Advances in Ceramic Ethnoarchaeology

Ceramic ethnoarchaeology has developed considerably since Kramer's (Kramer, 1985, Annual Review of Anthropology 14: 77–102) review. More sophisticated readings of social theory and analyses that consider multiple variables and levels of variability have led to better understandings of social boundaries. Perceptions of ceramic change are becoming increasingly sophisticated, thanks to more long-term projects as well as research that takes advantage of new opportunities, including historic collections and nontraditional settings. The newly developing ethnoarchaeology is contributing to general anthropological understandings of material culture and society.     

Ceramic Technology and Social Boundaries: Cultural Practices in Kalinga Clay Selection and Use

This study examines cultural sources of variation in ceramic compositional patterning in two pottery-making villages of the highland Philippines. In Dalupa, many potters are part-time specialists whereas in Dangtalan, women make pottery less frequently. Previous studies show that both pottery form and decoration correspond well with Kalinga social boundaries, but how do morphological and decorative patterning relate to compositional variability? Although researchers have made substantial advances in our understanding of natural and postdepositional sources of compositional variability, little is known about behavioral factors that affect chemical and mineralogical compositional patterning. This study examines cultural practices of clay selection and use in an ethnographic setting, and undertakes technical analyses to assess the relationship between behavior and material culture patterning. Our study identified paste differences between the clays and fired ceramics from Dangtalan and those from Dalupa. Findings from our compositional research thus parallel earlier morphological and stylistic studies, and illustrate multivariate differences in ceramics from these two Kalinga communities. This ethnoarchaeological and analytical project contributes, therefore, to understanding objective parameters within a behavioral context. It also provides an example of how a combined characterization approach, using chemical and petrographic techniques, can yield insights on intraregional variation at a finer scale of resolution than is often attempted.     

Working Without a Net: Recent Trends in Ceramic Ethnoarchaeology

This paper reviews ceramic ethnoarchaeological research conducted subsequent to Kramer's (1985) seminal stock-taking. Among current trends are a continued interest in the relationship between ceramics and economic specialization, the degree to which manufacture constitutes a technological style, and the link between pots and formation processes as represented in assemblage sizes, use-lives, and recycling. At the same time, some pesky theoretical issues continue to be sidestepped in the current literature. Despite its reputation as a pleasant break from the real business of archaeology, this paper argues that ceramic ethnoarchaeology can and should play a more substantial role in archaeological investigations.     

Discontinuing Traditions: Using Historically Informed Ethnoarchaeology in the Study of Evros Ceramics

Ethnoarchaeological studies of pottery primarily focus on the ethnographic present, often disregarding the role of history in the production of material culture. This paper integrates information from historical sources and ethnographic interviews to better understand stylistic ceramic change. Beginning in the 1920s, undecorated pots largely replaced decorated pottery in the region of Evros, Greece. I argue that historically informed ethnoarchaeology provides the key to documenting and understanding the concomitant changes in the social context of pottery production and consumption and the distribution of material culture.     

The Use of Ethnoarchaeology for the Archaeological Study of Ceramic Production

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.     

Investigating Variation in Organization of Ceramic Production: An Ethnoarchaeological Study in Guizhou, China

This paper discusses variation in the organization of ceramic production among family specialists who use a fast wheel technology in south-central Guizhou, China. There is considerable variation in intensity, output, and scale among potting households in two communities. The paper evaluates the utility of two kinds of potential material indicators for this variation: 1) spatial organization for different steps in production (forming vessels, preparing clay, drying vessels, firing), and 2) degree of vessel uniformity. Although degree of uniformity of vessels does vary with intensity for some dimensions, other factors such as experience of the potter and consumer demand need to be considered. Material features of production areas are more obvious indicators of variation in intensity and output.     

