Stone artefact production and use in the Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea
This project aims to systematically investigate the logic and methods of stone artefact production and use (in particular sago pounders). Our aims are to record in detail (including through documentary filming) the way that people in the PNG lowlands produce and use stone tools, incorporating cosmological dimensions of production, strategies of exchange, and contexts of use and discard. As such stone artefacts are found in ancient (archaeological) sites located at considerable distances to the south of the known and localized raw material sources, understanding the social and ontological contexts of stone tool production, exchange and use for the ethnographic period will enable us to better situate the region's cultural and cosmological history. This research is a partnership program between various village communities of the Gulf Province in Papua New Guinea, Monash University's School of Geography and Environmental Science, and a French archaeology team led by Prof. Jean Michel Geneste of the Institut de Préhistoire et de Géologie du Quaternaire, UMR 5199 CNRS, University of Bordeaux 1.