Traditional glue, adhesive and poison used for composite weapons by ju/'hoan san in nyae nyae, Namibia. implications for the evolution of hunting equipment in prehistory.

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dc.citation.doi10.1371/journal.pone.0140269en_ZA
dc.citation.issue10en_ZA
dc.contributor.authorWadley, L.
dc.contributor.authorTrower, G.
dc.contributor.authorBackwell, L.
dc.contributor.authorD'Errico, F.
dc.date.accessioned2016-11-11T12:12:51Z
dc.date.available2016-11-11T12:12:51Z
dc.date.issued2015-10
dc.description.abstractJu/'hoan hunters from Nyae Nyae, near Tsumkwe in Namibia, demonstrate the manufacture of three fixative pastes made from plant extracts, and poison made from grubs and plant extracts. Ammocharis coranica and Terminalia sericea produce simple glue. Ozoroa schinzii latex mixed with carbonized Aristeda adscensionis grass is a compound adhesive. Composite poison is made from Chrysomelid grub viscera mixed with salivary extracts of Acacia mellifera inner bark and the tuber sap of Asparagus exuvialis. In order to document potential variability in the chaîne opératoire, and to eliminate inherent biases associated with unique observations, we studied manufacturing processes in three separate Nyae Nyae villages. Although there are methodological similarities in the Nyae Nyae area, we observed a few differences in contemporary traditions of poison manufacture. For example, some hunters make powder from Asparagus exuvialis tuber sap by boiling, reducing, hardening and grinding it, while others simply use heated sap. The Ju/'hoan hunting kit provides insights for archaeologists, but we must exercise caution when looking for continuity between prehistoric and historical technical systems. Some traditions have been lost to modern hunters, while others are new. We should also expect variability in the Stone Age because of geographically restricted resources. Simple glue, compound adhesive, and poison recipes identified in the Stone Age have no modern equivalents. By about 60,000 years ago at Diepkloof, simple glue was used for hafting tools, but at similarly-aged Sibudu there are recipes that combine red ochre powder with plant and/or animal ingredients. At Border Cave, novel poisons and compound adhesives were used in the Early Later Stone Age. It is possible that the complexity that we record in the manufacture of fixative pastes and poison used by Ju/'hoan hunters represents a hafting system both similar to and different from that observed at the Stone Age sites of Diepkloof, Sibudu, and Border Cave.en_ZA
dc.description.librarianSP2016en_ZA
dc.description.sponsorshipLW acknowledges, with thanks, a National Research Foundation (NRF) African Origins Platform grant (91595) (www.nrf.ac.za).en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationWadley, L. et al. 2015. Traditional glue, adhesive and poison used for composite weapons by ju/'hoan san in nyae nyae, Namibia. implications for the evolution of hunting equipment in prehistory. PLoS ONE 10(10): e0140269.en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn1932-6203
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10539/21444
dc.journal.titlePLoS ONEen_ZA
dc.journal.volume10en_ZA
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherPublic Library of Scienceen_ZA
dc.rights© 2015 Wadley et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.en_ZA
dc.subjectArchaeologistsen_ZA
dc.subjectCell adhesionen_ZA
dc.subjectComposite materialsen_ZA
dc.subjectHuntingen_ZA
dc.subjectArchaeologyen_ZA
dc.subjectHunting and Trappingen_ZA
dc.subjectAcacia melliferaen_ZA
dc.subjectAmmocharis coranicaen_ZA
dc.subjectAristeda adscensionisen_ZA
dc.subjectAsparagus exuvialisen_ZA
dc.subjectbarken_ZA
dc.subjectChrysomelidaeen_ZA
dc.subjectcontrolled studyen_ZA
dc.subjectevolutionen_ZA
dc.subjectgeographyen_ZA
dc.subjectgrassen_ZA
dc.subjectgrindingen_ZA
dc.subjectgruben_ZA
dc.subjectmedicinal planten_ZA
dc.subjectNamibiaen_ZA
dc.subjectnonhumanen_ZA
dc.subjectOzoroa schinziien_ZA
dc.subjectStone Ageen_ZA
dc.subjectTerminalia sericeaen_ZA
dc.subjecttuber yielden_ZA
dc.subjectweaponen_ZA
dc.titleTraditional glue, adhesive and poison used for composite weapons by ju/'hoan san in nyae nyae, Namibia. implications for the evolution of hunting equipment in prehistory.en_ZA
dc.typeArticleen_ZA
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