Just a question

[Older The Better]

I was thinking of the little thumb scraper I found and gender roles among Indians, how it probably was a woman’s tool to process a hide or food… then i thought of something I never really had before… were there woman knappers? Or would men make the tools and hand them off? I don’t think I’ve come across anything that looks at that subject. Any thoughts or does anyone know? Also just in the spirit of a treasure net post I’ll throw in a pic of the area and a couple animal friends

 

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[Red-Coat]

Interesting question.

No other details given, but this is a quote from Dale Weisman in an article on the Texas Parks & Wildlife website:

Archaeological evidence suggests that women in prehistory made stone tools and projectile points, and some Native American women were buried with their knapping tools.

Also this abstract from “Feminine Knowledge and Skill Reconsidered: Women and Flaked Stone Tools” by Kathryn Weedman Arthur in “American Anthropologist” published 19 May 2010 (the full paper is behind a paywall):

Archaeologists continue to describe Stone Age women as home bound and their lithic technologies as unskilled, expedient, and of low quality. However, today a group of Konso women [in Ethiopia, not America] make, use, and discard flaked stone tools to process hides, offering us an alternative to the man-the-toolmaker model and redefining Western “naturalized” gender roles. These Konso women are skilled knappers who develop their expertise through long-term practice and apprenticeship. Their lithic technology demonstrates that an individual's level of skill and age are visible in stone assemblages. Most importantly, they illustrate that women procure high-quality stone from long distances, produce formal tools with skill, and use their tools efficiently. I suggest in this article that archaeologists should consider women the producers of Paleolithic stone scrapers, engaged in bipolar technology, and as such perhaps responsible for some of the earliest-known lithic technologies.

 

[Up-North]

~♨️~

 

[ToddsPoint]

With over 12,000 yrs of natives living here, anything that you can think of that might have been done probably was done at some point. Lady knappers? Sure, why not?

 

[Older The Better]

Thanks for the deeper dive redcoat, and I agree why not, na’s were smarter and more capable than they usually get credit for, and plenty were matriarchal… when looking at the scraper i pictured a woman having to ask a male figure to make a tool and it seemed like an inefficient dynamic if she could just do it herself.

 

[Bucket Lister]

EXCELLENT question!

Thanks for the deeper dive redcoat, and I agree why not,

+1. The Texas article is good. I wish there were more substantiation; maybe there is, but it's doing a good job of hiding from me! 🙁

I do love these little rabbit holes warrens though.... Like Forrest Gump's box-o-chocolates (food of the gods!), you never know what you're going to find....

First female Chief of the Cherokee Nation:
Wilma Mankiller, 1945-2010​

Works on a few levels.

 

[GDub62]

Just this months Peach State Archeology news letter talks about evidence of women hunters in Peru some 9000 yrs. ago. So I would agree it's very possible

 

[GirlWithWolf]

The way it has been taught to me is everyone was skilled in pretty much every task that had to be done, so it isn't surprising. Beliefs that the men were the only ones that hunted while women stayed behind to pick berries and raise babies are incorrect. Hunting (and later raiding) for the men wasn't a day shift job, leaving in the morning and home for dinner. They were gone days, weeks, sometimes even months. Women literally had to hold down the fort and have all the skills to survive in the environment.

 

[Older The Better]

That’s a good point, in my immediate area the Osage would go on large hunts multiple times a year, not everyone could go, sick, old, that kind of thing. those that stayed behind would have to be just as capable of surviving.

 

[unclemac]

i think of it like this.... (put yourself on a log on the beach)..... you have plenty of food, a warm place to sleep, you live in a safe encampment.... there is no internet or stores....no TV, movies, books etc.... and there is no-one telling you what to do or how to do it or what to believe, you have no intrinsic need to accumulate more than you need.... how would you spend your day?

 

[RGINN]

Interesting question. I did some checking in my books and no mention of it. (Slightly better resource than the internet) Probably cause the question never came up. Stories I heard from elders never mentioned anything about making stone tools. They have stories that go all the way back to creation (probably more than 12,000 yrs. ago) but their more pertinent stories only go back about 300-400yrs. Once again, cause the question never came up. By that time they had contact with Europeans, established trade, and the Southern Plains tribes were real quick to appreciate the advantages of metal. In my opinion, women could make stone tools, but probably they focused more on what they needed, scrapers, knives, quick throwaway tools at kill sites, etc. They could probably make an arrowhead better than I could. There are historical records of women hunting, and women fighting right alongside the men. I think women were just like my wife today. They did NOT want you knapping in the house, no flint flakes to step on, but fine if you wanted to make arrowheads or whatever, they would tell you to go off somewhere away with your buddies and chip away. Then their girlfriends or society could come over and have a big gossip session. Excuse me, get some work done, haha! We do see evidence of that sort of set up in SWOK.

 

[releventchair]

Some rumor of guilds making things or even doing certain things better than and more than others.
Specialties so to speak. Beyond basic skill.

Anyone seeing my handiwork busting flint would cheerfully give any woman the chance to improve upon it. And most gals likely would.

Touching up edges I'd expect most anyone using such tools to know how to perform back when.
I see double edged knives (I'm calling them knives) that are worn on one side more.
Was the other side reserved for finest work? Or until the other failed? Or used in a period of time touching up wasn't going to be done due to timing?

An atlatl darts head could be used like a blade. Why not a smaller head too?
(leverage , finesse in use, and purpose without abuse of tool maybe.)