70th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Salt Lake City
Thursday 31 March 2005, Salt Palace Convention Center, Room 250 F, 1 pm.
Round Table Luncheon
Friday 1 April 2005, Salt Palace Convention Center, Room 254 A-C, 12-1 pm.
Symposium
45: Learning a craft, a physical learning
process, is based on observation, imitation and most
importantly, repetition. This symposium concentrates on
the types of knowledge and the methods of knowledge
transfer by craftsmen in the social context of learning.
Subjects that will be covered are: how do we recognize
the work of apprenticeship or evidence of learning in
the archaeological material; what are the social aspects
of knowledge transfer in relation to social mobility;
engendering knowledge transfer; the epistemology of
craftsmanship and lastly, the use of insights gained by
discerning different types of knowledge and learning in
teaching archaeology.
Ancient Apprenticeship and Body
Knowledge;
by: Willeke Wendrich, Department of NELC, UCLA
1:00-1:15 pm.
Ancient technology was passed on through generations.
The transfer of knowledge from master to
apprentice was done partly by demonstrating, but mostly
by having the apprentice train the same movements over
and over again, building up a physically engrained
knowledge of movements. To understand the demands of
ancient production the modern researcher will find that
the most suitable method of acquiring knowledge is to
take on the role of apprentice. This research strategy
provides not only information on the techniques and the
properties of the materials, but also on the learning
process itself.by: Willeke Wendrich, Department of NELC, UCLA
1:00-1:15 pm.
Epistemology and Ontology of
Craftsmanship;
by: Lise Bender Jørgensen, Vitenskapsmuseet, Trondheim (Norway)
1:15-1:30 pm.
by: Lise Bender Jørgensen, Vitenskapsmuseet, Trondheim (Norway)
1:15-1:30 pm.
Craftmanship is transmitted by
familiarity, obtained by daily, close contact with a
master craftsman, as so-called tacit knowledge.
Craftsmanship has a language of its own, consisting of
movements and experience. Traditionally, this is
perceived as utterly non-academic. This paper intends to
explore the epistemology and ontology of craftsmanship,
and ways to bridge the gap betwwen tacit and verbalized
knowledge.
Secret Agents and Social
Structures:
The Effects of Social Contexts of Learning on Ceramic Decorative Motor-Performance Attributes;
by: John Creese, Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto (Canada)
The Effects of Social Contexts of Learning on Ceramic Decorative Motor-Performance Attributes;
by: John Creese, Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto (Canada)
1:30-1:45 pm.
An experiment was designed in order to test
archaeological methods utilizing motor habit performance
related “microvariables” as a means to identify the work
of individual prehistoric potters. It was hypothesized,
contre Hill (1977), that motor-performance related
attributes are sensitive to their social contexts of
learning, and change over time. Individuals in two
groups, a “social pressure” and an “individualist”
group, completed an incised design on wet clay plaques
on two occasions. Principal Components Analysis and a
Discriminant Analysis provide strong support for the
proposition that individual patterns of
motor-performance are directly influenced by the social
environment of their acquisition.Apprenticeship in Textile Crafts:
The Transmission of Culture;
by: Martin Ciszuk (Sweden)
by: Martin Ciszuk (Sweden)
1:45-2:00 pm.
The transmission of a craft through
apprenticeship involves not only tools and raw
materials, but also an initiation into a system of
language, ethics, taste and rules. This discourse
reflects the age, the context and the society the craft
is part of. As a textile researcher and professional
craftsman, with experience in knowledge transfer on
weaving and sewing, my contribution will be an attempt
to analyze the ideas expressed through the craft by
studying archaeological and historic textiles, using
examples from Swedish hand weaving, 19th – 20th century
silk weaving, and Roman textiles from Egypt.
Tradition in the Making.
Contemporary Pottery Making and Apprenticeship Processes within New Mexico Pueblos: A Case Study;
by: Helene Wallaert, Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, Albuquerque
Contemporary Pottery Making and Apprenticeship Processes within New Mexico Pueblos: A Case Study;
by: Helene Wallaert, Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, Albuquerque
2:00-2:15 pm.
Comprehension of phenomena related
to the elaboration of cultural boundaries remains a
central issue for many research disciplines.
Anthropologists have explored these topics recently
through studies of cultural transmission, trying to
understand how people relate to their community, and
manifest their identity. Southwest American pottery has
been the focus of major studies but the question of
contemporary craft learning has not. Much more
investigation is needed to understand how potters relate
to their community, how they deal with the recognition
of their techno-cultural background. This paper will
explore pottery teaching and learning processes within a
group of New Mexico Pueblos.
Stone Tool Apprenticeship and
Enculturation in the Eastern Canadian Arctic;
by: Brooke Milne, Department of Anthropology, University of Western Ontario (Canada)
by: Brooke Milne, Department of Anthropology, University of Western Ontario (Canada)
2:15-2:30 pm.
The Early Palaeo-Eskimos of the
eastern Canadian Arctic are best recognized
archaeologically from the remains of their sophisticated
stone tool technology. Despite this, however, little is
presently known about how these peoples acquired this
technological skill, from whom, at what age, where, and
at what time of year. This paper presents data from
several sites located in the interior of southern Baffin
Island, which illustrates that stone tool apprenticeship
among the Early Palaeo-Eskimos was not only seasonally
and geographically specific but that it was also closely
tied to enculturation and the process of landscape
learning in this vast geographic region.
The Apprenticeship of Landscape
Learning:
Connecting the Concept to Larger Models of Evolution and Environmental Change;
by: Marcy Rockman, Statistical Research Inc.
2:45-3:00 pm.
