Speaking through stones: A study from northern Australia

Abstract

Long‐term ethnoarchaeological research with an Aboriginal community in northern Australia demonstrates how information is transmitted as part of the exchange of goods. The type of information communicated ranges from mundane material to highly abstract and sophisticated stories dealing with the creation of the cosmos. This research gives a new perspective on trade and brings into question more conventional analyses which regard hunter‐gatherer artefacts as being primarily utilitarian items. © Routledge 1994.