I'm not sure the derivation of the term, but manuports describe items transported to sites as raw materials, but not themselves altered for use as tools. It can cover paintstones, such as graphite or hematite, raw material to be utilized, but also items that have been called "magic stones" or "shaman stones". These are things like quartz crystals, gastroliths(dinosaur gizzard stones), other nice crystals, etc. that one might expect to find in a shaman's kit. This is likely where your long time collector friends got that idea. Generally, demonstrating the cultural association is done by the presence of other artifacts, in the case of say a nice quartz crystal seemingly out of place otherwise, or by the types of wear they display, like graphite showing powder was scratched out of it. Finding it in a midden demonstrates some cultural association. If a person knows a camp really well, from years of hunting that camp, you can get a good feel for things out of place and that might have been transported there. Tough call when something isn't really altered. If part of a shaman's("medicine man") kit, gotta wonder why he might toss it in a midden? Then again, anything can end up in a midden, even burials at times. if it's even more translucent then your camera shows, as you say, I can see why the old timers thought part of shaman's kit. But obviously, anybody at anytime could like it enough to collect it. I collect fossils and so did the people who lived here before me as I find fossils on campsites that were most likely transported there. You won't really be able to prove what that rock was all about to whoever collected it in the past, but I know I enjoy finds like this. More then just another tool in some ways.
