I agree with Ned Heite
 
>Ceramic imprecision displayed during the discussion of "whitewares" was
>disconcerting. I agree with Cara Blume that this issue
>should be long since settled.
 
However, I also agree with the approach taken by George Miller.  It makes a
lot more sense to me to use a typology developed by the makers and users of a
product than to come up with a typology based on criteria that were invisible
to the users.  Few people ever bought refined white earthenware because its
paste did or did not stick to the tongue. (And yet, archaeology lab workers
across the country still lick every sherd.)  Ceramics termed white granite
could be porous or non-porous, with a greyish or bluish or dead white caste,
etc. etc.  The distinguishing variable for both manufacturers and consumers
was what the items looked like, and the difference between the later
pearlwares and creamwares or from what many people call whiteware and
ironstone was decoration, not the ever changing make up of the paste.
 
This whole paste/ware idea, like much else in historical archaeology, is a
holdover from prehistoric archaeology where you have to grasp at every straw
(read variable) whether or not it may have had anything to do with how the
product was made or used or perceived by the maker and user.  By doing so, we
get further and further from the people who made and used the stuff.  That's
why most of us are historical archaeologists and why prehistoric archaeology
is going the way of anthropology, increasingly irrelevant.
 
In historical archaeology we do not have to be so blind.  Unless we are
interested in ceramic paste and manufacturing methods per se (for example,
why did a manufacturer make porous earthenware and presumably mislead the
public by calling it white granite; or how did the efficiency in
manufacturing ceramics improve and what were the implications for the work
force?) we would all be better served to accept George Miller's
contemporaneous typology and go on to explore some really interesting ideas
rather than get bogged down in the pearlware/whiteware/ironstone debate again
and again and again.
 
I will no longer read any more of the Great Whiteware Debate messages.  I
really have too many more important things to do.  Alasdair, if this makes me
closed minded, so be it.  I have had enough after nearly twenty years, and
there have not been any new ideas out there, except for George's, during that
time.  If you must flame me, change the subject title.
 
Tom Wheaton                           Opinions Expressed Are My Own
New South Associates                  and Other Usual Disclaimers
6150 East Ponce de Leon Ave.
Stone Mountain, Georgia  30083
404 498 4155