Knowledge Networks and Entanglements in the Crafting of Pre-Columbian Maya Ceramics and Architecture

Author(s): Celine Gillot; Christina Halperin

Year: 2019

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Crafting Culture: Thingselves, Contexts, Meanings" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

One of the underlying precepts of materiality is that, whereas people make objects, objects simultaneously and recursively make people. Objects also make objects, however, in so far as seemingly separate crafting traditions were intimately entangled with each other, stimulating and reinforcing similar procedures, practices, and aesthetics. In this paper, we argue that Pre-Columbian Maya decorated ceramic vessels and plastered masonry buildings were linked through the knowledge networks of different craftspeople producing seemingly very different things. We document the similarity in production techniques of ceramics and mortars and discuss the social and technological implications of knowledge networks between different craftspeople and objects in antiquity.

Cite this Record

Knowledge Networks and Entanglements in the Crafting of Pre-Columbian Maya Ceramics and Architecture. Celine Gillot, Christina Halperin. Presented at The 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Albuquerque, NM. 2019 ( tDAR id: 450993)

Spatial Coverage

min long: -94.197; min lat: 16.004 ; max long: -86.682; max lat: 21.984 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22981