1,418 research outputs found
Non-discursive knowledge and the construction of identity. Potters, potting and performance at the bronze age tell of Százhalombatta, Hungary
No full textThis article explores the relationship between the making of things and the making of people at the Bronze Age tell at Százhalombatta, Hungary. Focusing on potters and potting, we explore how the performance of non-discursive knowledge was critical to the construction of social categories. Potters literally came into being as potters through repeated bodily enactment of potting skills. Potters also gained their identity in the social sphere through the connection between their potting performance and their audience. We trace degrees of skill in the ceramic record to reveal the material articulation of non-discursive knowledge and consider the ramifications of the differential acquisition of non-discursive knowledge for the expression of different kinds of potter's identities. The creation of potters as a social category was essential to the ongoing creation of specific forms of material culture. We examine the implications of altered potters' performances and the role of non-discursive knowledge in the construction of social models of the Bronze Ag
One-dimensional lattice of oscillators coupled through power-law interactions: Continuum limit and dynamics of spatial Fourier modes
No full textWe study synchronization in a system of phase-only oscillators residing on the sites of a one-dimensional periodic lattice. The oscillators interact with a strength that decays as a power law of the separation along the lattice length and is normalized by a size-dependent constant. The exponent ? of the power law is taken in the range 0??<1. The oscillator frequency distribution is symmetric about its mean (taken to be zero) and is nonincreasing on [0,?). In the continuum limit, the local density of oscillators evolves in time following the continuity equation that expresses the conservation of the number of oscillators of each frequency under the dynamics. This equation admits as a stationary solution the unsynchronized state uniform both in phase and over the space of the lattice. We perform a linear stability analysis of this state to show that when it is unstable, different spatial Fourier modes of fluctuations have different stability thresholds beyond which they grow exponentially in time with rates that depend on the Fourier modes. However, numerical simulations show that at long times all the nonzero Fourier modes decay in time, while only the zero Fourier mode (i.e., the “mean-field” mode) grows in time, thereby dominating the instability process and driving the system to a synchronized state. Our theoretical analysis is supported by extensive numerical simulations.Delft Center for Systems and ControlMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin
Maya potters' indigenous knowledge: cognition, engagement, and practice
No full textIncludes bibliographical references and index.Based on fieldwork and reflection over a period of fifty years, Arnold utilizes engagement theory to describe the indigenous knowledge of traditional Maya potters in Ticul, Yucatán, Mexico. Arnold examines craftspeople's knowledge and skills, their engagement with natural and social environments, the raw materials, and their process.--Provided by publisher.Introduction -- How was the data collected? -- The potters' engagement with the perceived landscape -- The potters' engagement with raw materials -- The potters' engagement with paste preparation -- The potters' engagement with vessel forming -- The potters' engagement with drying and firing -- Ticul Pottery as a "distilled landscape"/"taskscape" -- Conclusion
Locations of envy : an ethnography of Aguabuena potters
No full textThis thesis is an anthropological exploration of the envy of Aguabuena people, a small rural community of potters in the village of Ráquira, in the Boyacá region of Andean Colombia. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork among these potters, I propose an understanding of envy in Aguabuena as an existential experience, shaping relationships between the self and others in the world, crosscutting metaphysical and physical spheres, and balancing between corrosive and more empathetic ways of co-existence. Disclosing the multipresence of envy in Aguabuena’s world, its effects on people (including the ethnographer), and the way envy is embodied, performed, reciprocated and circumvented by the potters, I locate envy in various contexts where it is said to be manifested. Furthermore, I discuss the complex spectrum of envy and its multivalent meanings, or oscillations, in the life of Aguabuena people. I also present interactions with people surrounding potters, such as Augustinian monks, crafts middlemen, and municipal authorities, all of whom recount the envy of potters. My research challenges previous anthropological interpretations on envy and provides an alternative reading of this phenomenon. Moving away from labelling and regulatory explanations of envy, performative models, or pathological interpretations of the subject, I analyse the lived experience of envy and how it encompasses different realms of experience as well as flows of social relations. While focusing on the tensions and entanglements that envy brings to potters, as it constrains social life but also activates and reinforces social bonds, I examine the channels through which envy circulates and how it is put into motion by potters. Additionally, my thesis intends to contribute to anthropological studies of rural pottery communities in Andean Colombia. I present my unfolding understanding of envy by using both the potters’ concept and material detail, punto, location, referring to a spot from where Aguabuena people enter different vistas of the world, or denoting a precise time when things or materials change their physical qualities. Through this device, I disclose realms of envy, while seeking to immerse the reader in the lived experience of envy
Frequency of interaction, communication and collusion: An experiment
No full textThe frequency of interaction facilitates collusion by reducing gains from defection. Theory has shown that under imperfect monitoring flexibility may hinder cooperation by inducing punishment after too few noisy signals, making collusion impossible in many environments (Sannikov and Skrzypacz in Am Econ Rev 97:1794–1823, 2007). The interplay of these forces should generate an inverse U-shaped effect of flexibility on collusion. We test for the first time these theoretical predictions—central to antitrust policy—in a laboratory experiment featuring an indefinitely repeated Cournot duopoly, with different degrees of flexibility. Results turn out to depend crucially on whether subjects can communicate with each other at the beginning of a supergame (explicit collusion) or not (tacit collusion). Without communication, the incidence of collusion is low throughout and not significantly related to flexibility; when subjects are allowed to communicate, collusion is more common throughout and significantly more frequent in the treatment with intermediate flexibility than in the treatments with low or high flexibility
Flexibility and Collusion with Imperfect Monitoring
No full textFlexibility - the ability to react swiftly to others' choices - facilitates collusion by reducing gains from defection before opponents react. Under imperfect monitoring, however, flexibility may also hinder collusion by inducing punishment after too few noisy signals. The combination of these forces predicts a non-monotonic relationship between flexibility and collusion. To test this subtle prediction we implement in the laboratory an indefinitely repeated Cournot game with noisy price information and vary how long players have to wait before changing output. We find that (i) the facilitating role of flexibility is lost under imperfect monitoring, and (ii) with learning, collusion unravels with low or high flexibility, but not with intermediate flexibility
Migrant Potters in Vrginmost, Croatia
No full textThe author informs about potters from Pirot (eastern Serbia) who live and work in Vrginmost near Karlovac (Croatia) eight months in a year. They make special type of pottery, with names and designs characteristic of the Pirot area. For this reason, when sold on the Karlovac market, their pottery can be easily distinguished from local forms, made in the village of Rastoki near Karlovac. The author gives a brief account of the pottery—making technique of these migrant craftsmen and lists places where they sell their products
Potbank and union : a study of work and trade unionism in the pottery industry, 1900-1924
No full textThe thesis analyses work and trade unionism in the pottery
industry between 1900-1924. It explores the structural influences
on work and unionism and the experience of the people involved. The
main contextual features studied include: the industrial framework;
ceramic technology and production; the social relations of the workplace;
the union's origins and growth; employer action and the potters'
relationship with the community, labour movement and state. The study
demonstrates how social and economic relations moulded perceptions and
that individuals could shape those relations.
