnographically. The suggestion is made that this technological change reflects a reorientation of the overarching system of production and distribution, which possibly saw the eventual emergence of the system of proprietary specialisation present in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, the limitations of our current archaeological data base for formulating hypotheses about socio-economic change are stressed. A warning is given over the uncritical use of the ethnographically-derived model of economic competition and integration as a template for interpreting prehistoric production and distribution.
Date Created:	6/8/2001
Volume:	20
Page Start:	93
Page End:	106