Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2011
Up to this point, I have discussed the types of data with which we can assess ceramic production and use and the two principal data sets available from the excavations at Zhongba – complete vessels and sherds from the W.S. sample areas. Here I use these data to examine the various parameters that compose the organization of ceramic production and use at Zhongba.
identifying specialization
First we must consider whether the ceramic remains from DT0202 indicate specialized production of ceramics, on the one hand, and the use of ceramics in specialized production (of salt), on the other. To satisfy the broadest definition of specialization,we should minimally demonstrate that the product was being produced for consumption beyond a household. To do so, we should show that any single episode of manufacture created more of the product than could be used by an individual kin group. To further demonstrate that the production and use of the ceramics at Zhongba indicate specialized production involving a division of labor associated with social complexity (a perspective I have termed producer specialization; see Flad and Hruby 2007), we must show that time was invested in the production in lieu of other activity. To demonstrate this requires either that the time investment was substantial and therefore precluded other activities or that some necessary resources were unavailable locally and were acquired by trading the locally overproduced item.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge-org.demo.remotlog.com is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.