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NEW SERIES, NO. 41

Anthropology

Continuity and Change in a Domestic Industry: Santa Maria
Atzompa, a Pottery Making Town in Oaxaca, Mexico

Mary Stevenson Thieme

December 4, 2009
Publication 1553

PUBLISHED BY FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

1 R:LI)1A^A

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Cover photograph: A kiln in Santa Maria Atzompa, Oaxaca, Mexico has just been opened and the pottery glows red hot as it is being
unloaded. Photograph by the author in July 1990.

PUBLISHED BY FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Anthropology

NEW SERIES, NO. 41

Continuity and Change in a Domestic Industry:
Santa Maria Atzompa, a Pottery Making Town
in Oaxaca, Mexico

Mary Stevenson Thieme

Department of Anthropology
The Field Museum
1400 South Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, I L 60605-2496, U.S.A.‘

' E-mail: msthieme@comcast.net

Accepted August 11, 2009
Published December 4, 2009
Publication 1553

PUBLISHED BY FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Table of Contents

Abstract . 1

Preface . 1

Materials and Methods . 1

Chapter 1 : Background and History . 3

Oaxaca . 3

Valley of Oaxaca . 4

Pottery Production in the Valley of Oaxaca . 5

Santa Maria Atzompa and Its Antecedents . 6

An Explanation for Longevity . 7

The Town Itself . 7

Chapter 2; Forms and Styles of Atzompa Pottery . 8

Classes of Pottery . 8

Domestic Ware . 9

Greenware . 10

Artesanias . 10

Continuity and Change . 11

Chapter 3: Ceramic Materials . 12

The Clays . 12

Gritty Clays . 12

Alluvial Clays . 15

Analysis of Clay Materials . 15

Clay Acquisition and Preparation . 16

Choices of Clays . 18

Materials for Surface Treatment . 20

Glaze . 20

Other Surface Materials . 21

Continuity and Change . 22

Chapter 4: The Production Process . 22

Forming the Pottery . 22

Domestic Ware . 22

Greenware . 23

Artesanias . 25

Finishing the Pottery . 25

Equipment and Spatial Organization of Work Areas . 26

Firing the Pottery . 28

The Kiln . 28

Firing Practices . 31

Continuity and Change . 37

Chapter 5: Production and Marketing Strategies . 38

The Market System . 38

Outlets for Domestic Ware and Greenware . 39

The 1950s and 1960s . 39

The 1990s . 41

Outlets for Artesanias . 44

The Mercado de Artesanias . 44

Continuity and Change . 44

Chapter 6: Family Dynamics . 47

The Household Production Unit (HPU) . 47

Division of Labor . 47

Selected Household Production Units . 49

Greenware Producers . 50

Domestic Ware Producers . 52

Women-Headed Households . 53

Continuity and Change . 54

Chapter 7: Innovation and Creativity . 55

Innovation . 55

Innovation in Materials and Techniques . 55

Innovation in Forms and Styles . 56

Creativity . 57

Continuity and Change . 58

Chapter 8: Choice, Continuity, and Change . 59

Choice . 59

Change . 60

The Lead Glaze Issue and the Response of the Potters . 60

Chapter 9: Conclusions . 62

Community Specialization . 62

Continuity and Change . 63

Acknowledgments . 65

Literature Cited . 66

Appendices

Appendix 1: Archaeological Sites with Evidence of Ceramic Production . 68

Appendix II: Typology of Monte Alban Pastes and Vessel Forms . 70

Color Classes . 70

Vessel Forms . 71

Appendix III: Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis . 71

Appendix IV: Pre-Hispanic Kilns . 72

Appendix V: Residues of Ceramic Production . 74

Appendix VI: Brief Description of Ceramic Methods in Three Other Valley Towns . 75

