Tarascan pottery production in Michoacán, Mexico : : an ethnoarchaeological perspective / / Eduardo Williams.

• VerfasserIn: Williams, Eduardo,
• Place / Publishing House: Oxford, England : : Archaeopress,, [2017]; ©2017
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (188 pages)

This book examines a contemporary pottery tradition in Mesoamerica, but also looks back to the earliest examples of cultural development in this area. By means of ethnographic analogy and ceramic ecology, this study seeks to shed light on a modern indigenous community and on the theory, method and p...

Table of Contents

• Cover
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter I
• Introduction
• Overview of Pottery Production in Mesoamerica and Other Areas
• Historical Background of Ceramic Studies in Mesoamerica
• Household Production in Ancient Mesoamerica
• Figure 1. Diagram of ceramic ecology, incorporating the ceramic complex, the biological environment, the physical environment, human biology, and culture (after Kolb 1989a: Figure 3).
• Figure 2. Michael Schiffer's flow model for viewing the life-cycle of durable elements in the archaeological record
• Chapter II
• Ethnoarchaeology: Archaeology as Anthropology
• The Cultural-Historical Approach in Mesoamerican Archaeology
• The Processual Approach and the 'New Archaeology'
• Discussion
• Final Remarks
• Figure 3. The place of ethnoarchaeology in anthropology (after Thompson 1991: Figure 11.1).
• Chapter III
• Ceramic Ethnoarchaeology and Ceramic Ecology in Western Mexico
• Ceramic Ecology in Teponahuasco, Jalisco
• Pottery Production in Teponahuasco
• Climate as a Limiting Factor for Pottery Manufacture
• Implications for Archaeology
• Final Remarks
• Pottery Production in Huáncito, Michoacán: Ethnoarchaeology and Ceramic Ecology
• Geographic and Cultural Background
• Huáncito, a Community of Potters
• Organization of Ceramic Production
• Processes of Change and Persistence in a Ceramic Tradition
• Archaeological Implications
• Pottery Manufacture and the Use of Domestic Space
• Potting Activities in Spatial Contexts
• Archaeological Correlates
• The Structure of Spatial Organization
• Lessons to be Learned
• Tarascan Pottery-Firing Technology: Archaeological and Ethnographic Evidence
• Firing Pots in the Open in Michoacán
• Archaeological Implications
• Final Remarks.
• Figure 4. Teponahuasco is a small peasant community located in the municipality of Cuquío, Jalisco, some 80 km northeast of Guadalajara, the state capital of Jalisco.
• Figure 5. Each pottery-producing household in Teponahuasco has its own kiln, which may be located in the inner courtyard or outside the house. (1)
• Figure 6. Some households produce ollas (cooking pots) and cazuelas (pans), large-size vessels for tesgüino fermentation (traditional corn beer), and other items, such as drainage pipes and flower pots (not shown).
• Figure 7. Some clay vessels, like the olla or cooking pot, are made using a mold. Here we see a potter using a convex mold to make a pot, while her daughter watches and learns.
• Figure 8. Making a pan or cazuela requires a stone tool to make a flat clay cake (a).
• The clay cake is then placed in a mold with the desired shape (b).
• Figure 9. The cántaro, or water jug, is made in two stages: (a) the lower half is shaped using a mold
• Figure 10. In Cuquío, some households still use clay vessels on a daily basis (like this one used for water storage). In some cases, they are up to 70 years old and are passed down from one generation to the next.
• Figure 11. Every Friday during the dry season the potters set up their stands around the plaza in front of the church, where they sell their wares.
• Figure 12. Pottery making in Teponahuasco is a seasonal activity, limited to the dry part of the year (from October to April) because most of the potters (both men and women) have at least some cropland that requires their attention. The graph shows the p
• Figure 13. Rainfall in Ayacucho, Peru, showing the mean amount of precipitation in 1961-1970 (left scale) and the mean number of days with rainfall (right scale) in 1962-1970 (after Arnold 1993: Figure 2.3).
• Figure 14. Map of La Cañada de los Once Pueblos, indicating the main towns in the area. Key: black dot: present location
• white dot: Likely location in 1579, according to the Relaciones Geográficas
• black-and-white dot: without change in location. Solid l
• Figure 15. Graph showing average rainfall and temperature for the area of La Cañada. The months of higher precipitation here are from June to September
• the highest temperatures occur in April and May
• Figure 16. Many kilns in Huáncito are covered by a roof to protect them in case of rain (1990).
• Figure 17. One of the most crucial aspects of the ceramic process is procuring clay from local sources (1990).
