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Escapable Errors in Employing Ethnohistory in Archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Charles S. Fletcher
Charles S. Fletcher*
Affiliation:
Tulane UniversityNew Orleans, Louisiana
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Abstract

In a recent article which appeared in American Antiquity, Don E. Crabtree reported the results of his experiments in reproducing aboriginal prismatic flaked blades. In his excursion into the ethnohistory of obsidian blade making, Crabtree unfortunately relied on an inaccurate English translation of the Spanish Fr. Juan de Torquemada's account of the process. As a supplement to Crabtree's otherwise excellent article, Torquemada's original Spanish text is presented herein, along with a translation and comments on Crabtree's interpretation of the faulty translation.

Type
Facts and Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , April 1970 , pp. 209 - 213
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1970

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