Appendix VII: Household Practices of the Sample . 76

Appendix VIII: Field Museum of Natural History Collection . 78

Appendix IX: Glossary . 80

List of Maps

Figure 1.1. The Valley of Oaxaca . 4

Figure 3.1. Clay sources . 13

Figure 1.1. Clay sources and archaeological sites . 69

List of Figures

Figure 2.1. Pottery produced in the early 1990s . 11

Figure 2.2. Kiln load of Artesamas, late 1990s . 12

Figure 3.2. Hillside slope, white gritty clay mine . 14

Figure 3.3. Mining white gritty clay . 14

Figure 3.4. Laguna clay mine . 15

Figure 3.5. Plot showing major structure of the data . 16

Figure 3.6. The ethnographer sieving laguna clay . 18

Figure 3.7. Kneading gritty clay powder into soaked laguna clay . 19

Figure 3.8. Beating gritty clay . 19

Figure 3.9. Sieving black gritty clay . 20

Figure 4.1. Forming an olla on a revolving platter . 24

Figure 4.2. Forming an olla on a ball-bearing disk . 24

Figure 4.3. Forming a large basin . 25

Figure 4.4. Forming a vase using the hand-modeling method . 26

Figure 4.5. Hand modeling a figurine . 27

Figure 4.6. Kick wheel dimensions . 27

Figure 4.7. Jacinto Olivera forming jugs on a kick wheel . 27

Figure 4.8. Adding applique to a figure of the Virgin . 28

Figure 4.9. Adding decoration to an Artesanlas figure . 28

Figure 4.10. Incising decoration on a Redware vessel . 29

Figure 4.11. Grill with spoked-wheel design . 31

Figure 4.12. Kiln dimensions . 32

Figure 4.13. Mortaring the bricks of the arch . 33

Figure 4.14. Working on the kiln walls . 34

Figure 4.15. Preparing the kiln and pottery for firing . 35

Figure 4.16. An older man supervises the unloading of a kiln . 36

Figure 4.17. Ofelia Aguilar glazing a vase (fmnh 339158) . 37

Figure 4.18. Firing large basins . 38

Figure 4.19. Glazed miniatures are placed, inverted, on nails in saggers . 39

Figure 5.1. A transaction at a stall of Greenware and ollas in the Mercado de Abastos . 40

Figure 5.2. A potter and a trader finalize a sale of ollas, roped together for transport . 41

Figure 5.3. Stall in the Mercado de Artesamas in 1996 . 45

Figure 6.1. A father and son scrape and burnish ollas . 48

Figure 6.2. A child learning to make a casserole . 49

Figure 6.3. Artesamas figure made by Enadina Vasques Cruz . 54

Figure 7.1. Forming miniature animals . 57

Figure 8.1. Interrelationships of potters’ choices . 60

Figure III.l. Plot showing chemical basis of group separation . 72

Figure III. 2. Bivariate plot of antimony and arsenic concentrations from four pottery towns in the

Valley of Oaxaca . 73

Figure IV. 1. Plan and photograph of grill, feature 5 . 74

List of Tables

Table 1.1. Periods and phases . 5

Table 2.1. Pottery types, early 1990s . 9

Table 3.1. Clay sources . 13

Table 3.2. Clay procurement choices . 16

Table 3.3. Tools for mining and preparing clay . 17

Table 3.4. Clay choices . 17

Table 3.5. Clay recipes . 20

Table 3.6. Glaze procurement choices . 21

Table 3.7. Glaze prices . 21

Table 4.1. Some forming times . 23

Table 4.2. Tools and equipment for pottery production . 29

Table 4.3. Locations of work areas . 29

Table 4.4. Some production times . 30

Table 4.5. Kiln dimensions (cm) . 32

Table 4.6. Fuel costs . 34

Table 4.7. Firing times . 36

Table 4.8. Firing temperatures . 37

Table 5.1. Mercado de Abastos costs . 42

Table 5.2. Outlets and prices, early 1990s . 43

Table 5.3. Market outlets — changes in the 1990s . 46

Table 6.1. Composition of household production units (HPUs) . 49

Table 6.2 Methods of production used by HPUs in 1992 . 50

Table 8.1. Production choice strategies . 59

Table 8.2. Change in pottery classes, 1992-1995 . 61

Table ILL Paste typology . 70

Table V.l. Residues of ceramic production . 75

Table VII.l. Household Practices of the Sample . 76

Table VIII.l. Field Museum of Natural History Collection . 78

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 20W^\\h funding from
Field Museum of Natural History Library

https://archive.org/details/continuitychange41chic

Continuity and Change in a Domestic Industry: Santa Maria Atzompa,
a Pottery Making Town in Oaxaca, Mexico

Mary Stevenson Thieme

Department of Anthropology
The Field Museum
1400 South Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, I L 60605-2496, U.S.A.

Abstract

The potters of Santa Maria Atzompa, a town in the Valley of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, have been making pottery
for at least 500 years, and the town has been widely known for its production of green lead-glazed cookware and
ornamental pottery. This study, conducted in the 1990s, looks at how Atzompa pottery production changed since studies
made in the 1950s and 1960s. Beginning in the mid-1990s, to a large extent as a result of public concern, publicity, and
legislation about the lead glaze, the potters changed the style, distribution, and social context of their ceramic
production. Also examined was the dynamics of household production and the choices that the potters made. A third
element of the study was compositional analysis of the various ceramic materials and pastes used by the potters.

