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224 Warburton and Duke change to serve as universal time markers (Mulloy 1958: 143). Regardless of any imputed cultural significance, projectile points can be used successfully as the archaeological equivalent of geological index fossils (Frison, Wilson, and Wilson 1974). Attempts to explain morphological variation in points have centered on such processes as ethnicity, functional needs, or even sampling error (e.g., Reher and Frison 1980). For example, Kehoe (1966, 1973) took the normative view that point variation reflected different ethnic groups; thus, the temporal and spatial dynamics of points reflected the movements of prehistoric societies. The normative model is also implicit in Wheat's "mental templates" of Paleo-Indian points at the Olsen-Chubbuck site (Wheat 1972). A departure from a strict culture-history study was made by Calabrese (1972) in an examination of the mensural variation in projectile points recovered from various sites along the Middle Missouri in North Dakota. Despite the plethora of data, however, few cultural explanations were offered for this variation. Calabrese (1972: 4) assumed that the points were manufactured by males and concluded that "the possibility exists that the noted differences may be due to local manufacturing practices of different groups of people" (Calabrese 1972: 69), hinting at the ethnic origins of point variation. Problems with the traditional normative approach to Plains archaeology have been raised elsewhere (Reher and Frison 1980; Duke 1981b). Alternative explanations for point style have been offered by Frison (1978), Hayden (1982), Bamforth (1988), Flenniken and Raymond (1986), and Kelly and Todd (1988). In a lamentably brief discussion, Frison (1978: 344) hypothesized that the elaborate flaking on Paleo-Indian points was part of a symbolism of hunting in that only certain animals were prestigious enough to deserve to be killed by these types of points: "Is the hunting concept an expression of an ideology that was concerned as much with prestige as with provisioning the group? The implements of the Plains hunter, the projectile points, appear in many cases to have been made with more than functional utility in mind. Rewards accrued to the good hunter but whether more for provisioning the group or for maintaining an ideology is not always clear. Neither is it clear whether the ideology of the hunter was dominant enough to bring forth expressions of contempt for gathered food." In this instance at least, we see the possibility of linking style to an understanding of artifacts as symbols situated within specific social and historical contexts, a theme we shall develop later in the chapter. Hayden (1982) explained the extreme stylistic conservatism of PaleoIndian points as the product of the need to maintain long-distance interaction networks. However, regardless of the merits of its argument, Projectile Points as Cultural Symbols 225 Hayden's article did not address the important issue of why the particular messages were encoded on points at all and why they were encoded in specific attributes, in this instance shape and particular flaking patterns. In this section of the chapter, we wish to open up a dialogue on analyzing the symbolic content of projectile points by considering alternative ways at looking at this most "well known" of all Plains artifacts. Our arguments were stimulated by the rich ethnographic documentation of the potential meanings of points. Of course, as is so often the case when a rich ethnography confronts the archaeological record, the archaeologist is dismayed by the paltry evidence left behind to analyze. We concede that the multitude of meanings recoverable from the ethnographic record will not be matched by those recoverable archaeologically. As Rogers (1990: 16) has noted, "there is no easy way to derive meaning from the physical context in the absence of native exegesis." This absence is one obvious reason why archaeologists have shied away from the symbolic and meaning content of their data. We also must concede that the numerous ethnographic references that we noted above do not, with few exceptions, refer specifically to the point alone but rather to the whole arrow. However, we still feel justified in assuming that the point itself also had symbolic power, simply because it is part of the overall object. Needless to say, our arguments are not "processual" in nature in that they are not subject to the particular notions of testability proposed by that school of thought, although as has been pointed out (Courbin 1988; Gibbon 1989), proofh.as been a rather scarce commodity even among some of the processualists. Rather, our arguments are accommodative and provisional, inductive and contextual. At this...

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