There are five sections. The first shows the industry's economic
structure was the principal determinant of the potter's work. Past
industrial development conditioned responses to the events of the
1900-1924 period. Worker and management actions are related to the
variety of markets and technology. Secondly, an examination of the
production process reveals the sectionalism of the industry's internal
relations which affected the potters' attempts at collective
organization. Thirdly the evolution of trade unionism and its
amalgamated form are explained. Initially the union was craft dominated
but during the period came to reflect the composite workforce's response
to industrial change. The workgroup, the family and local loyalties
formed the basis of union organization. Fourthly, management's desire
to control production had a major impact on work and union experience.
Industrial bargaining and conflict reinforced the sectionalism of the
workforce and the fragmentation of the union. Finally, the class
consciousness and political attitudes of the potters resulted from the
interaction of workplace and community and were also modified by the
potters' relations with other classes, the labour movement and the state.
The period constitutes a discontinuity in the development of the
Potteries given the changes which occurred in technology, capital and
labour organizations and industrial relations. The thesis is the first
account of work and unionism in this era of the pottery industry's
history and challenges orthodox interpretations of the technical and
social aspects of pottery manufacture. It seeks to understand the social
basis of work and trade unionism and to broaden the historical study of
women workers, industrial disease and the intersection of home, work and
trade unionism
Potters at work in ancient Corinth : industry, religion, and the Penteskouphia pinakes /
No full text"An unparalleled assemblage of Archaic black-figure painted plaques was uncovered near Penteskouphia, a village west of ancient Corinth, over a century ago. The plaques-represented by over 1,200 fragments-and their depictions of gods, warriors, animals, and the potters themselves, provide a uniquely rich source of information about Greek art, technology, and society. In this volume, the findspot of the plaques is identified in a contribution by Ioulia Tzonou and James Herbst, and the assemblage as a whole is fully contextualized within the Archaic world. Then, by focusing specifically on the images of potters at work, the author illuminates the relationship between Corinthian and Athenian art, the technology used in ancient pottery production, and religious anxiety in the 6th century B.C. The first comprehensive register of all known Penteskouphia plaques complements the well-illustrated discussion"--Includes bibliographical references (pages 381-399) and indexes.Introduction -- Excavation site of the Penteskouphia pinakes / Ioulia Tzonou and James A. Herbst -- Manufacture, functions, iconography, epigraphy, and chronology -- Catalogue of scenes of potters at work -- Scenes of potters at work : iconographical and epigraphical analysis -- Technology, workforce, and organization of ceramic workshops -- Industrial religion and potters' anxiety -- Conclusions."An unparalleled assemblage of Archaic black-figure painted plaques was uncovered near Penteskouphia, a village west of ancient Corinth, over a century ago. The plaques-represented by over 1,200 fragments-and their depictions of gods, warriors, animals, and the potters themselves, provide a uniquely rich source of information about Greek art, technology, and society. In this volume, the findspot of the plaques is identified in a contribution by Ioulia Tzonou and James Herbst, and the assemblage as a whole is fully contextualized within the Archaic world. Then, by focusing specifically on the images of potters at work, the author illuminates the relationship between Corinthian and Athenian art, the technology used in ancient pottery production, and religious anxiety in the 6th century B.C. The first comprehensive register of all known Penteskouphia plaques complements the well-illustrated discussion"-
De-colonising the Aesthetic Sense:The story of craft revival in Aruvacode potters’ village
No full textExperiential knowledge is what indigenous knowledge is all about. Unfortunately again the Western intellectuals are reframing indigenous knowledge to suit their purposes. In the course of living with indigenous communities through a project to revive the craft in a potters' village, the author recognises that their knowledge is holistic and intuitive unlike the compartmentalized and fragmented and reason-dominated knowledge of modernity. A narrative of the experience.knolwedge systems, craft revival, indidgenous communities, potters' craft, Kerala, design development, craft culture, Humanities, Sociology, Anthropology
- …