Los alfareros de Santa Maria Atzompa, un pueblo en el Valle de Oaxaca en el sur de Mexico, han fabricado ceramica
desde hace 500 anos, y el pueblo ha sido ampliamente reconocido por su produccion de utensilios de cocina de ceramica
verde vidriada y ceramica ornamental. Este estudio, realizado en la decada de 1990, trata de la produccion de ceramica
de Atzompa y como cambio desde los estudios realizados en los anos 1950 y 1960. A mediados de la decada 1990, hubo
una gran preocupacion publica y legislativa acerca del vidriado con plomo, y los alfareros modificaron el estilo, la
distribucion y el contexto social de su produccion de ceramica. Tambien examinamos la dinamica de la produccion
domestica y las opciones disponibles a los alfareros. Un tercer enfoque es el analisis de composicion de los distintos
barros, materiales de desgrasante y pastas utilizados por los alfareros.

Preface

Pottery has a very long history. It is the product of people’s
activities throughout that history. By taking the raw materials
and the technology available to them, potters produce pottery
in the societies and cultures in which they live. If we define
technology as “the set of solutions developed by a human
group to satisfy its needs as it defines them” and include both
equipment (hardware) and knowledge and organization
(software) (Rabey, 1989, p. 168), then in studying pottery we
must consider not only the qualities of raw materials available
and the techniques the potters use but also the social and
cultural context in which potters work, why and for whom
they produce the ware, and how this has changed over time.
Pottery studies have moved from, primarily, consideration and
analysis of pottery as material culture and archaeological
artifacts to greater focus on examining the social, economic,
and cultural contexts in which pottery is made. Stimulated by
the work of Matson (1965) and Foster (1955, 1959a, 1959b,
1965, 1967), this resulted in work by archaeologists and
ethnologists in the last decades of the 20th century, including
but not limited to Arnold (1975, 1985, 2008), Costin (1991,
1998), Deal (1998), Feinman (1982a, 1982b, 1986, 1999),
Feinman et al., 1981, Kolb and Fackey (1988), Fackey (1982,
1988), Longacre (1991), Papousek (1981, 1984, 1989), Rice
(1987), van der Feeuw (1976, 1991), van der Leeuw and
Pritchard (1984), van der Leeuw and Torrence (1989), and

Wilk 1989. Their work and approaches informed me as I
examined household production in Atzompa.

Materials and Methods

Prior to the 1990s, Santa Maria Atzompa, a pottery-
producing town in Oaxaca, Mexico, had been the subject of
two major ethnographic studies. This made it possible to
examine and document, through another study, both the
continuity and the changes that had occurred in ceramic
production during the intervening 40 years. It seemed,
therefore, that an ethnographic restudy could be productive
for comparative purposes.

The first study, conducted by Jean Hendry (1957, 1992) in
the 1950s, focused on techniques of pottery making, sociali¬
zation, and aesthetics. She spent eight months in Atzompa in
1955. Since she wished to make comparisons between those
who made pottery and those who did not, her sample of 69
included 10 nonpotter households (Hendry, 1992, p. 12).
Charlotte Stolmaker (1973, 1976, 1996) conducted the second
study, doing her fieldwork from August 1967 to September
1968 and September 1969 to January 1970. She looked at
social and economic change and focused on attitudes of
progressivism and conservatism. Although pottery production
was included in her study, she also looked at farming and

FIELDIANA; ANTHROPOLOGY, N.S., NO. 41, DECEMBER 4, 2009, PP. 1-80

material possessions. Her sample of 80 included 69 potter
households, 23 of them active in farming, seven full-time
farmers, and four households dependent on wage earning
(Stolmaker, 1996, p. 3). Stolmaker (1976) also participated in
Beals’s (1975) Oaxaca market study as a field and research
assistant. Her research included household inventories and
records of daily purchases. More recently, in the late 1990s,
Ramona Perez (1997) conducted an ethnographic study in
Atzompa in which she focused on gender relations, issues of
community identity and power, and the complexity of
women’s lives.

The foci and research goals of my own study were
somewhat different. The first goal was to look at whether
and how Atzompa pottery production overall had changed or
not changed between the 1950s and the 1990s. A second goal
was to examine the dynamics of household production and the
choices that the potters make. My third goal was to undertake
compositional analysis of the various clays and tempering
materials used by the potters, following on the work of Anna
Shepard (1967), who examined Atzompa tempering material
in the 1960s in connection with her study of the ceramics of
Monte Alban.

