Gender Prehistory: Shaping Techniques applied to Osseous Artefacts

Abstract

Scraping and abrasion are quite ancient and universal techniques. On bone, antler, and teeth, these two techniques can sometimes be used for the reduction sequence but mainly serve for shaping, even though chronological, cultural, and geographical gradients can be observed. In some archaeological assemblages, during the European Neolithic for example, abrasion dominates whatever the type of object manufactured. In contrast, in the Arctic Pre-Inuit and Inuit contexts scraping largely predominates. Our goal is to question the variations from an almost complete exclusivity for only one technical practice to a mix of both. In particular, could the sexual division of labour influence both the technical and social spheres of activity? Why for a given type of artifact is a clear choice sometimes made for only one technique when both scraping and abrading are encountered within a single assemblage? To address these questions, we compared data obtained from different socio-economic and environmental contexts. The techniques used to produce osseous and lithic tools by Neolithic and Epipaleolithic groups from Europe, Near East and Maghreb have been analyzed and compared to those encountered in the American Arctic societies. Ethnographical comparisons help in analyzing potential links between techniques, lifestyles and gender. High-mobility, hunter-gatherer subsistence and scraping seem to be in association and opposed to sedentary, farming, milling, women activity and abrasion.