Pottery Making as a Community-Based Technology Open-Firing by the Ari Potters, Southwestern Ethiopia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20148766 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Morie Kaneko (Kyoto University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2005 |
| Volume | 2005 |
| Issue | 67 |
| Pages | 1-20 |
| Publication date | 2005-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of African Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0065-4140 • E-ISSN: 1884-5533 |
| Publisher | Japan Association for African Studies (PUBLISHER • JP) |
| DOI | 10.11619/africa1964.2005.67_1 |
| OpenAlex | W2316177734 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
The aim of this paper is to define the overall practice of pottery making by Ari potters as one of their community-based technologies, and to elucidate its characteristics particularly by focusing on their open-firing. In comparison with the firing method of Japanese pottery making, Ari's open-firing was at first expected to cause an explosion or cracking of pots due to its abrupt rise of temperature. However, experiments on the ratio of contraction and water absorption of clay showed that Ari potters prevent the pots from exploding, even when the temperature of open-firing drastically goes up, by mixing plenty of ground-shard with clay. Ari potters have achieved an effective way of making durable pots with minimum time and resources, as they are much concerned about the amount and species of plants for fuel and their appropriate control of firing. In the analysis of Ari vocabularies for evaluating the traits of pots all through the process from making to selling, I found that specific folk categories which is malki and aani, in evaluating the durability and quality were common to both makers and users. I also found that Ari potters explain the situation when pots are broken during open-firing by using aani expression. In conclusion, I redefined the community-based technologies that are influenced by the evaluation and the behavior are based on the various relationships which are human-material relationships for making and classifying pots and human-human relationships for exchanging pots
Archaeology · Geography · Pottery · Archaeological Research and Protection · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation
| Highly cited | No |
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