I went to Oaxaca in 1988 to do research and collecting for an
exhibit at the Cumberland Science Museum in Nashville,
Tennessee, where I was curator. The research in Atzompa
developed out of that project, and the 1991 fieldwork was
conducted while on sabbatical from the museum. My intro¬
duction to the town occurred in 1989 through a Oaxaca friend
of Ronald Spores, a man who had worked many years before
with Jacinto Olivera y Juarez, the potter in whose household I
would live and visit from time to time over the next seven years.
Following a brief introductory visit in 1989, 1 spent a month in

1990, five months in 1991, two months in 1992,_.a^ follow-up
month in 1993, brief visits in 1994, and two months in 1995. In
1992, my son, Donald Thieme, a geoarchaeologist, came to
Oaxaca to accompany me to the clay mines, map them, and
undertake preliminary geological analysis.

In 1989, I contacted Jean Hendry and Charlotte Stolmaker
and made arrangements to edit their dissertations for
publication in the monograph series Vanderbilt University
Publications in Anthropology. Working with these manu¬
scripts and with the authors enabled me to become familiar
with the Atzompa of their times. Hendry loaned me field notes
and lists of names, and Stolmaker answered specific questions
that came up during my research. My connections with Jean
Hendry and Charlotte Stolmaker facilitated entree to some
households, and Ofelia Aguilar, Hendry’s goddaughter,
became one of my best informants and a good friend. Since
Stolmaker’s research was conducted later, many more people
remembered her and told me stories of her time there.

After being introduced to the household of Jacinto Olivera
and to Atzompa pottery in 1989, 1 returned in 1990 to spend a
month learning about Atzompa pottery production, meet
more potters, and develop plans for further fieldwork. The
main fieldwork was conducted from March through July in

1991, during which time I lived with the Olivera family, as I
did during two months in the summer of 1992. I became part
of the household, attending graduations, fiestas, and the
funeral of an infant. In 1992, struck by the changes that were
beginning to occur as a result of widespread concern,
legislation, and publicity about the lead content of the green
glaze, it seemed important to follow the events and the
changes that were happening. Thus, I returned for a month in

1993, a brief visit in 1994, and two months in 1995. The last
field trip was conducted primarily to videotape the potters and
to observe dramatic changes in production. Even in the last
years of the decade, when I had moved on to another project, I
visited the town when I was in Oaxaca, talked with my
informants, and observed further change. It had become a
long-term study of transition and change.

As stated above, my interest was in the dynamics of
household production and the choices the potters make.
Netting (1989, p. 231) defines the household as “a socially
recognized domestic group whose members usually share a
residence and both organize and carry on a range of
production, consumption, inheritance, and reproductive ac¬
tivities whose specific contents varies by society, stage in the
life cycle, and economic status.” Tax (1953, pp. 11-12) found
that in the Maya town of Panajachel, data had to be gathered
by household, family group, or neighborhood rather than by
individual. Similarly, Monaghan (1995, pp. 35-36) noted in
his study of Nuyoo, a Mixtec town in Oaxaca, that while
people might have different perspectives, they had a strong
collective identity, and household members usually spoke and
acted as though a household were a single person. A number
of scholars have examined the role of the household as a
production unit (Reina & Hill, 1978; Deal, 1998, Feinman,
1999). Also referring to Oaxaca, Beals (1975, pp. 40, 52)
identifies the household as the unit of both production and
consumption and defines it as the unit of analysis, and Nash
(1993, pp. 129, 132), in her restudy of the Maya pottery-
producing town of Amatenango, noted that the household as
a unit of production had not only persevered but had actually
increased in output. More recently, Arnold (2008), in his
longitudinal study of social change in the Maya pottery-
producing town of Ticul, discusses the continuing importance
of household production. Congruent with this approach was
my decision to focus on the household as a unit that functions
with varying efficiency to produce a marketable product and
adapt to conditions of change. This I call the household
production unit (HPU), and I define it as an entity whose
members share living space, cook and eat together, and
participate in the various tasks involved in pottery production
and marketing. An Atzompa HPU may be a nuclear or an
extended family with an aging parent and/or grown and
married sons or daughters living on parental land, sharing
some production tasks and equipment. It is a flexible, often
multigenerational entity that avails itself of members’ skills
and can respond and adapt to change in available materials,
market forces, and the composition of the unit itself. In
Atzompa, the household is the focus of identity, and this
includes ownership of pottery production.

