Making Bead Makers: Durability and Change in a Community of Practice among the Manteño-Guancavilca of Ecuador.

Summary

Shell beads are rarely considered a major artifact category. However, research on bead production among the Manteño-Guancavilca (AD 800-1532) of coastal Ecuador highlights the fundamental importance of this category of artifacts. By recording six measurements and four qualitative observations for each of 7651 beads from six sites (two regions, three stretches of time), this research has been able to recognize two distinct châines opératoires. At approximately AD 1200, bead makers shifted from a highly regular production sequence resulting in standardized chaquira (tiny beads) made from the ritually and economically significant shellfish, Spondylus, to one that is more opportunistic and results in irregular beads rarely made from Spondylus. This "destandardization" is associated with external economic forces, but also highlights the significance of the bead maker community of practice. Bead making endured the near complete loss of a market for chaquira, by becoming more flexible in their production strategy. That is, they tweaked their technological style to fit a new situation. In this way, bead makers retained their identity, as is demonstrated in the inclusion of raw material, production debris and tools in burials. This paper proposes some ways to think about change and durability in a community of practice.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20333