Communities of Practice of Metal Craftspeople on the North Coast of Peru, First Millennium CE

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Communities of Practice in the Ancient Andes: Thinking through Knowledge Transmission and Community Making in and beyond Craft Production" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper utilizes a Communities of Practice perspective to explore knowledge transmission of gilding technologies between craftspeople of the Moche and Vicus cultures during the first millennium CE on the north coast of Peru. Craftspeople played seminal roles in the production of metal objects with political and religious authority worn and used by elites in life and death. Archaeological, experimental, and technical studies have allowed researchers to reconstruct some metal production processes in this region; however, we know comparatively little about the social standing of metal craftspeople, how their craft was learned, access to technical and esoteric information, and relationships with elites and sociopolitical institutions. While some of this information is beyond what can be documented in the archaeological record I propose integration of data from metallurgical studies, contextual and ethnohistorical information on this craft and its communities to elucidate on different communities of practice among Moche and Vicus metal artisans. In particular I examine gilding techniques, materials, and forms that reflect the intersection and differentiation of knowledge communities, learning and interaction between groups, and sociopolitical institutions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Communities of Practice in the Ancient Andes: Thinking through Knowledge Transmission and Community Making in and beyond Craft Production   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32722