Symmetries of Culture: Theory and Practice of Plane Pattern Analysis by Dorothy K. Washburn , Donald W. Crowe

Ethnoarchaeological studies have longed served as a critical source of hypotheses, comparative data, and explanatory frameworks for archaeologists interested in describing and explaining ceramic production. In this paper, I lay out the central questions addressed by archaeologists studying craft production, discuss how ethnoarchaeology has contributed to our understanding of ancient production systems, and suggest avenues of further research that can benefit archaeological investigation of the organization of ceramic production.

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The Use of Ethnoarchaeology for the Archaeological Study of Ceramic Production

My ethnoarchaeological experience among the Kalinga changed forever the way I look at pottery. When I pick up a vessel and see the patterns of soot, I can also smell the smoky wood fire as it curls around the pot and then rises slowly to the roof. The charred residue over the lip makes me envision a boil-over and a doused fire because a cook was distracted by a fussy baby. As I run my fingers over the surface of a vessel I can see the clay-stained fingers of the potter, skillfully shaping the wall with a paddle and anvil as she jokes with the other potters.

Understanding Pottery Function

Ceramic bowls from the Greater Southwest are used to show how changes in the exterior decoration of serving vessels are associated with the proxemics of ritual performances. Across the northern Southwest the first use of exterior designs and polychrome ceramics is during the Pueblo III period, which corresponds to a shift in settlement aggregation and the use of open plaza spaces. With the transition to the more enclosed plazas of the Early Pueblo IV period, smaller and less visible exterior designs were used. The trend reversed itself with the use of larger plazas at later Pueblo IV period sites, where serving bowls with greater visual impact were used. Panregional trends are bolstered by a case study from the Mogollon Rim region of Arizona to show how changes in the visual performance characteristics of bowls are associated with the spatial and social proxemics of suprahousehold feasting rituals. I use several characteristics of serving bowls including their size, slip colors, paint and slip contrasts, and the size of exterior designs. These are related to the size and diversity of performance spaces, including plazas, and to other evidence for changes in feasting practices, such as roasting features and faunal remains. I conclude that the changes seen in serving vessels are important for looking at shifts in the scale, visibility, and diversity of public gatherings within Ancestral Pueblo social and ritual trajectories.

Performing the feast: visual display and suprahousehold commensalism in the puebloan southwest

The last decade has seen a surge in ceramic ethnoarchaeological studies worldwide, covering such important topics as ceramic production, technological change, ceramic use and distribution, and social boundaries. Some of the most exciting new Americanist research helps archaeologists refine models of ceramic production. Increasing numbers of non-Americanist studies use a technology and culture framework to examine manufacturing variability, the dynamics of cultural transmission between generations, and the articulation between ceramic technology and social boundaries. This review summarizes these recent trends, places current ethnoarchaeological research in its theoretical contexts, and looks to the future of research in a dynamic landscape in which ceramic production systems are undergoing rapid change. Many varieties of research currently now fall under the rubric of ceramic ethnoarchaeology, and Americanist archaeologist are encouraged to look beyond their own regionalist and theoretical paradigms to consult this wider literature.

Current Issues in Ceramic Ethnoarchaeology

Large collections of ethnographic ceramics created over multiyear periods of intensive collecting provide a way to bridge discrepancies between the temporal scales of ethnographic studies based on single field visits and archaeological analyses of assemblages accumulated over much longer periods of time. The Smithsonian's Stevenson collections of Zuni ceramics, consisting of 3500 vessels, were assembled in three intensive field seasons over a 6-year period. They are particularly useful for addressing questions about rates of stylistic change and the relative use-lives of vessel forms and sizes with known ethnographic functions.

Margaret A. Hardin

Papers

The social and historical context of short-term stylistic replacement: A Zuni case study