Comment on The Chaîne Opératoire Approach in Middle Paleolithic Archaeology

This authoritative review prompts several important reflections. First, operational sequences (OSs) occur much more widely in nature and culture. For example, Hill and Behrensmeyer (1984) established the OS of disarticulation of animal carcasses under conditions of natural decomposition. In these cases, there is no agency involved. But OS descriptions of gorilla leaf processing certainly involve agency (Byrne 2003), although we may dispute the intentionality in those actions. Demonstration of OS alone, therefore, does not establish either agency or intentionality.