SPEAKING THROUGH STONES - A STUDY FROM NORTHERN AUSTRALIA

Long-term ethnoarchaeological research with an Aboriginal community in northern Australia demonstrates how information is transmitted as par t of the exchange of goods. The type of information communicated range s from mundane material to highly abstract and sophisticated stories d ealing with the creation of the cosmos. This research gives a new pers pective on trade and brings into question more conventional analyses w hich regard hunter-gatherer artefacts as being primarily utilitarian i tems.