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INTRODUCTION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 August 2009

Kenneth G. Hirth ,
Geoffrey G. McCafferty  and
William R. Fowler
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Extract

Over the past four decades the interpretive capacity of lithic analysis in Mesoamerica has changed dramatically. Lithic studies have grown from simple artifact descriptions to a powerful approach for studying and interpreting pre-Hispanic economy. The linchpin for this change was the development of the lithic technology approach (Collins 1975; Crabtree 1968; Flenniken 1981) and its use in asking culturally meaningful questions about the Mesoamerican past (Sheets 1975; Spence 1967). The utility of this approach is as obvious to those who employ it, as it is elusive to those who do not. It involves the recovery, analysis and interpretation of flaked stone residues, that is, the large and small flakes and chips produced when stone tools are manufactured and used. Moreover, it is the study of the mundane to view the mundane, and obtain a window onto the economic patterns of everyday life. The reward from studying thousands of ordinary flaked stone remains comes from the insight it provides for reconstructing and modeling past economic behavior.

Type
Special Section: New Directions in the Study of Mesoamerican Lithic Economy
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , Spring 2009 , pp. 87 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

REFERENCES

Collins, Michael 1975 Lithic Technology as a Means of Processual Inference. In Lithic Technology: Making and Using Stone Tools, edited by Swanson, Earl H., pp. 15–34. Mouton, The Hague.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crabtree, Donald 1968 Mesoamerican Polyhedral Cores and Prismatic Blades. American Antiquity 33:446–478.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flenniken, J. Jeffrey 1981 Replicative Systems Analysis: A Model Applied to the Vein Quartz Artifacts from the Hoko River Site. Laboratory of Anthropology Reports of Investigations No. 59. Washington State University, Pullman.Google Scholar
Sheets, Payson 1975 Behavioral Analysis and the Structure of a Prehistoric Industry. Current Anthropology 16:369–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spence, Michael 1967 The Obsidian Industry of Teotihuacan. American Antiquity 32:507–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar