Ceramic Ecology XXXIV: Truth and Responsibility, American Anthropological Society Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland, November 17, 2021

By Charles Kolb, Honorary Associate Editor

Organizers: Kostalena Michelaki (Arizona State University) and

Sandra L. Lopez Varela (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)

 

Session Abstract: For 33 years, the Ceramic Ecology session at the American Anthropological Association has provided an open and supportive venue for the presentation of research and insight on all aspects of ceramic production, consumption, trade and their economic, political, social, aesthetic, cosmological, and phenomenological implications. The theme of "Truth and Responsibility" is giving us a unique opportunity to push the boundaries of our research and reimagine ceramic studies to meet the demands of the present moment; reflect on our responsibility in reckoning with disciplinary histories, harms, and possibilities; think about to whom we are giving evidence, toward what ends, and for whom are we writing. In this session, participants will approach these questions and will present new data on archaeological ceramics, methodological applications, and insights on the struggles of pottery communities in today’s world and in the past.

 

Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Address the diversity of session participants, such as organizational/institutional affiliation, career stage, race, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, class, religion, national identity, and gender in your proposal. More than three decades of Ceramic Ecology symposia at the AAA, an initiative of Charles C. Kolb and Louana Lackey (†), has gathered nearly 300 scholars, practitioners, and students from at least fourteen nations and numerous institutions worldwide. Ceramic Ecology participants have presented their research on ceramics from Mesoamerica (147), North America (36), South America (23), Asia (40) Europe (19), Africa (8) and Oceania (3). Over the years, contributions of Ceramic Ecology participants have been published in five books. Ceramic Ecology is an inclusive venue with an open call for participation to all AAA members, welcoming participants at all stages in their careers, from any continent, from academia and beyond. The session always prioritizes the participation of students by mentoring them and encouraging them to apply for AAA grants and to serve our association. It stands for good scholarship, which is not exclusive to a nation, much less dependent on ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, or disability. Ceramic Ecology is a tradition at the AAA. We always seek to increase our “family” with new members, whose only interest is to exchange their most recent research on ceramics and learn from each other. While during any particular year our session may be more or less diverse, when looked at through time, our commitment to diversity and inclusivity is clear.  

 

Individual Paper Abstracts:

 

Communities of practice at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico: A re-classification of the ceramic assemblage using the châine opératoire approach

Andrea Torvinen (Arizona State University)

Peer-polity interaction among the Epiclassic period (600-900 CE) inhabitants of Northwestern Mesoamerica resulted in widely distributed ceramic styles (e.g., red-on-buff, incised-engraved, and resist). The development of morpho-stylistic ceramic classifications, therefore, has advanced our understanding of the occupational histories and social dynamics within and among these prehispanic populations. If, however, we want to understand how and why a ceramic style or trait spread (i.e., the forms of interaction that took place between these polities), then we need to (1) determine if shared styles were the product of exchange systems or local emulations of regional styles, and (2) identify the technical traditions of potting communities within and among polities. Previous compositional results from the site of La Quemada in the Malpaso Valley of Zacatecas, Mexico, led to the identification of locally sourced petrographic fabrics (Torvinen 2018), which suggests polities may have emulated regional styles to express their identification with one another. This paper builds upon that research by conducting a technological analysis of the La Quemada ceramic assemblage (n=174,938)

using the chaîne opératoire approach to ceramic classification as a means of defining the sociological composition of the La Quemada community. This approach involves grouping pottery by the techniques used at each stage in the manufacturing process (i.e., from selecting

raw materials to forming and firing the vessel) before considering the petrographic fabrics, vessel forms and decorative styles present in the assemblage; thus, prioritizing the enculturated behaviors a potter learns within a “community of practice” over stylistic or economic choices.

 

Intra-Regional Compositional Variability in Ancient Pottery: A View from the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin, Western Mexico

Anna S. Cohen and Amy J. Hirshman (both West Virginia University)

Intra-regional study of ceramic compositional variability provides insight into ancient political economy and craft production over multiple sites within a defined area. Yet, no such synthesis currently exists for the Western Mesoamerican Tarascan (Purépecha) Empire, one of the most powerful Postclassic (900-1530 CE) regimes in the Americas. In addition, there are limited archaeological data about the regional political economic infrastructure, especially regarding Late Postclassic (1350-1530 CE) imperial pottery. This paper focuses on pottery from the Lake

Pátzcuaro Basin, the imperial heartland of the Late Postclassic Empire, and discusses geochemical compositional variation from the pre-imperial and imperial sites of Angamuco, Erongaricuaro, Tzintzuntzan, and Urichu. We identify several overlapping and distinct geochemical recipes and discuss how variation in these recipes and their raw material sources shed light on pre-imperial and imperial political economies. The intraregional analysis is the first integrated overview of Lake Pátzcuaro Basin ceramic chemical compositions and the first integration of Tarascan imperial style ceramic composition throughout a broader region. Ceramic archaeometry in Western Mexico has been relatively limited compared to other parts of Mesoamerica and this study provides a baseline for evaluating inter-regional ceramic variability. 

