The Organization of Chipped-Stone Economies at Piedras Negras ...

8.2: RITUAL PRODUCTION AND DEPOSITION OF CHIPPED-STONE GOODS
I offer an interpretation of these technological and symbolic patterns based on the
theories of practice I outlined in Chapter 2. A combination of a direct historical approach,
ethnographic analogy (see Chapter 2), symbolic interpretation, and lithic analysis shows
that obsidian-eccentric production was an ideologically-loaded activity. Notched-flake
eccentrics made of obsidian represent a form of effigy that was used in royal caches, but
the symbolic content is not limited to the final form. The fact that flakes and blades from
crucial stages in the blade making process were reserved for these ritually-deposited
goods indicates that the process of blade production was related to the periodic creation
of god effigies or idols, which, according to Landa (Tozzer 1941), were ritually
produced. The rarity of obsidian at Piedras Negras may have heightened the importance
of blade manufacture at the site. As the sole source of obsidian bloodletters and
eccentrics, blade making, the passing on of production knowledge, and the display of the
final products could have been important social events that required ritualization or ritual
circumscription. Since the production of obsidian eccentrics was inherently tied to blade
production, it is possible that blade production in general was also a ritualized and an
ideologically-loaded activity. The fact that some residential groups produced blades over
periods of centuries suggests that the transference of esoteric production knowledge was
a guarded practice and was an important factor in creating social identity and personhood
for craft specialists.
Context, technology, and symbolism are all important avenues for interpreting
archaeological finds. These analyses should be done concurrently in order to elucidate
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