An Alyawara Day: Making Men's Knives and beyond

Abstract

The manufacture of men"s knives by Alyawara-speaking Australian Aborigines is described.1 The setting is a men's camp at the site of Bendaijerum near MacDonald Downs in central Australia. Obtaining the raw material, the lithic blanks, and the spinifex resin used in manufacture has already been described (Binford 1984; Binford and O'Connell 1984). This essay treats the social context and the technical process of tool production as it was observed among the Alyawara during the winter of 1974. These experiences then serve as the basis for a discussion of the concept of style and for an analysis of some common views regarding settlement typology.