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Testing the Producer-Consumer Model for Santa Rita Corozal, Belize

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

John E. Dockall  and
Harry J. Shafer
John E. Dockall
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4352
Harry J. Shafer
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4352
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Abstract

The consumer aspect of stone-tool manufacture is an important factor for lithic studies concerned with craft specialization and exchange systems. The dynamic nature of stone-tool production/exchange/use systems can be understood through a technological analysis of producer site assemblages and a functional and technological examination of consumer sites. Chipped-stone assemblages from the producer site of Colhá, Belize, and the consumer site of Santa Rita Corozal, Belize, indicate opposing but interdependent roles within the same exchange system. Preclassic formal tools such as the oval biface and stemmed macroblade were manufactured at workshops in Colhá and exhibit a high degree of specialization and standardization in manufacture. These formal tools were then exchanged beyond the chert-bearing zone of northern Belize to consumer sites such as Santa Rita. Once these formal tools entered the consumption sphere they were used, broken, discarded, or recycled into a variety of second-order expedient tools.

Un factor importante en los estudios líticos que se enfocan en la especialización artesanal y sistemas de intercambio es el aspecto consumidor. El carácter dinámico de los sistemas de producción, intercambio y uso de herramientas líticas se aborda a través de un análisis tecnológico de los materiales recuperados en los centros productores y un análisis funcional y tecnológico en los sitios consumidores. Los análisis de la lítica tallada de pedernal que procede del centro productor de Colhá, Belice, y del pueblo consumidor de Santa Rita Corozal, Belice, indican que estos sitios ocupaban posiciones opuestas, pero interdependientes, dentro del mismo sistema de intercambio. Las herramientas formales del Preclásico, como el bifacial ovalado y la macro-navaja pedunculada, fueron manufacturadas en talleres en Colhá; dichas herramientas exhiben un alto nivel de especialización y estandarización en cuanto a su elaboración. Estos implementos líticos formales fueron exportados fuera de la zona de yacimientos de pedernal en el norte de Belice, hacia varios sitios del consumo, tales como Santa Rita. Una vez dentro de la esfera de consumo, en tanto que herramientas formales, fueron usadas, rotas, descartadas, y por último, recicladas para crear una serie de implementos informales del segundo nivel.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , June 1993 , pp. 158 - 179
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1993

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