Connaissance and Savoir-Faire: A Chaîne Opératoire Perspective on the Lithic Industries at the Iler Earthworks (AaHr-22), Essex County, Ontario

Abstract

In a chaîne opératoire or ‘operational sequence’ conceptual framework, reduction technologies are recognized as an entangled, stepwise enactment of human knowledge (connaissance) and skill (savoir-faire). Through this model, as discussed in Chapter One, lithic assemblages may be situated within sets of Indigenous traditional knowledge marked by lifelong engagements between practitioners and their materials. In Chapter Two, this study adopts a coupling of the chaîne opératoire theory with an attribute-based analysis of extant primary and secondary sourced lithic materials recovered from the Late Woodland Iler Earthworks (AaHr-22) in Essex County, Ontario, in an effort to illuminate embedded stone economizing behaviours such as raw material acquisition and core reduction, as well as object manufacture, use, and discard.