Widely held assumptions about static societies during the early-middle Holocene (c. 10,000–3300 BP) in the Willaumez Peninsula, Papua New Guinea are challenged by a hypothetical reconstruction of social negotiations that we propose were embedded within the manufacture of large obsidian stemmed tools that circulated as cultural valuables. Made by skilled knappers, these artefacts were manufactured in stages (quarrying, preform production, shaping, hafting, and re-hafting) often segregated in discrete and possibly restricted locations. The successful completion of a large obsidian stemmed tool may have required effective management to negotiate multiple social networks, thereby enhancing the status of those who directed the process. Social connections forged and re-inforced to support the production process may also have been enhanced by ritual practices. Through the social links created and strengthened by the process of its crafting and the subsequent ceremonies and exchanges in which it circulated, a stemmed tool contributed to a vibrant social life that persisted over several millennia.

巴布亚新几内亚威劳梅斯半岛的早期中期全新世（约 10,000-3300 BP）静态社会的广泛假设受到了社会谈判的假设重建的挑战，我们建议将其嵌入大型黑曜石干工具的制造中作为文化贵重物品流传。这些人工制品由熟练的工匠制作，分阶段制造（采石、预制件生产、成型、加工和重新加工），通常隔离在离散且可能受限的位置。成功完成大型黑曜石茎干工具可能需要有效的管理来协商多个社交网络，从而提高指导该过程的人的地位。为支持生产过程而建立和加强的社会联系也可能通过仪式实践得到加强。通过其制作过程以及随后传播的仪式和交流所创造和加强的社会联系，一个有梗的工具促成了一个持续了数千年的充满活力的社会生活。