Abstract:-Megalithic monuments are not the simple resultant anthropogenic structure but are the immovable media that embody deeper set of meanings relating to how the material themselves are perceived and understood to the builders within a social system. Hence, their significant manipulation as external symbolic storage is well connected with the peoples' cultural mundane deportment. And the collective and complex cultural identities of the builders may be perceived through cultural channels intentional treatment of these monuments that allow us for a better identification of different layers of social identity. The present paper is an attempt to explore such domains related to the living megalithic tradition among the Poumai Naga tribes who inhabit the Oinam village in the Senapati District, Manipur (India). It is seen that the Poumai traditional way of erecting large stone monuments is related with their materialization as external symbolic storage, manifesting one's wealth and attainment of social status, and thus acts a material means to communicate and manipulate ideas to the viewers.
The present discussion aims at the exposition of the nature as well as the communicative insights of the Pleistocene stone artifacts reported so far from different Paleolithic sites in Manipur, at two levels; first, an assessment of the intelligence level of the authors who made these lithic artifacts is attempted by employing Piagetian theory of genetic epistemology; and secondly, a simple endeavor to surmise the reduction strategies of the Paleolithic artifacts. It is likely that the authors of the Paleolithic core tools (especially bifacial/s) in Manipur applied both the pre-operational means of organization and operational spatial organization in making the tools. The Mode 1 to 4 technologies in all the Paleolithic assemblages are relatively simple and characterized by the less-refined form of core and flake (including blade) reduction technologies, geared towards attaining greater control over either the debitage or faconnage operational systems.
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