Art Reflects Life

[meetmaker]

I was having a delightful conversation with a four year old grandchild about ants and ice cream when the content for this post came to mind. It will take a few sentences for me to get to the point.
A few years back I made a stone axe/celt tool. My intent was to carry it around, using it as much as possible, to learn how these artifacts fit into a primitive culture. I found that there is not much use for them in modern life. I have to warn you that even if you pass a metal detector there are some people who get all bent out of shape about stone axes. You would think there should be a sign. That tool finds use in my kitchen, tenderizing meat, crushing salt, peppercorns, nuts and such. It will cut meat handily when the edge is pressed though the tissue against a board and rolled, not drawn.
Spring, 2010 ,I found a simple and crude tool very similar in design to my axe.
Made of common local sandstone, it was much smaller. At home, it cut and crushed as well ( on a smaller scale ) as mine. On a flat surface it crushed nuts to a more uniform size.
"Child" tools are sometimes see in collections. I believe that much can be told about a culture on how well its women and children are treated.
Are these tools " Child Tools"? If so, what do they mean? Is it like the mother bear, dumping her cubs in the woods at two? Were children expected to fend for themselves as soon as possible? Or, are these more like toys so that children can learn through imitation and play important life skills.
To me, that is a big difference. I would like to hear if there are opinions about the position of children in America's prehistoric past.

[Mojave]

So,… I’m guessing you are a woman.
Kids were probably trained form a very early age to do the chores of adults so that when they came of age they could do their part in the community. Male children were taught male-oriented things and females were taught female-oriented things.
I wasn’t there so I could be wrong though.
Children’s roles were likely as varied as they are in modern cultures and civilizations I suppose.
Was that the question?

[uniface]

Children naturally want to be involved in activities around them and "help."

They also learn task-specific skills pretty well by observing and copying them, minimising the need for formal "teaching" (which I think we read into the picture because that approach to learning ["school"] is what we're used to and generalise).

Little toy-sized tools and points turn up in various assemblages, from Paleo on. That these were made for the little folks would not be a wild supposition.

Interestingly (perhaps), inept work in flintknapping is coming to be recognised by archaeologists as very possibly having been done by beginners making beginners' mistakes.

[drdave514]

"I have to warn you that even if you pass a metal detector there are some people who get all bent out of shape about stone axes."

Now THAT'S funny.

I like your theory. I think many times pieces were just small. Maybe for carrying. Me not know. But I can see where things could have been a kid version.

[DesertWalker]

Wonder if they wore their loincloths about halfassed then too, Mojave?? lol

[Mud Hawk]

Naww, them kid Natives went totally ghetto. Loincloths to the ankles. Down with whitey. Hardcore yo'!

LOL Kids have historically NEVER listened especially with the sacred tobacco.... .