Social Dynamics and Pottery Distribution in the Faro Department, Northern Cameroon

Ethnoarchaeological studies have constantly emphasized the complexity of pottery distribution and its close ties with other aspects of social life. It is argued here that, among the Dowayo of northern Cameroon, pottery exchange is not regulated by preferential economic relationships between producers and consumers but rather by mechanisms such as fashion or the reputation of the artisans.De récentes études ethnoarchéologiques ont constamment mis en avant la complexité des processus de distribution de la poterie et les liens étroits que ceux-ci entretiennent avec les autres aspects de la vie sociale. Il est démontré dans cet article que, chez les Dowayo du Nord-Cameroun, les échanges de poterie sont structurés par une absence de lien privilégié entre producteurs et consommateurs et sont dès lors régulés par des mécanismes tels que la mode ou la réputation des artisans.     

Ceramic production,consumption and exchange in the Banda area,Ghana: Insights from compositional analyses

Ceramic production, exchange and consumption in the Banda area, west central Ghana has been affected by historical developments ranging from recent competition with alternative vessels (made of metal and plastic) to political economic upheavals that altered community relationships within and outside the region. In this study, we explore spatial and temporal patterning in pottery production, exchange and consumption using a combination of analytical techniques. Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) of a large sample (491 specimens) of archaeological and ethnographic pottery, clay and temper samples from sites across the Banda area has led to the identification of seven compositional groups whose differential distribution implies shifts in resource selection through the last thousand years. Laser ablation-ICP-MS analysis was used to explore the effects of distinctive tempering agents (crushed slag) on the bulk chemical signature of a subset of Banda ceramics, while petrographic analysis provides insight into the preparation of ceramic fabrics. We integrate insights from these diverse physical studies to investigate the dynamics of pottery production, exchange and consumption over the course of the last millennium in the Banda area and explore potential linkages with broader political economic transformations.     

From Pottery to Politics: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Political Factionalism, Ethnicity, and Domestic Pottery Style in the Ecuadorian Amazon

A long-standing assumption in archaeological theory is that pottery in the domestic context represents a form of passive style that does not enter into symbolic communication in the political domain. This paper presents ethnoarchaeological data to establish a link between women's active political behavior and pottery style in the domestic context in a small-scale, segmental society in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Analysis of individual variables of style shows that Achuar and Quichua women signify their political alliances in the painted decoration of their domestic pottery more strongly than they signify so-called passive processes of learning associated with early enculturation and ethnicity. Furthermore, analysis of women's judgments of pottery as Achuar or Quichua indicates that they decode cues to political alliances in the pottery of other women, including cues to political differences within and between groups. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the principles underlying women's stylistic behavior as part of the political processes involved in the construction and maintenance of social identity and social boundaries.     

Heterogeneity, Power, and Political Economy: Some Current Research Issues in the Archaeology of Old World Complex Societies

Recent research on Old World chiefdoms and states has largely retreated from the general comparative explanatory paradigm of the 1970s and has focused instead on more historically oriented analyses of culture-specific developmental trajectories. Both theoretical and empirical work tend to emphasize a heterogeneous, conflict-based model of complex society and political economy. This analytical framework has been quite successful in documenting variation and historically determined patterning in the organization of urbanism, craft production, specialization, and exchange. I present an overview of this research and argue that we now need to reintegrate culturally specific analyses within a modified comparative/generalizing perspective on complexity.     

战后美国对法国向现代消费社会转型的影响——一种文化视角

在20世纪期间,源于美国的现代大众消费文化对其他国家的发展产生了巨大影响,法国便是其中比较有代表性的国家.第二次世界大战之后,美国大众文化在法国得到了更为广泛的传播,促使法国人消费理念的变化,成为法国大踏步地迈入现代大众消费社会的主要原因之一.然而法国传统的生活方式并没有因为进入现代大众消费社会而发生本质上的变化,只不过是多了些现代生活的气息而已.     

