A tomahawk is a type of single-handed axe used by the many Indigenous peoples and nations of North America. It traditionally resembles a hatchet with a straight shaft. In pre-colonial times the head was made of stone, bone, or antler, and European settlers later introduced heads of iron and steel. The term came into the English language in the 17th century as an adaptation of the Powhatan (Virginian Algonquian) word.

Tomahawks were general-purpose tools used by Native Americans and later the European colonials with whom they traded, and often employed as a hand-to-hand weapon

Etymology

The name comes from Powhatan tamahaac, derived from the Proto-Algonquian root *temah- ‘to cut off by tool’. Algonquian cognates include Lenape təmahikan, Malecite-Passamaquoddy tomhikon, and Abenaki demahigan, all of which mean ‘axe’

History

The Algonquian people created the tomahawk. Before Europeans came to the continent, Native Americans would use stones, sharpened by a process of knapping and pecking, attached to wooden handles, secured with strips of rawhide. The tomahawk quickly spread from the Algonquian culture to the tribes of the South and the Great Plains.

Native Americans created a tomahawk’s poll, the side opposite the blade, which consisted of a hammer, spike or pipe. These became known as pipe tomahawks, which consisted of a bowl on the poll and a hollowed out shaft.

General Purpose Tool

Many Native Americans used tomahawks as general-purpose tools. Because they were small and light, they could be used with one hand. This made them ideal for such activities as hunting, chopping, and cutting. Both the Navajo and Cherokee peoples used them in this way. The development of metal-bladed tomahawks expanded their use even more. Most Native Americans had their own individual tomahawks, which they decorated to suit their personal taste. As Native American artwork shows, many of these were decorated with eagle feathers, which represented acts of bravery.

Megathreads and spaces to hang out:

reminders:

  • 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
  • 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears
  • 💜 Sorting by new you nerd
  • 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can reserve a spot here nerd
  • 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon instance toots.matapacos.dog

Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):

Aid:

Theory:

  • sewer_rat_420 [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    15
    ·
    4 days ago

    Hey everyone - I currently work in the growing gig economy of “AI training”. It isn’t really something I would recommend broadly, but I know that some people might appreciate some insight into it from my experience. It might work for some people as a good way to earn low-stress part-time remote work money. My personal experience, as someone with an advanced degree in the USA, I have been able to make at minimum $25/hr but on some occasions much much more ($60/hr PLUS “generous” incentives for completing a set number of tasks is the best I have gotten), although the availability of work is sometimes scarce and frustrating, and the biggest company in this space is downright evil and also incompetent.

    I was considering that an effortpost about it given my experiences might be valuable to some people - it isn’t anything I would recommend as a permanent reliable source of income but for now there is money that can be made if you are lucky. Would people be interested?

      • sewer_rat_420 [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        3 days ago

        Bro, glad there is another outlier-er on here. Fuck them in general, even though I have had some good projects lately it was never worth the stress.

        I have just gotten onto stellar ai, it seems to be much better so far. There was a screening asseessment, then a few days later I got approved and immediately added to a project. Training was paid, and now I am on a project making $25/hr to basically create instructions for web browsing. They also will pay you partial pay if there are factors that prevent you from completing a task. I don’t know how big it is compared to Outlier but I definitely think there is room for more competition because Outlier is just ran so god damn inefficiently IMO.

        • corgiwithalaptop [any, love/loves]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          3 days ago

          Yeah Outlier has tons of problems. I’ll check out Stellar. Outlier has me at 25 or 30 an hour depending on the project, the problem becomes there’s not much consistency in when I can actually work, so it’s still hard to make ends meet sometimes (been out of full time work for over a year now)

          • sewer_rat_420 [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            3 days ago

            I have had a 2 month period where I could get little work - any project I got either was bugged out for me or I just failed the asseessments. Recently, I was on a project that paid me $50/hr and for a week had missions with massive rewards (up to $500, although I usually couldn’t get enough tasks to hit that mark). But just in that week I was able to make enough money to cover my bills for the rest of the year. I am trying to keep making some money on AI as I look for a permanent full time job, but definitely the inconsistency is very bad and it isn’t something I can only recommend with extreme caveats. Post is coming soon though