Connecting the Concept to Larger Models of Evolution and Environmental Change;
by: Marcy Rockman, Statistical Research Inc.
2:45-3:00 pm.
The landscape learning process is
defined as the social response to situations in which
there is both a lack of knowledge about the distribution
of natural resources in a region and a slack of access
to such knowledge that may have been previously acquired
by others. The landscape learning concept was first
developed to better understand the archaeology of
colonization. This paper broadens the theoretical scope
of landscape learning, connecting it with the culture
and evolution –dual inheritance model of Boyd and
Richerson, the variability of selection model of Potts,
and the dynamic scalar model of environmental change by
Hopkinson.
Communities of Practice and
Networks of Exchange:
Glaze Paint Analyses of Pueblo IV Ceramics in the Silver Creek Area, Arizona;
by: Samuel Duwe, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona
Glaze Paint Analyses of Pueblo IV Ceramics in the Silver Creek Area, Arizona;
by: Samuel Duwe, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona
3:00-3:15 pm.
Previous analyses of Pueblo IV glaze
painted ceramics in the Silver Creek area of
east-central Arizona have indicated both aggregation and
migration affecting the size and social composition of
communities. This paper will examine the chemical
composition of the glaze pigments themselves by laser
ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry
(LA-ICP-MS). These data can be used to understand
provenance of the pigment, and can be used at an
intra-site scale to delineate specific paint recipes
inherent to ceramic traditions, or potting communities
at a possible household level. Questions of exchange and
communities of practice will be addressed, specifically
in understanding networks of prehistoric knowledge
transmission.
Apprenticeship and Figured Ostraca
at the Ancient Egyptian Village of Deir el Medina;
by: Kathlyn Cooney, Stanford University
by: Kathlyn Cooney, Stanford University
3:15-3:30 pm.
The artisans who worked on the ancient Egyptian New
Kingdom Royal Tombs also produced thousands of ostraca,
limestone chips with informal sketches. I argue that
most craft training probably did not happen in a formal
setting, but informally at the work site and in the
craftsmen’s village. Sketching on ostraca provided not
only the opportunity to learn and practice the accepted
artistic forms, but also to test new forms and
combinations. Informal sketching was one of the main
methods through which style was maintained, but it was
also the avenue to taste change, by which styles were
updated and changed.J.D. Beazley: The World of Ancient
Attic Vase Painters and their Apprentices;
by: Eleni Hasaki, Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, Bryn Mawr College
by: Eleni Hasaki, Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, Bryn Mawr College
3:30-3:45 pm.
This paper will focus on the
frequency of the terms “pupils”, “followers” and
“imitators” in the work of J.D. Beazley: Attic
Black-Figure Vase Painters (1956) and Attic Red-Figure
Vase Painters (1963) in which he reconstructed a vivid
world of over 1,000 painters from the 6th-4th centuries
BCE. The absence of any methodological framework and the
inconsistency in the use of these terms of ancient
apprenticeship have been repeatedly criticized in modern
scholarship. I will also compare his analysis of the
Attic vase-painting workshops to our knowledge of the
organization of the Renaissance painters' workshops, a
world that allegedly inspired Beazley.
Learning from the Ancestors;
by: Marilyn Kelly-Buccelati, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA
by: Marilyn Kelly-Buccelati, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA
3:45-4:00 pm.
Our excavations of the Hurrian city
of Urkesh, in northeastern Syria, have uncovered a city
dating 3000-1500 BC. Over the centuries certain
traditions were rediscovered, particularly in the areas
of ceramic production and the carving of cylinder seals.
In both cases we have examples of learning by imitation.
In the ceramic production, it is clear that when the
imitations were produced there were no living
practitioners of that type of ceramics, given the long
chronological distance between the original and the
imitation. The cases for cylinder seal design imitation
are two, both imitations of the original design of
inferior quality.
Methods of Reconstructing
Craftsmanship, Objects and Intentions;
by: Terje Planke (Norway)
by: Terje Planke (Norway)
4:00-4:15 pm.
In the Gokstad-boat project at the
Viking-ship museum/ University of Oslo, our goal is to
reconstruct not only the form itself but also the
structure and the procedures of the craft. By
reconstructing the boat - in full size - twice, we are
moving power towards the boat builder as an interpreting
subject making subjective choices. How might we then
grasp the intentions of the craftsmen that worked 1000
years ago? We are leaning on local boat building
traditions we have documented and identify important
changes in the perspectives. Gadamers concepts of Gesamtkonzeption
and Wirkungsgeschichte makes an important point
of departure.
Apprenticeships in Archaeology: The
Role of Experimental Archaeology;
by: Heather Miller, Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto (Canada)
by: Heather Miller, Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto (Canada)
4:15-4:30 pm.
The teaching of archaeology in North
America, unlike many disciplines, has always included
both traditional lecture classes and apprentice-like
courses involving 'hands-on' learning - what education
specialists call kinesthetic learning or 'muscle
learning'. This includes field schools and lab methods
courses, as well as courses in experimental archaeology.
While the former have maintained a steady importance in
the field, experimental courses seem to have waxed and
waned in popularity. The possible reasons for this
variation are explored, and the role of experimental
archaeology as a way to teach research methods discussed
in relation to changes in archaeological theory.
Discussant; 4:30-4:45
pm.
Brenda Bowser, Department of Anthropology, Washington State University
Brenda Bowser, Department of Anthropology, Washington State University
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*) The animation at the top of
this page is made by H. Barnard
based on the painting in the Tomb of Min (TT109, near
Luxor) depicting the official Min giving archery lessons
to Prince Amenhotep (the later Pharao Amenhotep II, ca.
1425 BCE) and the line drawing thereof by N. de G.
Davies (1935) .