Counselling in rural Scotland: care,proximity and trust

People living in small rural communities tend to interact with each other in multiple aspects of their lives and are generally less anonymous to one another than those living in urban places. This density of social connectedness tends to militate against the boundaries normally associated with professionalised forms of care. This article explores how these tensions are negotiated by people who have developed local counselling services in two rural areas in Scotland. Counselling is becoming increasingly widely used as a response to a variety of forms of distress and is argued to constitute a modern urban and feminised form of care. However, notwithstanding its urban origins and associations, people in some rural places in Scotland have successfully arranged for training to be delivered locally to men as well as women. Nevertheless they recognise that for many rural residents, counselling continues to be alien and viewed with suspicion. They describe how they protect the identities of service-users using locational and social network strategies. They also discuss the issues that flow from the challenges of providing well-boundaried relationships. In so doing they point to an inverse relationship between social proximity and trust, thereby supplementing existing accounts of the disadvantages of social proximity in rural places.     

"近五百年来中国社会结构变迁"国际学术讨论会综述

近500年特别是19世纪以来,中国社会结构处于急遽的历史变动进程之中,探寻转型与变动中的中国社会结构及其内在奥秘自然成为社会史学研究的重要课题与方向。由南开大学中国社会史研究中心暨历史学院共同主办的“近五百年来中国社会结构变迁”国际学术讨论会即围绕近500年来中国社会结构的历史变动主题,在社会结构的特征及其变迁、经济发展与社会结构变动、社会阶级阶层结构、社会流动与社会分层、城市社会结构、国家与社会结构变动等方面进行了深入研讨,力图再现500年来中国社会结构变迁的历史图景,并为当代中国社会结构转型提供历史借鉴。     

Current issues in Chinese Neolithic archaeology

Every year archaeologists in China discover numerous rich sites demonstrating significant regional variability in Neolithic cultures, primarily from about 6500 B.C. to 1900 B.C. This paper discusses a topic not covered in detail in current or forthcoming publications, the origins and development of agricultural systems. Recent fieldwork in both northern and southern China suggests that initial steps toward settled agricultural villages began circa 11,000 B.P. I review evidence for the cultivation of millet, rice, and other plants as well as animal husbandry in different regions of China. There are several later Neolithic sites in northern China with evidence for rice cultivation. I suggest how future research projects can investigate regional variation and change over time in subsistence and settlement during the Neolithic Period.     

20世纪90年代社会学视野下我国社会政策和社会问题研究中的社会性别分析述评

妇女解放和男女平等的追求一直是人类社会一个永恒主题。文章通过对 2 0世纪 90年代这 1 0年里我国社会学界在社会政策和社会问题研究中所反映出来的社会性别意识和观念进行概括 ,总结出他们在研究中所表现出来的一些特点 ,并详细地分析了这些研究中存在的三种情况 ,即对社会性别的忽略或笼统化、一定的社会性别歧视、合理的社会性别分析描述和以抨击偏见维护两性平等。通过综合述评 ,旨在引起我国政界和学界在今后社会政策制定和社会问题研究中对性别问题的高度注意 ,最终促进人类社会的良性协调发展     

The Relationship Between Teaching and Research in Australian Geography

This paper considers how higher education geography is a discipline that can make a significant contribution to addressing inequality and engaging with the agenda for social change. It adopts the view that the teaching of geography can promote social transformation through the development of knowledge, skills and values in students that encourage social justice and equity. The paper explores how teaching about social transformation is closely interlinked with teaching for social transformation and considers some of the pedagogical approaches that might be used to achieve these. It considers how the lack of diversity of higher education geography teachers impacts on these issues before moving on to consider how the nature of different higher education systems supports or constrains geographers' abilities to teach for social transformation. Finally, the paper ends by asking individuals and geography departments to consider their commitment to teaching for social transformation.     

赣南农村市场中的非正式制度与近代社会变迁

客家文化背景下的赣南农村市场的发展历史,既是经济发展的过程,又是社会发展的过程。从其建立到运作都深深地打上了宗族、宗教信仰、风俗习惯等非正式制度的烙印,体现了典型的客家传统社会结构的双层架构特点。赣南农村墟市中的非正式制度在近代社会变迁中,有的遭淘汰或受限制,有的则演变或延伸。但闭塞与顽固的非正式制度也是制约赣南农村市场近代化的一个重要因素,近代赣南农村市场的发展走入了后续中的困境,表现出滞后的特点,因而难以实现社会转型。