 

Costly Signaling or Competitive Co-op?: Intermediate Elites at Late Classic Cotzumalhuapa

David R. McCormick (Yale University), Marc D. Marino, (University of Arkansas; Gilberto Cruz Gamez (Proyecto Arqueologico Cotzumalhuapa), Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos (Yale University), Erika Gómez ( Proyecto Arqueologico Cotzumalhuapa),  Wesley D. Stoner (University of Arkansas), Brandi L. MacDonald (Missouri University Research Reactor)

The articulation of elites and non-elites at multiple scales of interaction is an increasingly important topic in Mesoamerican archaeology. Despite the significant role intermediate-level elites played as key agents of change relating to neighborhood organization, resource management, economic growth, and ritual practice, comparatively more focus has been directed towards understanding the strategies and actions of ruling noble lineages. Models of political economy have often posited Mesoamerican nobles as tightly controlling particular utilitarian resources and exotic goods, especially during the Late Classic Period. Such models propose that power was derived from the ability to access long distance exchange networks and preferentially restrict the distribution of these items. Yet, intermediate elites also served important roles in the procurement and exchange of such goods, like non-local obsidian, exotic pottery, and locally made fine-wares which likely fostered both cooperative and competitive behaviors amongst and between these groups. To better understand these interactions, highly decorated and likely imported polychrome pottery, recovered from new excavations from intermediate elite contexts at Late Classic El Baúl, Guatemala, are examined using chemical and mineralogical techniques. Energy Dispersive Portable X-Ray Fluorescence (ED-pXRF), petrography, and Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) are used to identify the exchange relationships available to these intermediate elite households, allowing for comparison to those of the ruling nobles, during the increasingly cosmopolitan Late Classic Cotzulmalhuapa Polity. 

 

Ceramics, Foodways, and Feasting: Communities of Consumption on the Southeastern Mesoamerican Border

Whitney Goodwin (University of Missouri)

Prehispanic northeastern Honduran communities were situated at the border between Mesoamerica and lower Central America. Previous studies of pottery style suggest that local groups shifted their affiliation from north to south at the end of the Classic period (ca. AD 1000). Excavation at the Selin Farm site documented shell midden mounds containing large deposits of shell, pottery, and other materials disposed of as part of feasting events during the centuries leading up to this shift. These stratified deposits are the result of repeated consumption and disposal practices that represent groups of people that came together to form a community of consumption in the past. Typological and morphological analyses of the pottery from these contexts were combined with information about food resources (using residue analysis) and practices to demonstrate that foodways can offer a perspective complementary to pottery style for understanding how identity is materialized, maintained, and transformed within such communities. By tracing changes in pottery style and form, foodways, and the nature and scale of feasting events at Selin Farm, this paper situates the processes behind identity negotiation at the local level and ties the micropolitics of individual events to broader social and political changes in the region. This new perspective suggests that local actors were expressing their shared identities in ways that spoke to cultural understandings and similarities with groups to the north and south while also highlighting differences and reinforcing boundaries.

 

The Deep History of El Pilar: Monumental changes Across Millennia

Anabel Ford (University of California, Santa Barbara; ISBER/MesoAmerican Research Center; Exploring Solutions Past), Sherman Horn III (Exploring Solutions Past), and Andrew Kinkella (Moorpark College)

The major Maya center El Pilar, mapped in 1980s, was excavated from 1993-2004 to develop a construction chronology and understand its antiquity. Monumental architecture at Plaza Copal, the largest public setting in the site core, was built over a two-thousand-year sequence with origins stretching back to the Middle Preclassic. Several early construction episodes indicate concentrated investment in remodeling plazas and structures in the El Pilar epicenter during this foundational period of Maya history. These earliest phases are distinct from the much larger Late Preclassic structures, which represent a shift in the scale of plaza and monument planning toward the Classic Period plans recognized today. We present an overview of the earliest constructions at El Pilar based on excavation profiles and associated ceramic collections. Our review confirms the validity of Maya chronological sequences created in the 1930s and sheds light on early social developments between the Petén interior and Belize River Area.

 

Discoveries from a Regional Survey of Stoneware and Earthenware Production in Mainland Southeast Asia

H. Leedom Lefferts (University of North Carolina) and Louise Cort (Smithsonian Institution)

In 1993 we began what we expected would be an intensive study of village-based ceramic production in Northeast Thailand. We expanded the geographic scope of our study, however, as our initial findings propelled us to formulate questions about diversity and interconnectivity of technology that could only be answered by looking at production more broadly. Ultimately, over two decades, we contacted more than 200 pottery-making communities in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Yunnan province, China. This paper summarizes what we learned from our regional study—what we see as the benefits of its scope. We made a provisional formulation of seven technical lineages for earthenware production, at the same time as we became increasingly aware of how those lineages interacted and overlapped with one another. We were careful not to insist on a firm association between technical lineages and ethnicity or language. We noted that a close relationship of stoneware and earthenware technology characterized one lineage, while in other instances the two modes of production seemed distinctly separate. We became aware of historical sequencing of different earthenware technologies in some regions, reflecting migration and cultural diffusion. At the same time, we will also mention questions that we continue to ponder. We hope that our summary of this project can inspire young scholars to carry it forward.

 

Discussant:

Brenda J. Bowser (California State University, Fullerton; Editor, Ethnoarchaeology)