Searching for Structure in Pottery Analysis - Applying Multiple Scales and Instruments to Production - Alan F. Greene

Searching for Structure in Pottery Analysis - Applying Multiple Scales and Instruments to Production - Alan F. Greene

Laterality and Directionality in Pottery Painting and Coiling

Searching for Structure in Pottery Analysis - Applying Multiple Scales and Instruments to Production - Alan F. Greene

Kathryn A MacFarland [+-]
Arizona State Museum Archaeological Repository
Dr. Kathryn MacFarland received her Ph.D. from the School of Anthropology, University of Arizona in 2017. She is the Manager of the Arizona State Museum Archaeological Repository. Her current research focuses on identifying and studying the religion of culturally-diverse peoples variously glossed under the terms Scythians, Saka and Xiongnu; inhabitants of northern-central Eurasia throughout the Iron Age (ca. 1000–100 BC).

Description

Open learning frameworks allow great variability in the way a specific task can be completed, while a closed learning framework allows little variation. Ethnographic observations indicate that there is a high degree of variability in the execution of tasks within the process of pottery manufacture, and that learning construction techniques requires more structure than learning decoration techniques. In this project, the consistency of the directionality (clockwise versus counterclockwise) of painted lines on polychrome vessels and coiled bases of corrugated pottery was studied to determine tolerance within an open or closed cultural learning framework, and the degree of openness. An experiment was carried out which linked directionality on pots with the laterality of the potter in an open system. These results were then compared with data from archaeological pots from sites in the Point of Pines area, east-central Arizona. Maverick Mountain, Point of Pines Polychrome, McDonald, and Point of Pines Corrugated ceramics were used to extrapolate artistic tolerance with degrees of variation within and between types.

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Citation

MacFarland , Kathryn. Laterality and Directionality in Pottery Painting and Coiling. Searching for Structure in Pottery Analysis - Applying Multiple Scales and Instruments to Production. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 130-146 Jul 2022. ISBN 9781781790533. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=24652. Date accessed: 28 Mar 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.24652. Jul 2022

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