Did Cavewomen Make Stone Tools?

A survey of one of the few remaining cultures that still makes and uses stone tools, the Konso of southern Ethiopia, reveals that women dominate the toolmaking process.

The finding suggests that the image of men as stone toolmakers in both present and past history may have to be retooled to include women.

According to the survey and study, the Konso make stone tools for scraping and cleaning animal hides used for bedding, clothing, bags and other products. Out of the 119 hide workers identified, 75 percent were women.

The findings will be presented at the June 2003 World Archaeological Conference-5 in Washington, D.C., and at an upcoming Society for American Archaeology meeting.

Kathryn Weedman, a University of Florida anthropology lecturer, and Steve Brandt, an anthropology professor at the university, participated in the Konso project.

They observed that hide workers obtained chert, agate/chalcedony and quartz stones, which were later flaked by pounding. The sharp-edged stones were then hafted into wooden handles and secured with resin. The resulting scraper exemplifies stone tools that go back thousands of years in the archaeological record.

Stone tools are not only built to last, but evidence for them dates back 2.6 million years, according to Weedman. Pottery and metal tools were not introduced until 5,000-10,000 years ago.

The Konso, rural intensive agriculturists who live in densely populated villages in the Ethiopian highlands, also use iron, other metals and plastics, but continue to work with stone because of its durability and traditional use, particularly among women, in preparing hides.

"Women overwhelmingly dominate the toolmaking process," Brandt told Discovery News. "It is likely that men as stone toolmakers for hide working are very recent in this culture."

The Konso project is in collaboration with the Ethiopian Authority for Research and Conservation of the Cultural Heritage.

While it is unclear how long the Konso have been making stone tools, their traditional ways may shed light on such work in the past.

"The Konso can serve as a model and as a source to generate hypotheses that archaeologists can test against their archaeological Stone Age material," said Brandt. "Our work shows clearly that there is absolutely no reason why (women) couldn't have been responsible for stone tool making in Stone Age times."

Margaret Conkey, professor of anthropology and director of the Archaeological Research Facility at the University of California, Berkeley, agreed with the findings and was not surprised by them.

Conkey said, "The idea that females (throughout history) sat around and waited for males to make or even sharpen the tools for them or did not themselves use tools is rather unimaginable indeed!"

She added, "What Weedman and Brandt have done is give us a good, in-depth look at exactly how (stone toolmaking) goes on in a particular society, with adequate attention to the tools, the learning contexts and the social and technological practices, so that for those not previously informed (or predisposed to accept) the idea of 'woman the toolmaker,' they provide a compelling case study."