Technical traditions and unquestioned assumptions : the case of pottery in Michoacan

Leeuw, Sander E. van der; Papousek, Dick A.; Coudart, Anick

doi:10.4000/tc.691

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…In consequence, the fact that pottery technological styles were transformed supports the argument that substantial sociocultural transformation occurred around the transition between Lapita and Post-Lapita. Furthermore, the fact that traditional ways of manufacturing pottery were modified at the same time as other important aspects of society strengthens the argument: the increasing regionalisation of pottery decorations (Bedford and Clark 2001); the changes in distribution patterns for Banks Island obsidian (Reepmeyer 2008;Reepmeyer et al 2011); the divergence in languages between the north and the south of Vanuatu (Tryon 1996); and modifications in dietary intake and interindividual diversity in burial rites (Bedford et al 2011;Valentin et al 2016;Valentin et al 2014) all point toward significant changes between Lapita and immediately Post-Lapita periods.…”

Section: Terra Australis 52mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Considering that pottery manufacture, funerary rites and dietary habits are generally conservative practices (Arnold 1992:159;Valentin et al 2014), it is suggested that these changes most probably affected every aspect of the society: economic, symbolic, religious and political. Whether these changes resulted from adaptive responses to changing climatic conditions or the arrival of new populations as suggested by Valentin et al (2016) is an interesting question. Generally, the fact that a similar process of simplification of decorated Lapita pottery assemblages has been recorded from the Arawes (Summerhayes 2000a), the Mussau group (Hunt 1989;Kirch 2000:113) and now in Vanuatu attests that there was some kind of continuing communication between the communities and that a general regionalisation process was occurring.…”

Section: Terra Australis 52mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lapita to Post-Lapita transition: Insights from the chemical analysis of pottery from the sites of Teouma, Mangaasi, Vao and Chachara, Vanuatu

Leclerc¹

2019

Debating Lapita: Distribution, Chronology, Society and Subsistence

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Lapita and Post-Lapita ceramic collections from four archaeological sites scattered across two of the main islands of Vanuatu were characterised using LA-ICP-MS. Results from the analysis of 112 ceramic samples show that the decorated ceramics from Lapita sites are generally more compositionally variable than the later assemblages. Not only do the early sites contain more exotic samples, but the early locally made decorated vessels also display a wider compositional range. This is interpreted as revealing behaviours of potters initially settling into new territories before developing recurrent habits in terms of pottery manufacture. The decrease in variability of the technological styles encountered between Lapita and Post-Lapita occupations suggest that important social modifications occurred: increasingly sedentary populations, changes in the social structure and political economy, and the collapse of the symbolic Lapita belief system and its ceremonial practices. Source: Illustration by author. 17. Lapita to Post-Lapita transition 351 terra australis 52 Technological style During the course of pottery manufacturing, as is the case for any object produced, many technological choices have to be taken by the potter in order to reach their goal and produce a ceramic vessel that is satisfying in every aspect (performance, appearance, economic and symbolic role, etc.). These behaviours are adopted and chosen among a vast array of equifinal possibilities based on choices that are meaningful socially, economically and ideologically (Lechtman 1977; Rye 1976; Sillar and Tite 2000). Technology can thus be considered as 'the materialisation of social thought' (Dobres and Hoffman 1994:221). If we consider 'style' as the manifest impression of cultural patterning (Lechtman 1977:4), or in other words as the part of formal variability in material culture that is culturally significant, active and conveying information (Conkey 1978; Wobst 1977:321), then technology has a style of its own. This technological style comprises the stylistic elements embedded into its technological features and is the expression, on the level of technological behaviour, of underlying cultural values,

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Section: Terra Australis 52mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Terra Australis 52mentioning

confidence: 99%

Lapita to Post-Lapita transition: Insights from the chemical analysis of pottery from the sites of Teouma, Mangaasi, Vao and Chachara, Vanuatu

Leclerc¹

2019

Debating Lapita: Distribution, Chronology, Society and Subsistence

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“…Some aspects of technological style or design choice may reflect distinct learning communities and fields of interaction (Dietler and Herbich 1998). In particular, the shaping stage of vessel manufacture, which depends on ingrained motor habits, has proven to be particularly conservative and resistant to change in a way that corresponds to social identities in many ethnographic studies (Arnold 1998:358; Gosselain 2000; Reina and Hill 1978:230; Rice 1984; van der Leeuw et al 1992). On the Atlantic coast, Wallis (2011) observed patterned spatial variation in rim thickness that may have corresponded with conservative, kin-based networks of learning and corroborated the chemical and mineralogical identification of nonlocal vessels.…”

Section: Description Of the Databasementioning

confidence: 99%

Social Networks and Networked Scholars

Pluckhahn¹,

Wallis

2017

Adv. archaeol. pract.

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We describe the development of an open-access database for Swift Creek Complicated Stamped ceramics, a type of pottery common to Georgia, eastern Alabama, and northern Florida in the Middle and Late Woodland periods between ca. cal A.D. 100 and 800. The characteristic stamped designs on Swift Creek pottery, created by impressing a carved paddle into a clay vessel before firing, provide unique signatures that enable archaeologists to identify paddle matches—multiple vessels, sometimes hundreds of kilometers apart, stamped with a single paddle. These paddle matches potentially allow archaeologists to trace social interactions across hundreds of kilometers with high spatial and temporal resolution. To date, however, this potential has been hindered by the limited accessibility and fragmented nature of the dataset of reconstructed designs. The database we describe integrates paddle designs with other pertinent data for identifying paddle matches and their context, including the results of sourcing and technofunctional analyses and absolute dating. We view this database not only as a critical component of our own research, but also as a platform for collaboration among researchers that will facilitate broad syntheses of the region.

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“…Another way to describe this change would be to use typologies of production organization developed by Van der Leeuw, 10 Peacock, 11 Brumfiel and Earle,12 and Costin. 13 Brumfiel and Earle's typology,14 for example, classified craft specialists as either independent or attached.…”

Section: The Social Organization Of Pottery Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Arnold¹

2015

The Evolution of Ceramic Production Organization in a Maya Community

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Technical traditions and unquestioned assumptions : the case of pottery in Michoacan

Cited by 10 publications

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Lapita to Post-Lapita transition: Insights from the chemical analysis of pottery from the sites of Teouma, Mangaasi, Vao and Chachara, Vanuatu

Lapita to Post-Lapita transition: Insights from the chemical analysis of pottery from the sites of Teouma, Mangaasi, Vao and Chachara, Vanuatu

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