Pottery, Livelihoods, and Landscapes

This book describes the pottery trade activities of the residents of the community of San Bartolomé de los Olleros in Piura, Peru. Based on extensive interviews with potters and traders, it explains why the barter of pots continues to be practiced, and explores how pottery production and exchange practices may now be changing. The book provides a unique and detailed analysis of the interconnections between handicraft production, rural trade networks, and agriculture in an Andean context. Pots are mainly bartered for food crops within a non-monetary peasant economy distinct from the "conventional" market. This practice is an important food source for pottery traders; thus trader livelihoods are placed at the center of this qualitative study of pottery distribution. Of primary importance are: 1) the decision-making processes surrounding exchange activities, 2) how exchange choices produce distinct spatial patterns, and 3) how the marketing of pots impacts livelihoods.

Autorentext

Martha G. Bell is a lecturer in geography at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru's Department of Humanities. She teaches courses on climate change, natural disasters, urban geography and geographic thought.

Inhalt
Preface.- Chapter 1: Introduction.- 1.1 Introduction.- 1.2 Approaches to Rural Livelihoods and Exchange Systems in the Andes.- Chapter 2: Context and Research Design.- 2.1 Pottery Production in Piura.- 2.2 Research Methods.- Chapter 3: Networks of Pottery Exchange.- 3.1 Methods of Pottery Distribution and the Case of San Bartolomé de Olleros.- 3.2 Trading Trips.- 3.3 Community-Based Exchange.- 3.4 Visiting Customers.- 3.5 Annual Fairs.- 3.6 Itinerant Potters & Peonage.- 3.7 Urban Markets.- Chapter 4: Negotiating the Exchange Landscape.- 4.1 Kinds of Places, Kinds of Food: The Geography of Agriculture in Piura.- 4.2 Exchange Rates and Methods of Measurement.- 4.3 Potters' Life Cycles and Trade Practices.- Chapter 5: Pottery Exchange and Livelihoods: An Assessment.- 5.1 The spatiality of pottery production and exchange as a livelihood activity.- 5.2 Significance for Livelihood Studies and Andean Studies.-5.3 Significance for Ethnography and Archaeology of Pottery.- 5.4 Final conclusions.