Glue=A natural occuring substance; as in hide glue, fish glue, pine pitch glue
Adhesive=Mand made from chemicles; elmers wood glue 'super glue', gorilla glue. These are called glues but are in reality adhesives.
Our ancesters/forefathers used a glue made from pine resin (the hard,dried pine pitch fund on pine trees) with powdered charcoal as a binder. This was used to glue stone arrow and spear points to the shaft. For woodworking, the colonials used fish glue. Made from boiled codfish air bladders. I have used both of these and found them quite adequite when used for the intended purpose. I use the fish glue(available from Lee Valley Tools) quite a bit.
My wife and I are living historians /reenactors and make all our gear, accrouterments,clothes,etc as historicaly accurate as possible.
One of the main reasons I took up blacksmithing.