Willey and Phillips (1958) have stated that traditions are culture
elements extending over long periods of time and often transgressing
various culture boundaries present in an area. Traditions are not
horizon-markers but may serve to unify a given series of occupations in
a locality (e.g. painted pottery is a tradition in the Southwest.)
At LoDaisKa there are few such distinctive elements that transgress
cultural periods other than rather common functional tools such as
scrapers, but these few may be worth noting. One of these concerns a
special type of handstone with four working planes as described above.
These are present from complex A through D. Another tradition concerns
the use of local stone. In general finer flinty types were used for
knives, gravers and some types of scrapers, while grainy quartzite was
most often used for projectile points. Distance from sources probably
influenced the use of flinty types. The nearest quarry area appears
to be about fifteen miles away; beds of quartzite are found somewhat
closer. It is probable that access to both supplies led the people to
use flinty type where a good cutting edge was important, but grainy
varieties for tipping weapons. The grainy structure of quartzite makes
it break less cleanly on the edges but renders it less likely to snap
on sudden impact.
Another tradition lies in the use of small points. Many of the
projectile point forms may be identical in general characteristics with
points from other areas which are apparently culturally connected, but
they are consistently a little smaller. Perhaps such a phenomenon was a
by-product of the scarcity of material. In this connection one should
note that in all the cultures common native rock quartz was almost
invariably employed for large chopping tools. Another point of interest
is the almost total absence of cores. Raw material when found was
usually in the form of large flat flakes. The initial roughing out must
have taken place at the source.
Another tradition is the use of mica for “ornaments” extending from
Complex B through D. A tradition for the area was the cultivation from
early times of a certain amount of corn, as revealed by pollen analysis
and a few specimens of seeds or cobs. However, the type of corn used
was not the same throughout. Three major varieties were present.
There are two explanations for these local traditions: either a
tradition was handed down from one cultural group to another through
long periods of time, or the peculiar ecological position of the
Morrison biome dictated such a course. Probably the answer lies in
the combination of these; certainly for stone use the environment was
an important factor, but for the handstone type, the environmental
explanation does not seem entirely adequate.