Domestic Ceramic Production and Spatial Organization
A Mexican Case Study in Ethnoarchaeology

This ethnoarchaeological study looks at contemporary household-scale ceramic production in several Mexican communities.

Philip J. Arnold III (Author)

9780521545839, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 4 December 2003

196 pages, 31 b/w illus. 5 maps 39 tables
24.6 x 18.9 x 1.1 cm, 0.36 kg

'Philip Arnold clearly demonstrates how contemporary data can assist scholars in recognizing the archaeological evidence of ceramic manufacture. His work is worthy of emulation.' Man

This pioneering ethnoarchaeological study is of contemporary ceramic production and consumption in several villages in the Los Tuxtlas region of Mexico. While many archaeologists have identified ceramic production zones in the archaeological record, their identifying criteria have often been vague and impressionistic. The present book's contribution is to use ethnographic research to suggest how archaeologists might consistently recognise ceramic manufacturing. It also places ceramic production in larger cultural contexts and provides details of the ecology, production, distribution, use, discard, and site formation processes. Philip Arnold's critical observations on some of the serious weaknesses in archaeological interpretations of ceramic production will interest Mesoamericanists and all other archaeologists grappling with these, and related, issues.

List of illustrations
List of tables
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
Part I. Ceramic Production and Consumption in Los Tuxtlas: 2. The ceramic production environment
3. Ceramic production in Los Tuxtlas
4. Ceramic consumption in Los Tuxtlas
Part II. Ceramic Production and Spatial Organization: 5. Archaeological approaches to ceramic production
6. Spatial organization and ceramic production
7. Disposal patterns within production houselots
Part III. Application and Implication: 8. Ceramic production organization in archaeological perspective
9. Conclusions
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Archaeology by period / region [HDD]