Learning to Make Pottery in the Prehispanic American Southwest

Abstract

Recent studies of apprenticeship and learning provide a framework for understanding how the social contexts of learning affect the material outcome of the learning process among potters. Using methods derived from educational psychology to examine prehispanic pottery made and painted by unskilled potters from the American Southwest, it is possible to evaluate cognitive maturity and motor skills. Comparisons of two culture areas indicate differences among Southwestern populations in teaching frameworks and how children were incorporated into craft production.