My third goal developed during the introductory phase of
fieldwork (1989 and 1990) as I became aware of the number of
clay sources used by the potters and the complexity of the
combinations and recipes that they used. I had begun to
investigate techniques of clay analysis following on the work
of Shepard (1967), who examined Atzompa tempering
material in the 1960s in connection with her study of the
ceramics of Monte Alban. While in the field in 1991, 1 read the
article by Arnold et al. (1991) entitled “Compositional
Analysis and ‘Sources’ of Pottery: An Ethnoarcheological
Approach.” I contacted Ronald Bishop at the Smithsonian
about my interest and what I was finding in Atzompa. He put
me in touch with Hector Neff and his student J. Michael Elam
at the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR). The

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

latter was in Oaxaca at the time and gave me guidance in
sample collection. It seemed both interesting and useful to
analyze these materials, and I was fortunate that Hector Neff
and Michael Glasscock at MURR thought it a valuable
project, one that could develop a database for Oaxaca
ceramics and prove useful for archaeologists, something that
has subsequently occurred (Joyce et al, 2006; Spores and
Thieme, in press). During the course of my research,
accompanied by the potters, we visited and mapped clay
sources and collected samples. From potters’ workshops, I
collected additional samples of raw clays, pastes, and sherds
with known composition and methods of preparation of their
component clays. Sixty-three samples of clays, pastes, and
sherds of known composition were subjected to instrumental
neutron activation analysis at the University of Missouri
Research Reactor. My interest in the long-term use of the clay
materials grew, and Stephen Kowalewski assisted me in
identifying possible ceramic production sites near Atzompa,
from the Valley of Oaxaca Settlement Pattern Project, and
Marcus Winter located sherds from those sites.

My research methodology involved focused interviews and
participant observation, emphasizing production technology
and the family dynamics of pottery production. In 1989 and
1990, I focused on a few households, expanding the sample to
45 in 1991. The sample was designed to include HPUs
practicing the variety of methods, styles, and materials that the
potters utilized; it did not include nonpotting households. I
was fortunate that the household in which I was living was in
the more traditional and less affluent upper section of the
town. This gave me an entree to households less used to
visiting anthropologists and tourists than those in the section,
closer to the main road. It was not difficult to add HPUs in
that section of town to my sample; had I lived in the lower
section, this might have been less easy. Following initial
interviews in which I used a questionnaire that asked about
household composition and pottery methodology — clays,
forming method, type of pottery, decoration, glaze souree,
firing, marketing strategy, and so on — I visited each house¬
hold repeatedly over the next months and years, noting
variations in reported information, such as firing schedules. I
also observed ehanges, partieularly those that were occurring
in the mid-1990s. While the potters in one household
attempted to teach me to make pottery, it became clear to
both of us that I was not going to develop the skill, and they
decided that my work was writing.

I collected some pottery for the Cumberland Seienee
Museum, now housed in the museum at Scarritt-Bennett
Center in Nashville, Tennessee. However, during the course of
fieldwork, many pieces were given to me by the potters, and at
times I purchased some as a way of thanking informants.
Realizing that the accumulated collection, approximately 150
pieces, represented all the styles and forms being made in the
early and mid-1990s, in 2003 I offered it to the Field Museum
of Natural History. The major portion was transported to
Chicago and accessioned in 2006. Each piece is documented by
maker, type, and clay composition (Appendix VIII). Refer¬
ences to Field Museum catalog numbers (fmnh) have been
included in the text where appropriate. Also ineluded are
referenees to pottery that is part of the collection but has not
as yet been transported to Chieago and accessioned (mst
numbers).

Library research was done at the Heard Library of
Vanderbilt University and the Instituto Welte, Oaxaca. The

Bay County Library in Panama City, Florida, responded to
interlibrary loan requests during the final writing period.

Beals (1975, pp. 18-19), in his work on peasant marketing,
sets out succinetly the knowledge, materials, and skills,
including business relationships, that an Atzompa potter must
have to be successful. These include knowing the appropriate
elays and tempers for vessel types and sizes, motor skills for
forming and finishing, access to raw materials, capital or
credit to buy them, relationships with suppliers, and ability to
meet market standards. These categories were explored in
accordance with my goals of examining the changes that
occurred during the last 50 years of the 20th century, the
dynamics of household production, the choices made by the
potters, and compositional analysis of ceramic materials.

CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND AND HISTORY

The town of Santa Maria Atzompa, located in the highland
Valley of Oaxaca in the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico
(Fig. 1.1), has been known for many years for its green-glazed
utilitarian eookware and ornamental pottery, and more
reeently for unglazed or partially glazed figures, figurines,
and ornamented vessels. This pottery is marketed throughout
the state of Oaxaca, in other parts of Mexico, and abroad. In
1990, over 90% of households were engaged in pottery
production, a year-round occupation and for many a major
source of income. As a town of specialized potters producing
primarily for an external market, it is influenced by external
social and economic forces and exemplifies what Costin (1991,
p. 8) calls community specialization, in which “autonomous
individual or household based units [are] aggregated within a
single eommunity, producing for regional consumption.”
Pottery is the product of the makers’ social identity, and this
for people in Atzompa had long been the green-glazed ware
for which they were known and which distinguished them
from other eommunities. How this was changing in the 1990s
is one of the topics of this study.

