Playing with projectile points
childhood flintknapping imitation at an 8,500-year-old hunter-gatherer rockshelter site in Southern Brazil
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24885/sab.v31i2.586Keywords:
Childhood play imitation, Flintknapping projectile points at Adelar Pilger (RS-C-61), Hunter-gatherers in southern BrazilAbstract
This paper discusses how archaeologists can potentially identify the presence of children in the archaeological record through the study of finished lithic products. As a case study, I use Adelar Pilger (RS-C-61), a hunter-gatherer rockshelter habitation site in southern Brazil dated to approximately 8500 BP. By linking decisions related to raw material selection with the aesthetic and technological properties of projectile points, I have identified three types of points potentially made by experts, advanced apprentices, and children and/or initial apprentices. I suggest that children at the Adelar Pilger site were producing points as a form of play imitation. Children were able to roughly imitate formal shapes but could not properly reproduce the tools in a three dimensional or technological sense.
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