An ethnographic experiment of endscraper curation rate among hadiya hideworkers, ethiopia

Abstract

The extent of reduction in retouched stones serves as a proxy for curation. In the archaeological record, reduction intensity must be inferred from discarded remnants of tools. The contemporary use of scraper blades by hideworkers in southern Ethiopia provides archaeologists rare opportunities where original tool dimensions can be directly measured and other variables investigated. This study closely examines previously suggested factors for inter-group variability in the degree of hidescraper curation amongst the Hadiya. Potential sources of variability are controlled for through the provision of experimental blanks to groups associated with different raw material access and costs. Results strengthen previous conclusions that differential raw material cost significantly affects scraper curation rates. However, whether original blank size represents a major source of such variability could not be discerned, as the group with higher raw material costs did not exploit higher potential utility from experimental blanks. Age-old traditions of specific raw material procurement and blank dimensions seem to represent another source of variability in scraper curation rates. The potential effect of passive style on tool use patterns in archaeological assemblages is difficult to identify, albeit important to consider.

Keywords:

• Ethnoarchaeology
• Hadiya
• Scraper
• Curation
• Style

Acknowledgements

We thank the Hadiya Culture & Tourism Bureau for facilitating our research. Thanks go to our Hadiya friends who participated in this continued research. We thank M. Curtis, editor G. McCall and the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable inputs that have substantially improved earlier versions of this manuscript. This study was designed following critical comments on a related earlier paper and insightful discussions with numerous people, especially D.R. Braun, to whom we are grateful.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yonatan Sahle

Yonatan Sahle is a Junior Research Group Leader at the DFG Center's Words, Bone, Genes, Tools project. He received his PhD from the University of Cape Town and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Human Evolution Research Center, UC Berkeley. His research interest revolves around ethnoarchaeology, and Stone Age technologies.

Agazi Negash

Agazi Negash is a senior lecturer at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. He received his PhD from the University of Florida and has been a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California at Berkeley and the Max-Planck Institute. His research interests include lithic technology and the geochemical sourcing of obsidian.