Gandon, Enora;
Nonaka, Tetsushi;
Coyle, Thelma;
Coyle, Erin;
Sonabend, Raphael;
Ogbonnaya, Chibueze;
Endler, John;
(2021)
Cultural transmission and perception of vessel shapes among Hebron potters.
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology
, 63
, Article 101334. 10.1016/j.jaa.2021.101334.
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Abstract
While craft apprenticeship can be understood as socially mediated individual learning, the ensuing prediction of individual and cultural object traits within craft communities has not been investigated. Here we provide an assessment of vessel shape variations occurring through cultural transmission and their visual perception by the craftsmen. To this end, 26 Hebron potters distributed through nine familial transmission units were asked to produce vessels of three different pottery types, then 21 of the participants were invited to visually identify their proper vessels and those of five other potters. We used the Elliptical Fourier method to analyze vessel shape variation among the productions. Our findings demonstrated that the learning process modified the ceramic shape, the cultural morphological traits being combined with new individual traits. Moreover, the individual morphological traits overtook the cultural ones, which is supposed to lead to divergence of vessel shapes within the transmission chain. If certain cultural morphological traits perpetuate through generations, this certainly does not result from fidelity copying occurring through learning but from stabilizing mechanisms such as consumer demand. Our results showed that potters do perceive the subtle same-type vessel shape variations and thereby could select the individual variant they prefer to produce.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Cultural transmission and perception of vessel shapes among Hebron potters |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jaa.2021.101334 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2021.101334 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Cultural transmission; Wheel-throwing pottery; Craft skill; Shape analysis; Shape perception; Artifact variation |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Population, Policy and Practice Dept |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10211048 |
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