Oaxaca

The state of Oaxaea is located in the southeastern part of
Mexico, bordered by the states of Puebla and Veracruz to the
northeast, Chiapas to the east, Guerrero to the west, and the
Paeific Ocean to the south. With a surface area of 95,364 km”,
it is a region of geographical diversity, with altitudes ranging
from sea level to 3000 m. The terrain includes mountains with
steep-sided valleys, highland basins with flattish to rolling
valleys, coastal plains, and tropical lowlands. The mountain
mass eonsists of old erystalline rock with some overlays of
limestone, sandstone, and shale. Travertine, salt, iron ores,
chert, and gold are among the mineral resources exploited in
the pre-Hispanie period. Rainfall, temperature, and soil types
vary considerably between locations in relatively close
proximity. Rain falls from April or May through October,
fluctuating annually from seasonal norms, and temperature
depends more on altitude than season. The irregular terrain
creates climatic and soil differences at close distanees (West,
1964, p. 136).

People have exploited these diverse mieroenvironments
from the earliest periods, and community specialization
developed with trading of goods and the development of

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

market systems. Today, some raw materials are processed for
subsistence, others are transformed into goods for consump¬
tion and resale, and some of these goods are circulated in the
marketing system. Regional periodic markets are a cultural
feature that extend deep into the pre-Hispanic past. Not only
agricultural products but also craft goods, including textiles
and pottery, are exchanged through the market system; village
specialization developed early and continues to play an
important role today (Beals, 1975, p. 9; Cook & Diskin,
1976, p. 9; Whitecotton, 1977, p. 136).

Valley of Oaxaca — The Valley of Oaxaca is a relatively flat
upland basin, approximately 700 km^, located in the center of
the state at an altitude between 1150 and 1850 m, surrounded
by mountains that rise to 3000 m. The rock formations contain
gneiss and schist, Cretaceous limestones, and volcanic tuff
formations (Smith, 1983, p. 13; Payne, 1994, p. 7). The three
arms of the valley are drained by the Atoyac River and its
tributary the Rio Salado, coming together near Oaxaca City
(Fig. 1 .1). The climate is mild, with a mean annual temperature
of 20°C, rarely dropping below freezing. Rainfall and soils vary;

the fertile soils, gentle grades, and high water table in the
floodplain, with potential for irrigation, make the alluvium
favorable for agriculture. People have lived in this valley for
around 10,000 years, and sometime between 2000 and 1500 bce,
they began to live in villages, grow crops, and make pottery
(Blanton et al., 1982) (Table 1.1). The Valley of Oaxaca, with 89
municipios, is currently the most densely populated region in the
state (West, 1964, pp. 373-374; Whitecotton, 1977, p. 18;
Alvarez, 1994, p. 25; Blanton et ah, 1999, pp. 31-34).

Two ethnic groups have long been the main inhabitants of
the valley. These people, the Zapotecs and Mixtecs, speak
related languages that probably diverged from the Otoman-
gean common stock sometime during the fourth millennium
BCE (Whitecotton, 1977, p. 13; Flannery & Marcus, 1983,
p. xix, 11; Josserand et al., 1984, p. 11). By around 1000 bce,
there were already some indications of social inequality, a
precursor of the urban period that would develop during the
first millennium bce (Flannery, 1976; Blanton et ah, 1999,
p. 34-47). During this time, the Etla arm was the most densely
populated part of the valley. Around 500 bce, people began to

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Table 1.1. Periods and phases.

Dates

VO A periods and phases

Mesoamerican periods

Colonial Period

Colonial

1521

Spanish arrive in Oaxaca

1519

Spanish conquest

1500

Monte Alban V

Late postclassic

1100

Monte Alban IV

Early postclassic

700

Monte Alban IIIB

Late classic

500

Monte Alban IIIA

Early classic

300

Monte Alban II

BCE

Late Eormative

100

Monte Alban Late I

300

Monte Alban Early I

500

Rosario phase

Middle Formative

700

Guadelupe phase

900

San Jose phase

1100

Early Formative

1300

Tierras Largas phase

settle on the hills that would become Monte Alban, perhaps as
an administrative center (Blanton, 1983).

