The Pima Indians/Technology/Artifacts

by Frank Russell

TECHNOLOGY

Artifacts

The manufactures of the Pimas were few in number and simple in character. It is interesting to compare the number of implements and weapons that are of wood with those made of stone, as this is a people classed as belonging to the Stone Age. It will be noticed that the articles of stone are of little consequence in point of number as compared with those of wood, but the stone objects are of the utmost importance from a cultural standpoint. The metate admits of no wooden substitute, and without it the full food value of maize could not have been utilized nor could wheat raising have been so readily taken up as an agricultural pursuit. Without the stone ax and knife there could have been little done in wood working; architecture would have been modified; agriculture, dependent upon irrigation, would have been all but impossible. In short, these three simple implements, made by striking one stone against another, have sufficed to transform the Pimas from the slaves of a harsh environment, compelled to rend their prey with tooth and nail, into an agricultural people who adapt the environment to their needs and make some provision, however slight, for the future.