Skill and Cognition in Stone Tool Production: An Ethnographic Case Study from Irian Jaya

Abstract

Stone tools represent some of the best remaining evidence of prehistoric behavior and cognition. Interpreting this evidence properly requires models based on observable phenomena in the modern world. For this reason, ethnographic research was undertaken among the adze makers of the village of Langda in Indonesian Irian Jaya. This research, involving observation, interviews, and analysis of lithic products, revealed a technology of great sophistication and complexity. Adzemaking skill is acquired through a period of apprenticeship that may last five years or more, during which time the community of adze makers provides a social scaffold for the learning process. Adze production is itself a social phenomenon, defined as much by personal and group relations, social norms, and mythic significance as by specific reduction strategies and technical terminology. Adzemaking ability is associated not only with welldeveloped perceptualmotor and cognitive skills but also with a wealth of technological knowledge. Although much of the complexity of the Langda adze industry would be invisible to an archaeologist, evidence of knapping skill is preserved in attributes of the durable stone artifacts produced. This evidence may be used to develop productive hypotheses about the psychological implications of prehistoric stone tools.