Between 100 and 800 ce, Monte Alban became the great
urban center of the Zapotec people, with elaborate residences,
monuments, and tombs. They developed calendars and what
may have been the first writing in Mesoamerica, truly one of
the great early Mesoamerican civilizations. Around 800, the
city began to decline, and population appears to have
decreased. Some Mixtec nobility from the mountains to the
west intermarried with some of the valley Zapotec elite, and
some Mixtec common people also came into the valley,
particularly to Cuilapan and Zaachila. The Mixtecs had a
highly stratified society with many small kingdoms linked
together by networks of kinship, marriage, and sometimes
military conquest. They are known for hand-painted written
codices and distinctive artistic styles of pottery and jewelry
(Whitecotton, 1977; Marcus & Flannery, 1983, p. 218; Spores,
1984, p. 48).

During the 15th century, the Aztec Empire undertook several
military campaigns and extracted tribute from a number of
Oaxaca towns, with battles occurring between the Aztecs,
Zapotecs, and Mixtecs. In 1521, when the Spanish arrived, the
Valley of Oaxaca was a tributary of the Aztec Empire that had a
garrison where Oaxaca City is presently located, and many
valley place-names reflect this Aztec presence (Whitecotton,
1977; Marcus & Flannery, 1983, p. 222). The arrival of the
Spanish brought numerous changes: domestic animals, new
crops, language and religion, metal tools and vessels, new crafts
and new systems of land tenure. Christian missions were
established; some communities moved to new locations, and
some villages were congregated into larger settlements with
central plazas (Whitecotton, 1977, p. 177). Oaxaca City, known
then as Antequera de Oaxaca, became a station for overland
routes. However, unlike other parts of Mexico, indigenous

groups were able to maintain control of much of the land in
Oaxaca despite the decrease in population caused by epidemic
disease, and this meant that the Spanish were not able to
achieve the economic domination that they did elsewhere. An
exception was the Catholic Church, which had extensive
landholdings, particularly the Dominicans, who became
dominant in the area. During the Colonial Period, a mixed or
mestizo population developed, changing the social composition
of the region (Murphy & Stepick, 1991, p. 19). During the
political upheavals in the 19th and early 20th centuries,
following Mexican independence, the region was somewhat
isolated, and the indigenous communities were affected only
slowly by changes in other parts of the society. In the 20th
century, the Pan American highway connected Oaxaca City
both to Mexico City and points south, making Oaxaca more
accessible for commerce and tourism, and in 1996 a tollway
through the mountains was completed. Although expensive to
drive, it provides quicker transit for families of affluent tourists
from Mexico City. Oaxaca City became and has remained the
primary urban center of the region.

Pottery Production in the Valley of Oaxaca — By around
1400 BCE, people in the Valley of Oaxaca were making pottery,
and some of the clay sources that they were exploiting at that
time appear to be still in use today (Joyce et ah, 2006). Some
potters used piedmont clays, others the alluvial clays from the
valley floor (Payne, 1994, p. 8; Joyce et al., 2006). In addition
to those potters using the Atzompa clays, pottery was
produced in the other arms of the valley, and to some extent
this continues to be so. San Bartolo Coyotepec, in the Ocotlan
arm of the valley, is known for the production of smudged,
reduction-fired, burnished blackware, produced in subterra¬
nean kilns. This Zapotec town is located on the Pan American
Highway 14 km from Oaxaca City, easily reached by tourists,
and it has become an important stop for them. Coyotepec has
not been as well studied as Atzompa. The potters are reputed
to be less welcoming to researchers than other towns and
particularly disinclined to share knowledge and samples of
their clays. This was the case in the 1930s (Van de Velde & Van
de Velde, 1939, p. 24), and I found it continued to be true in
the 1990s when we collected samples for the sourcing project.
Thus, the Van de Veldes’s 1939 study is partieularly valuable
(see Appendix VI). Coyotepec was known for its water jars
(cantaros), graceful vessels used throughout the valley prior to
the advent of metal and plastic buckets. Already in 1939,
potters were making such tourist items as owls, flutes, and
bells, and Rosa and Juventino Nieto were considered to be the
finest potters in the Coyotepec. Rosa Nieto was later to
become recognized locally, nationally, and internationally for
the quality of her pottery (Rouillion, 1952; Poupeney, 1974;
Harvey, 1991). While in the early 1950s Rosa and Juventino
were actively participating in pottery production (Rouillion,
1952), by the mid-1950s Rosa did little except to demonstrate
to admiring tourists, and other potters in the town sometimes
resented her fame and popularity (Hendry, 1957, p. 33).
Members of Rosa’s family have continued to operate her
workshop, an important stop for tourists, where they give
demonstrations and sell black pottery (Rothstein & Rothstein,
2002, p. 51). During the 1990s, the volume of pottery and
number of shops operated by other potters increased, and a
market building was constructed in the central plaza. With
increased volume, shortcuts have been taken, molds are used,
and graphite is sometimes applied to the surface of the pottery
to produce a highly polished appearance (fmnh 339218).

