Glass Tools in Archaeology

Abstract

Abstract Glass that appears in archaeological contexts outside of the communities of its production and shows use as toolstone for lithic-like industries can be described as remanufactured. Such artifacts are commonly associated with contact encounters, most frequently with European colonial expansion. This article reviews the literature on remanufactured glass and argues that (1) much experimental and analytical work remains to develop coherent identification criteria, especially for expedient forms, and (2) such objects challenge archaeological orthodoxies in the definition of culture and its material manifestations. We argue that objects with manufacturing histories that span cultural contexts are a highly visible illustration of the hybridity in all cultural gestures. Hybridization is not a transaction between disparate, homogenous cultural regimes, but emerges from individual quotidian acts. Culture as a result, is not an entity, but the acceptance of coherence.

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