Processing, Power, Teaching and Identity, The Utilitarian and Ritual Use of Artifacts from a Middle Archaic Shaman's House in the Great Basin.
Author(s): Geoffrey Cunnar; Edward Stoner
Year: 2016
Summary
In 2013 Western Cultural Management excavated a well preserved structure in the Great Basin. The structure dates to 3000 cal. BP and is one of few that have been discovered of this antiquity in the Great Basin region. The house was associated with a number of artifacts. Many of the tools were clearly associated with artiodactyl processing tasks within discrete activity areas. Other artifacts such as complete bi-point knives, complete projectile points, quartz crystals, fulgurites, ochre, bone tubes, bone needles and possible bone strigils are argued to have been associated with shamanistic behavior, teaching and expressions of identity. In this paper, the use-wear evidence and tool morphology is discussed in the context of the roles the shaman may have had in the ancient community.
Cite this Record
Processing, Power, Teaching and Identity, The Utilitarian and Ritual Use of Artifacts from a Middle Archaic Shaman's House in the Great Basin.. Geoffrey Cunnar, Edward Stoner. Presented at The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Orlando, Florida. 2016 ( tDAR id: 404961)
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Keywords
General
Great Basin
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Hunter Gatherer
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Shamanism
Geographic Keywords
North America - Great Basin
Spatial Coverage
min long: -122.761; min lat: 29.917 ; max long: -109.27; max lat: 42.553 ;