• Figure 18. Potters used to go to the hills around Huáncito to collect firewood for their kilns. Nowadays, most potters obtain their fuel from people who bring it from other towns in trucks, which have replaced the burros and horses used in the past
• Figure 19. Firing the kiln is a difficult matter that involves great care and knowledge. It is performed by men, though women and children may help out as well (a: Fidel Lorenzo household, 2014
• b: Elena Felipe household, 2014).
• Figure 20. Clay is taken from pits dug by potters with pick and shovel. Some of these pits may be up to three meters deep (1990).
• Figure 22. Once the potter obtains the clay, he has to pay to have it ground in one of the mills found in the community (1990).
• Figure 23. Potters used large rocks to pulverize the clay until some 20 years ago, but this is no longer the case in Huáncito (1990).
• Figure 24. The most common technique for shaping pots in Huáncito and other towns in Michoacán and neighboring areas involves the vertical-half mold (1990).
• Figure 25. The vertical-half mold technique consists of making a clay tortilla or "pancake" which is cut in half and introduced into each one of the two molds. The next step is to smooth the clay with a piece of cloth until it has the shape of the mold (1
• Figure 26. The kiln used in Huáncito and other areas of Mexico has a simple design, consisting of a circular adobe wall around 1.5 m in diameter and 1.60-1.80 m high. The fire box or hearth is underground
• this is where the potter puts the fuel for firing
• Figure 27a. There is a high demand for firewood in Huáncito, as it is used for cooking as well as firing pottery in the kilns
• Figure 27b. There is a high demand for firewood in Huáncito, as it is used for cooking as well as firing pottery in the kilns
• Figure 29. The pot is covered with charanda and then polished with a cloth to produce a shiny surface (Fidel Lorenzo household, 2014).
• Figure 30. Nowadays, most craftspeople in Huáncito use industrially-produced paints, which have two main advantages over natural colorants: they are cheaper, and are applied to pots after firing, so no time is wasted painting pots that may break or be oth
• Figure 31. The decoration motifs painted by Huáncito potters are usually naturalistic, including flowers, birds, rabbits, and other animals (1990).
• Figure 32. Potters sometimes sell their production to middlemen, who may have shops in town or on the highway near Huáncito (a: 2014
• b: 1990).
• Figure 33. In some households one can see vessels that are no longer functional recycled as flower pots once their use-life is over (1990).
• Figure 34. Many potters usually carry their pots in bundles made with sacks padded with twigs and grass for protection when taking them to sell outside Huáncito (1990).
• Figure 35a. In Fidel Lorenzo's household, food may be prepared and consumed near the kiln, using a small clay stove made of adobe (a). Sometimes food is prepared in the patio outside the kitchen using an improvised hearth with several rocks placed directl
• Figure 35b. In Fidel Lorenzo's household, food may be prepared and consumed near the kiln, using a small clay stove made of adobe (a). Sometimes food is prepared in the patio outside the kitchen using an improvised hearth with several rocks placed directl
• Figure 36. The patios of many houses in Huáncito have several fruit trees and other plants that provide shade while potters are working in the open (Fidel Lorenzo household, 1990).
• Figure 37. The worktable found in many houses in Huáncito consists of a thick wooden plank (30 cm wide by 50 cm long) placed at ground level or at a height of some 50 cm. This figure shows a worktable in use. Note the pots around it, the paint containers
• Figure 38. In Huáncito, every potter's house has a variable number of molds used in the ceramic process. Here we see one potter at the worktable, putting the clay "tortilla" inside one half of the mold (a), and then joining the two halves of the mold to s
• Figure 39. Many houses in Huáncito have an area for drying the pots, like this room in Isaac Cayetano's house where fresh pots are stacked before being fired in the kiln (2014).
• Figure 40. Some houses in Huáncito also have storage areas, like this room in the house of Bernaldina Rivera and Alfredo Felipe, where pots are stacked awaiting customers (2014).
• Figure 41. In Fidel Lorenzo's home, the room where the kiln is located is used as a de facto storage area, where all kinds of objects are kept in a somewhat chaotic arrangement. Note the remains of a meal near the hearth in the lower right-hand corner (20.
• Figure 42. A storage area in Isaac Cayetano's house is used to store many items used in the ceramic process. Here we see pots, molds, and plastic buckets (2014).