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Lithic Deposits as Waste Management: Reply to Healan and to Hester and Shafer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Hattula Moholy-Nagy
Hattula Moholy-Nagy*
Affiliation:
Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079
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Abstract

Here I can only briefly address some of the issues raised by Healan (1992) and by Hester and Shafer (1992). I conclude that although ethnoarchaeology can provide generally valid analogies to lithic production and discard in the past, experimental archaeology will be needed to understand specific details of site formation.

Debitage disposal is affected, among other factors, by site size, settlement density, and length of occupation. The investigation of intersite variability in waste management will give us important insights into the organization of lithic industries in Prehispanic Mesoamerica.

Aquí me refiero brevemente a los argumentos señalados por Healan (1992) y por Hester y Shafer (1992). Yo concluyo que aunque la etnoarqueología puede darnos analogías generalmente válidas para la producción y desecho líticos en el pasado, la arqueología experimental será necesaria para explicar detalles específicos de los procesos de formación de sitio.

Los patrones de desecho de basura lítica son afectados, entre otros factores, por el tamaño del sitio y por la densidad y duración de su ocupación. El estudio de la variabilidad entre sitios en su manera de disponer de sus desechos líticos podrá darnos datos importantes sobre la organización de las industrias líticas en Mesoamérica prehispánica.

Type
Comments
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , September 1992 , pp. 249 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1992

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References

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