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XII/2/2021
INTERDISCIPLINARIA ARCHAEOLOGICA
NATURAL SCIENCES IN ARCHAEOLOGY
homepage: http://www.iansa.eu
The Potter’s Wheel in the Chilean Central Valley:
A Long-Term and Contextual Perspective on Technological Change
Jaume García Rosselló
1*
1
Department of Historic Sciences and Art Theory, ArqueoUIB Reserach Group, University of the Balearic Islands, Cra.de Valldemossa,
07122 Palma, Spain
1. Starting point
In this article the social and technological dynamics in
the transition from hand-made to wheel-thrown pottery
in a modern context is considered. Source availability as
well as feldwork provides both a long-term perspective
and a depiction of its present consequences. Here, it will
be specifcally explained, how an indigenous, hand-made,
domestic and female pottery-production system has turned
into an essentially male, wheel-thrown and workshop
activity.
As a consequence of a series of signifcant social, cultural
and economic events, the Indian village of Pomaire gained
a reputation as a potter’s town (Figure 1). The several
changes undergone by its population with regard to pottery
production makes it an interesting example to study the origin
and development of a technological change process which
resulted in the displacement of women from pottery-making
and the introduction of mechanised production means during
the 1980s. Thus, the social and technical transformations
which have taken place since colonial times (beginning of the
16
th
century), for the potters of Pomaire are explained, enlarged
on their history in order to contribute to a general refection.
The question of technological change and, particularly, the
transition from hand-building to wheel production has been
widely studied in archaeology (Arnold, 1989; Arnold III,
1991; Balfet, 1965; Deal, 1983; García Rosselló, 2006; Rice,
1987). Among the reasons posed for this change, “
rentability
”
of the product and techniques may be mentioned. Questions
such as the use of the potter’s wheel to increase the volume
of products and the consequent increase in income were
frequently considered (Anders, 1994; Rice, 1987; González
et al.
, 2001; Balfet, 1965; Arnold, 1985; Renfrew, 1978).
On the other hand, it is unlikely to fnd in the literature any
criticism of the direct correlation proposed between the use
of the potter’s wheel and the male workforce on the one
hand, and the development of full-time specialised work on
the other (Arnold, 1985; Balfet, 1965; 1981).
Volume XII ● Issue 2/2021 ● Pages 267–279
*Corresponding author. E-mail: jaume.garcia@uib.es
ARTICLE INFO
Article history:
Received: 29
th
January 2021
Accepted: 9
th
November 2021
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24916/iansa.2021.2.12
Key words:
technological change
long-term analysis
social technology
ethnoarchaeology
ethnography
history
Pomaire potters
central Chile
ABSTRACT
In this article the social and technological dynamics detected in the transition from hand-made pottery
to wheel-thrown ware in a modern context is considered. The many diferent sources supplemented by
feldwork provide a long-term perspective and a depiction of its present consequences. It is specifcally
explained, how an indigenous, hand-made, domestic and female pottery-production system has turned
into an essentially male, wheel-thrown and workshop activity.
After a series of signifcant events, the Indian village of Pomaire gained a reputation as a potter’s
village. The several changes underwent by its population as regards to pottery production makes it
an interesting example to analyse the origin and development of a process of technological change
which ended up with the displacement of women from pottery-making and the introduction of the
means for mechanised production during the 1980s. Thus, the social and technical transformations
which have taken place since colonial times (beginning of the 16
th
century), for the potters of Pomaire
are explained, enlarged on their history in order to contribute to a general refection.
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IANSA 2021 ● XII/2 ● 267–279
Jaume García Rosselló: The Potter’s Wheel in the Chilean Central Valley: A Long-Term and Contextual Perspective on Technological Change
268
In this paper I do not disregard issues such as efciency,
rentability and economic value to explain the incorporation
of the potter’s wheel; rather, I want to highlight some
reasons of a social and ideological kind which have not been
generally explored as they should. That is, I aim to overcome
the typical answer of modern industrialised society which
simplistically correlates technological development and the
new role of male potters with the increase in production and
progressive specialisation.
Due to their peculiar development, the potters’ villages
in central Chile represent an excellent study case to
provide a historical context and diachronic perspective to
the technological changes produced in the last centuries in
indigenous communities (16
th
–21
st
centuries). Furthermore,
they integrate them in the new social dynamics in the context
of Chile.
Hence, I emphasise the long-term cultural processes
(García Rosselló, 2008; Politis, 2015; Lyons and Cassey,
2016) to avoid producing an isolated and static ethnographic
study case whose value is similar to fxed-frame photography.
That is, I propose studying how material and cultural changes
have taken place, as well as the long-standing processes
involved, keeping in mind the social context in which they
were generated and reproduced (García Rosselló, 2006;
2008; 2016).
1.1 Research strategy
The reports about Chilean pottery of indigenous origins are
full of references relating to technological change (Graham,
1823; Valenzuela, 1955; Lago, 1971; Pérez, 1973; Valdés
and Matta, 1986; León
et al.
, 1986; Rebolledo, 1994; García
Rosselló, 2006, 2008; Berg
et al.
, 2014; García Rosselló,
2016; Montt and Lecrec, 2017; García Rosselló, 2019). For
the last two centuries, a corpus of technical information has
been created – which includes the organisation of production
as well as the products created – and is of great variety when
compared to other contexts (Sillar and Jofré, 2016). In the case
of Pomaire, this corpus is considerable due to its privileged
location. Founded between the capital city, Santiago, and its
commercial port, Valparaíso, the village has received the visits
of travellers and scientists alike. Furthermore, its products
were distributed throughout the country.
Diferent kinds of documents are available for the colonial
and republican periods (16
th
–21
st
centuries), together with
travellers’ and erudite visitors’ chronicles (such as Graham,
1823) and archaeological reports (Prado
et al.
, 2015; Prieto
et al.
, 2006). For the 20
th
century, we can also resort to the
large Chilean historiographic tradition (Sagredo, 2014),
which preserved and disseminated most of the documents.
A number of folklorists (Valenzuela, 1955; Lago, 1971;
Berg
et al.
, 2014, among others) documented and described
the craft traditions in Pomaire, either with a journalistic or
scientifc interest. Between the 1970s and 1990s, historians
(Borde and Góngora, 1956; Bowen, 2007) and anthropologists
from the Centro de Estudios de la Mujer (Centre for Women
Studies) created an intensive program to compile life stories
of rural women (Valdés and Matta, 1986; Rebolledo, 1994;
De León
et al.
, 1986). As a result, there exist a signifcant
number of interviews for reconstructing the oral memory of
women potters (Valenzuela, 1955; Valdes and Matta, 1986;
García Rosselló, 2008; Berg
et al.
, 2014; Montt and Lecrec,
2007), which could be informative for recovering the social
and technical development in the village at the beginning of
the 20
th
century. However, two kinds of problems originate
when processing this data: the chronological uncertainty of
oral stories and the technical inaccuracy
of both compilations
and relations in regard to the pottery production.
This research incorporates the spatial analysis of modern
workshops to understand transformations in organisation
of space and architecture. It includes a revision of the
materials produced and the tools used throughout time, the
recording of
chaînes opératoires
and technical gestures, as
well as an inventory of technological infrastructures and raw
material sources.
Simultaneously, oral directed one-to-one and anonymous
interviews with Pomaire sellers, potters and consumers
provided valuable data for gaining an understanding of both
the current situation and recent changes.
In most ethnoarchaeological research, the time perspective
and explanations about technological change have been