Overview

Crafting and craft objects intersect with all cultural domains: economic, social, political, and rituall. Craft goods are social objects that assume an importance beyond household maintenance and reproduction. They signify and legitimize group membership and social roles, and become reserves of wealth, storing intrinsically valuable materials and the labor invested in their manufacture. Specialized craft producers are actors involved in the creation and maintenance of social networks, wealth, and social legitimacy. Artisans and consumers must accept, create or negotiate the social legitimacy of production and the conditions of production and distribution, usually defined in terms of social identity. The nature of that process defines the organization of production and the social relations of production systems and explanations for their form and dynamic are destined to be unidimensional and unidirectional, lacking in key elements of social process and social behavior. This volume addresses the questions of artisan identify, social identify, and what these inquiries contribute to understandings about social organization and economic organization.

Full Product Details

Author:   Cathy Lynne Costin ,  Rita P. Wright ,  Elizabeth M Brumfiel
Publisher:   American Anthropological Association
Imprint:   American Anthropological Association
Volume:   8
Dimensions:   Width: 21.30cm , Height: 1.00cm , Length: 27.50cm
Weight:   0.458kg
ISBN:  

9780913167908

ISBN 10:   0913167908
Pages:   190
Publication Date:   17 April 2012
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

Contributors Preface I. Introduction Introduction: Craft and Social Identity Cathy Lynne Costin II. Dimensions of Artisan Identity Crafts, Chiefs, and Commoners: Production and Control in Precontact Hawai'i Barbara Lass Craft Specialization, Gender, and Personhood among the Post-conquest Maya of Yucatan, Mexico John E. Clark and Stephen D. Houston Craft Production and Social Identity in Northwest Mesopotamia Patricia Wattenmaker Crafting Social Identity in Ur III Southern Mesopotamia Rita P. Wright Elite Maya Pottery and Artisans as Social Indicators Dorie Reents-Budet III. Crafting and the Social Order Crafting Cultural Identity in Hunter-Gatherer Economies Kenneth E. Sassaman Social Identity and Specialization among Toro Iron Workers in Western Uganda S. Terry Childs Housewives, Chosen Women, Skilled Men: Cloth Production and Social Identity in the Late Prehispanic Andes Cathy Lynne Costin IV. Avenues to Presige and Power The Multiple Identities of Aztec Craft Specialists Elizabeth M. Brumfiel Ritual Craft Specialists in Middle Range Societies Katherine A. Spielman Identity and Social Action among South Indian Craft Producers of the Vijayanagara Period Carla M. Sinopoli Index

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Author Information

Cathy Lynne Costin is Professor of Anthropology at California State University, Northridge. Her research areas are Craft production and specialization, divisions of labor, gender, political economy and social inequality, evolution of complex society, exchange Andean, South America, ceramics, textiles, and protection of cultural property. Rita P. Wright is Professor of Anthropology at New York University. She studies urbanism; state formation; gender relations; the ancient Near East; and South Asia.

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