Fish Spears and Eel Glaives: Some notes on development and design

Abstract

In European ethnology we are rightly concerned with the development of agriculture, the techniques by which natural resources have been exploited, and the infinite variety of social structures, customs, and traditions associated with these activities. Yet it is perhaps worthwhile to remind ourselves occasionally that man was a hunter for over a million years and has been a cultivator for but a few thousand. Indeed it was as a hunter/gatherer that he colonized all habitable parts of the earth's surface, maintaining himself everywhere with spear and club, hook and snare.

The origins of these tools, then, lie far back in the history of mankind and they occur in every part of the world. Perhaps because of this enormous range, both temporal and spatial, they display a remarkable homogeneity of form and though details of construction may be influenced by the materials available, the true determinants of their basic design are demonstrably still those imposed by the nature of the quarry and the conditions in which it is sought.