Lithics Animated

Summary

This is a poster submission presented at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Archaeologists are moving away from just classifying objects in dryly scientific ways that obscure meanings and the past people who used them. We are attempting to view items through the lenses of their users. As we study Native American material culture, this means understanding the agency that inheres in artifacts. Great Lakes Anishinaabeg understood that objects both constrain and enable behavior. Objects must be accorded respect as non-human entities animating or being animated by humans in relations of reciprocity. Within this theoretical matrix, this study looked at use wear patterns of lithic tools found at sites in Southeastern Michigan. Even as artifacts were categorized using archaeology’s traditional methods, they were also examined trying to imagine meanings accompanying such technologies. Exciting results showed not only microscopic use ware but traces of possible plant or animal material, allowing us to imagine how these tools possessed the power to animate human behavior.   

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• 2022 SHA Poster Submissions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology