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.     

Anglo‐Saxon Style Pottery from the Northern Netherlands and North‐Western Germany: Fabrics and Finish,Regional and Chronological Patterns,and their Implications

This paper presents the results of a study of Anglo‐Saxon style pottery in the northern Netherlands and north‐western Germany, involving macroscopic and microscopic analysis of fabrics and finish. Both regions show similar developments in form and decoration in the pottery of the fourth and fifth centuries ad , the late Roman and Migration period, resulting in the typical decoration and shapes that are known as the Anglo‐Saxon style. In the northern Netherlands, this style is traditionally associated with Anglo‐Saxon immigrants. It has, however, been suggested that this style was, rather, part of an indigenous development in areas in the northern Netherlands where occupation was continuous, though influenced by stylistic developments in north‐western Germany. That hypothesis is supported by the analysis of fabrics and finish presented here. The characteristic of fabrics and surface treatment indicate technological continuity. The use of local clay sources for Anglo‐Saxon style pottery and for contemporary regional types indicates that most of the Anglo‐Saxon style pottery in the northern Netherlands was not brought by Anglo‐Saxon immigrants or as imports, but must have been made locally. That applies to settlements with continuous habitation, as well as settlements in the coastal area that were not inhabited during the fourth century ad .     

Ethnic boundaries and boundary-making in handicrafts: examples from northern Norway,Sweden and Finland

When ethnicity is said to be manifest and practised through handicrafts, these seemingly innocent objects become political. They raise questions concerning who can do what handicraft, who can use what symbols or what developments are “allowed”. They illustrate the continuous production of ethnic norms and boundaries, especially when global tourism enters into the equation. Taking a social constructivist perspective, our study addresses ethnic boundaries and boundary-making in handicrafts in northern Sweden, Norway and Finland. Our findings are based on fieldwork (35 interviewees) with people of diverse local backgrounds making and selling handicrafts. Methodologically, we avoid preselecting people based on ethnicity, but instead contribute to an understanding of the constitutive processes of ethnicity by looking at how ethnic talk comes into conversations about handicrafts. Our findings demonstrate that the interviewees draw an ethnic divide between “Sámi”/“non-Sámi”, while other ethnic-choices move to the background. This divide can be seen to be amplified by tourism. The boundary for who can make a Sámi handicraft or use Sámi symbols remains significant, yet also fluid. The article deepens the understanding of the Sámi/non-Sámi ethnic categorization, here in relation to handicrafts. It also helps unravel the complexities between tourism, ethnicities and handicrafts more broadly.     

Petrographic and Geochemical Investigations on the Pottery Production from Arslantepe–Malatya (Eastern Anatolia) from the Fourth to the Second Millennium BCE: Technological Continuity,Innovation and Cultural Change

The petrographic and geochemical analyses of 130 Late Chalcolithic 3 (LC3, 3800 bce ) to Early Bronze Age IIIB (EBAIIIB, 2000 bce ) ceramics from Arslantepe and the Malatya Plain in the Eastern Anatolian Upper Euphrates have identified critical differences in raw material procurement and paste preparation, reflecting typological, chronological and cultural changes. Based on these differences, distinct modes of production that correspond to phases reflecting significant social, economic and political changes were recognized. In particular, the interruption of the centralization process and the establishment of mobile groups during EBAI (3000–2900 bce ) were accompanied by the exploitation of new sources.     

The Beginnings of Word Order Change in the Arabic Dialects of Southern Iran in Contact with Persian: A Preliminary Study of Data from Four Villages in Bushehr and Hormozgan

This preliminary study explores the hypothesis that Arabic dialects spoken on the Iranian side of the Persian Gulf exhibit the beginnings of contact-induced shift in word order from VO to OV. Although the basic VO order is still stable, there is some variation even in this very limited data set. Specifically two phenomena point to a change in progress: clause-final copulae and auxiliaries that are placed after the lexical verb, lending further evidence to the observation that a clause-final copula is an areal feature of western Asia. The study also investigates semantic and pragmatic factors that influence word order choice, pointing to a strong effect of information structure in terms of narrow focus and theme-rheme partition. Furthermore, the study also reveals an effect of semantic role, specifically as far as the preferred placement of goals and recipients in post-verbal position is concerned.