The Imperial Craft: Comparative Perspectives on Production and Society in Empires

While craft production has always been part of the discussion about the nature of empires, recent work pushes the debate in new directions. Current research emphasizes the agency of craft producers as influential in the development of overarching systems. Such research identifies variation in production technologies and labor practices. In refocusing our attention on the dynamic role of producers, previously held beliefs about the relationship between craft production and the state have been overturned. The symposium aims to create a dialogue between scholars working in different parts of the world on the intersection between craft and empire. A comparative perspective will privilege different strategies, techniques, technologies, and social practices, while advancing new perspectives on the production of empires. The diversity of the scholars committed to giving papers that span disciplinary, theoretical, chronological, and geographical, divides, will generate unique combinations of data and lead to new lines of investigation. Although seemingly divergent, these perspectives draw attention to the critical role played by materials and by production processes in imperial contexts. The session engages the issues of craft production and its relationship with political authority, the economy of states, and the role of material culture in the negotiation of power relations.