Arrowheads, folklore, and documentary sources. (2nd April 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Whittaker, John C.
• Is Part Of: Plains anthropologist. Volume 61:Number 238(2016)
• Page Start: 177
• Page End: 187
• Publication Date: 2016-04-02
• Subjects: arrowhead -- projectile point -- ethnographic analogy -- documentary evidence -- fire and water knapping; Indians of North America -- Great Plains -- Periodicals; Great Plains -- Antiquities -- Periodicals; 306.0978
• DOI: 10.1080/00320447.2015.1138032
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0032-0447

Abstract

Abstract : Documentary sources, even some that appear to be eyewitness accounts of events and processes of interest to archaeologists, must be carefully evaluated. Some are infected by the folklore of the time, and some of this folklore has thus crept into archaeological "knowledge." Our analysis of arrows and projectile points represents one example where traditional understandings derived from ethnographic sources and contemporary documents should be questioned.