Kathryn Weedman Arthur has produced a fantastic and delightful book. The Lives of Stone Tools is an ethnographic account of stone tool production and use in late twentieth century Ethiopia. It is a valuable cautionary tale on all of the potential cultural and symbolic meaning prehistoric stone tools may have possessed and manifested, which would be invisible to archaeologists if indeed this meaning were reality for prehistoric people. Of course, we as archaeologists will never definitively know, and there is always a danger of imposing meaning in cases where it did not exist in antiquity. But, at least in this reviewer’s eyes, Arthur’s take home lesson is that we as archaeologists must acknowledge the possibility, perhaps likelihood, of lost meaning. In so doing, we will question, or at least reconsider, the narratives and biases present in the discipline, some of which must be abandoned. Such questioning and reconsideration not only increases human sensitivity and inclusiveness, but also is, in fact, a founding tenet of a scientific approach. In the end, Arthur’s volume reminds us that nothing in science is truly sacred except for the scientific method itself. This method, if faithfully applied, must acknowledge what is, and is not, testable, and if the latter, should not be automatically disregarded, because ideas and theories that are not testable are not necessarily without value. Beyond its relevance to archaeology, Lives is a rich illustration of people, their technology, and their livelihoods. Beautifully and clearly written, Arthur weaves together a tale of deep human-tool relationships. This reviewer was enthralled with just how intense the Gamo’s indigenous ontology was embedded in their stone tools, from a tool’s birth, maturity, and death. Yet this book is as much about the people as it is about their technology, and learning about the status of the Gamo in relation to the larger society in which they live and interact was fascinating. Although all black and white, the images peppered throughout the book are informative and help to paint a vivid picture of the Gamo people. Additionally, several aspects of the book – ranging from discussions of artifact context, form, and use; to raw material procurement; to resharpening; and finally to discard patterns – can serve as models against which the archaeological record can be compared. The Lives of Stone Tools should be required reading for virtually everyone in the archaeological discipline. It is a challenging, rewarding read that has implications for how archaeologists study any kind of material culture. Specifically, it reminds us that we as archaeologists “must consider Indigenous theories of being as equals and as alternatives to Western theories of material culture” (page 234), and that, vitally, these two theory sets are not mutually exclusive.

中文翻译：

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石器的生活：打造燧石匠的地位、技能和身份

Kathryn Weedman Arthur 创作了一本奇妙而令人愉快的书。《石器的生活》是对 20 世纪后期埃塞俄比亚石器生产和使用的民族志记录。这是关于史前石器可能拥有和表现出来的所有潜在文化和象征意义的宝贵警示故事，如果这种意义对于史前人类来说确实是现实，那么考古学家将是看不到这些意义的。当然，我们作为考古学家永远不会确切地知道，而且在古代不存在的情况下，总是存在强加意义的危险。但是，至少在这位评论家看来，亚瑟的教训是我们作为考古学家必须承认失去意义的可能性，也许是可能性。这样做时，我们会质疑，或者至少重新考虑，学科中存在的叙述和偏见，其中一些必须放弃。这种质疑和反思不仅增加了人类的敏感性和包容性，而且实际上也是科学方法的基本原则。最后，亚瑟的书提醒我们，除了科学方法本身，科学中没有任何东西是真正神圣的。这种方法，如果忠实地应用，必须承认什么是可检验的，什么不可检验，如果是后者，不应自动忽视，因为不可检验的想法和理论不一定没有价值。除了与考古学的相关性之外，《生活》还丰富了人们、他们的技术和他们的生计。亚瑟文笔优美而清晰，将人类与工具之间深层关系的故事编织在一起。这位评论家着迷于 Gamo 的本土本体在他们的石器中嵌入的强度，从工具的诞生、成熟到死亡。然而，这本书既是关于人的，也是关于他们的技术的，了解加莫人在他们生活和互动的更大社会中的地位令人着迷。虽然都是黑白的，但贯穿全书的图像信息丰富，有助于描绘加莫人的生动画面。此外，本书的几个方面——包括对工件上下文、形式和使用的讨论；到原材料采购；重磨；最后丢弃模式 - 可以作为可以比较考古记录的模型。几乎每个考古学科的人都应该阅读《石器的生活》。这是一本具有挑战性的、有益的读物，对考古学家如何研究任何一种物质文化都有影响。具体来说，它提醒我们，作为考古学家，我们“必须将土著人的平等理论视为西方物质文化理论的替代品”（第 234 页），而且至关重要的是，这两种理论集并不相互排斥。