On craft production and archaeology, I thought I'd mention a book that very
few have ever heard of, being that it was published in a limited edition many
years ago in Guatemala, but in many ways directly addresses the concerns of
this list.  This is the volume entitled:
 
Morales Hidalgo, Italo.  1980.  "Ceramica Tradicional del Oriente de
Guatemala." Sub-Centro Regional de Artesanias y Artes Populares, Coleccion
Tierra Adentro 1. Guatemala City. 108 pps.
 
      What it does is take a section of Guatemala, the southeastern corner of
the country, and describe in detail how ALL ceramics were being made and
distributed in 1980 [just before the impact of plastic wares began to be felt
in the area].  A systematic attempt was made to locate all centers of ceramic
manufacture, including many that produced strictly utilitarian ware for a
very limited area. The author makes a point of locating the origins of temper
and clay, and describing how it comes to the manufacturing site  There is a
brief description of each ceramic producing community (many of them tiny
hamlets otherwise unknown in the literature) and the ceramics of each are
drawn, as if they were artifacts described for an archaeological monograph.
 
     In brief it is the sort of book that an archaeologist could wish
existed, as a baseline for studies for the further past.  Curiously this work
was written for a part of Guatemala where there has been almost no historical
archaeology.
 
      Just in case there is any publisher out there interested, the author
(who is fluent in English) would probably be more than willing to see a new
printing or revised edition in English or Spanish.
 
                Lawrence H. Feldman
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