Working With Clay

Evidence from sites in the lower Ulua valley of north-central Honduras, occupied between a.d. 500 and 1000, provides new insight into the connections between households, craft production, and the role of objects in maintaining social relations within and across households. Production of pottery vessels, figurines, and other items in a household context has been documented at several sites in the valley, including Cerro Palenque, Travesía, Campo Dos, and Campo Pineda. Differences in raw materials, in what was made, and in the size and design of firing facilities allow us to explore how crafting with clay created communities of practice made up of people with varying levels of knowledge, experience, and skill. We argue that focusing on the specific features of a particular craft and the crafter\u27s perspective gives us insight into the ways that crafting contributed to the reproduction of social identities, local histories, and connections among members of communities of practice who comprised multicrafting households

ANSO 103-01 and 103-02, Introduction to Anthropology, Fall 2011

This syllabus was submitted to the Rhodes College Office of Academic Affairs by the course instructor.Common sense is neither common nor sensical. Discuss. What does it mean to be human? Anthropology is the study of the almost infinite number of answers to that question. It is in exploring these answers, from the seemingly mundane to the exotic, that we can begin to comprehend alternative cultural logic that might have previously seemed illogical. At the same time, the experience of “culture shock” — of learning about a cultural practice that is novel, foreign, or incomprehensible — can make us aware of or even call into question many of the deeply-held beliefs, assumptions, and values that we take for granted. The purpose of this class is neither to shock nor exoticize, but to view the vast diversity of social forms and cultural practices that all adhere to their own common sense. This course covers the basic data, concepts, and theories of cultural anthropology placing emphasis on the foundations of human society, social organization, culture, and symbol systems

Material Relations: The Marriage Figurines of Prehispanic Honduras

Focusing on marriage figurines—double human figurines that represent relations formed through social alliances—Hendon, Joyce, and Lopiparo examine the material relations created in Honduras between AD 500 and 1000, a period when a network of social houses linked settlements of a variety of sizes in the region. The authors analyze these small, seemingly insignificant artifacts using the theory of materiality to understand broader social processes. They examine the production, use, and disposal of marriage figurines from six sites—Campo Dos, Cerro Palenque, Copán, Currusté, Tenampua, and Travesia—and explore their role in rituals and ceremonies, as well as in the forming of social bonds and the celebration of relationships among communities. They find evidence of historical traditions reproduced over generations through material media in social relations among individuals, families, and communities, as well as social differences within this network of connected yet independent settlements. Material Relations provides a new and dynamic understanding of how social houses functioned via networks of production and reciprocal exchange of material objects and will be of interest to Mesoamerican archaeologists, anthropologists, and art historians.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/books/1001/thumbnail.jp