ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the range of material culture used by modern hunter-gatherers. It explores the range of different materials utilized by hunter-gatherer groups, with a particular emphasis on organic materials, which often do not survive in the archaeological record. The study of modern hunter-gatherers gives us insights into prehistoric remains, but perhaps more significantly, it also gives us insights into the types of material culture that very rarely survive in the archaeological record, in particular organic materials. Graeme Warren argues convincingly that material culture, in this case lithics, articulated wider meanings, identities and relationships within society. Material culture is intimately bound up in all other aspects of living, being and dwelling and articulates with belief systems, social organization and notions of personhood. The chapter suggests that more general approaches to material culture could very usefully be employed in the study of hunter-gatherer objects.
