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

Another Aztec example indicates that the production of chipped-stone goods was
also ritualized. Elaborate rituals were conducted to pass down lithic production
knowledge to the next generation of craftsmen.
[Then] came the master craftsmen who detached the knives, they also fasted and
prayed, and they detached many knives with which the tongues had to be opened,
and as the kept detaching them they kept placing them on a clean mantle. And if
one should break while being detached, they said they had not fasted properly [in
Kidder, Jennings and Shook 1946:135].
Blades also were removed in Aztec marketplaces, perhaps to ensure customers that the
blades were freshly made, and to demonstrate the ritual component of their manufacture,
thus augmenting the symbolic value of the product. The previous example suggests that
certain periodic production ceremonies required ritual action. The blades themselves
were often used in both bloodletting and manufacturing contexts, which marks them as
symbolically potent goods. Ritual activity was a way of maintaining traditions,
controlling esoteric production knowledge, and producing social identity.
Mayan stone tool production involved similar ritual aspects. As Clark (1989:305)
pointed out, the Lacandon Maya were obliged to observe rites before their knapping
activities, because “an integral part of the ‘technique’ [of arrow head production] was
chanting to the flint and fasting before the actual knapping.” Furthermore, they carried
out production in a temple or “god house” where they were compelled to recite chants to
successfully complete the task. These chants were key in memorizing production
techniques. This case may constitute another example of a doxic practice of ritualized
production. It also has implications for understanding how ritual was an important aspect
of the transmission of technological knowledge from one generation to the next. Integral
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