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

The town of Ocotlan de Morelos is located in the same arm
of the valley as San Bartolo Coyotepec. Hendry (1992, p. 56)
and Foster (1955, p. 24) mention production of unglazed
pottery there in the 1950s. In the 1990s, three sisters, Irene,
Concepcion, and Josefma Aguilar, whose parents and
grandparents were potters, created ceramic figures painted in
bright colors. Each has her own distinctive style, and each has
her own workshop where various members of her extended
family assist in the production (Mulryan, 1982, p. 26;
Wasserspring, 2000, pp. 21-53; Rothstein & Rothstein, 2002,
pp. 50-57).

San Marcos Tlapazola is located in the hills above
Tlacolula. It is an isolated Zapotec-speaking town. Women
there make red slipped pottery, mainly traditional vessels,
using a micaceous clay, firing without kilns on the ground
(fmnh 339221-339224). They sell their ware in the Tlacalula
and Oaxaca weekly markets. To my knowledge, there have
been no published studies of pottery production in this town,
although William Payne (1994, p. 12) describes the open firing
method practiced there. See Appendix VI for further
discussion of these towns.

Santa Maria Atzompa and Its Antecedents — Santa Maria
Atzompa is located in the Etla arm of the valley of Oaxaca,
8 km northwest of Oaxaca City and about 5 km north of
Monte Alban. The Atzompa archaeological site, lying above
the town, is considered to have been a suburb of Monte Alban,
first colonized during Monte Alban Period IIIA. Pottery has
been produced in the town of Atzompa for at least 400 years
and in three or more villages between Atzompa and San
Eorenzo Cacaotepec since the Late Formative Period (Kowa-
lewski et ah, 1989, p. 94). Ceramic production sites identified
archaeologically during the Valley of Oaxaca Settlement
Pattern project are located near sources of clays used by the
modern potters (Appendix I, fig. I.l). These clays fire to a
buff, or crema, color, and the San Lorenzo Cacaotepec mines
have been deeply worked.

Buff {crema) wares were important in all periods at Monte
Alban. Shepard (1967: 19), conducting petrographic studies of
Monte Alban pottery, examined the white nonplastic inclu¬
sions that appear in some pottery found there. She concluded
that this feldspathic material, which she called diorite, was
similar if not identical to the “gritty clay” mined at a source
used by modern Atzompa potters and also suggested that this
or a nearby source was used by the potters producing ware at
or for Monte Alban. Much of the ordinary domestic ware in
every period contained the white inclusions (see Chapter 3 and
Appendix II for further discussion of this material). Included
are all the buff {crema) types and some graywares. Since clays
used by modern Atzompa potters also fire to a buff color,
Shepard suggested that cremas and those graywares with white
feldspathic inclusions {gris cremosa), which refire to buff, or
crema, color, may have been produced from clays from the
same or comparable geological deposits as those mined by
modern Atzompa potters (see Chapter 3 and Appendix III for
discussion of the instrumental neutron activation analysis
[INAA] conducted as part of this research and Appendix II for
discussion of reduction-fired grayware). In a study to source
Late Terminal Lormative ceramics, crema sherd samples from
1 1 sites were analyzed at the University of Missouri Research
Reactor. Samples from nine of these sites correlated well with
the Atzompa clay sources and modern pottery (Joyce et ah,
2006). In addition, some samples of clay found at Monte
Alban were also analyzed with similar results (Neff, 1999).

Above the modern town lies the Atzompa archaeological site
(Aguirre, 1986) excavated by Jorge Acosta and surveyed in the
1970s by Richard Blanton (1978, pp. 88-91). Considered to
have been an extension of Monte Alban, the site has a long
occupational history, but the majority of terraces were occupied
primarily during the Late Classic Period, Monte Alban IIIB. In
addition to evidence of elite occupation, there was evidence of a
marketing-distribution system distinct from other parts of the
city. There are also indications of ceramic production, and those
potters may have utilized the same sources used in the earlier
periods by the village potters living near them. The large number
of Late Classic Period kiln wasters on the Atzompa site indicates
that considerable ceramic production occurred there and may
have been initiated in the Early Classic (Feinman, 1980,
pp. 111-112, 1982a, p. 196, 1984, p. 320). Furthermore, from
the large number of graywares with white inclusions {gris
cremosa) in the southern half of the Etla arm, similar in form to
those at the Atzompa site, one could conjecture that there was
substantial production in the area (Feinman, 1980, p. 276,
1982a, p. 197).

When and how people settled and began to make pottery in
the present town of Santa Maria Atzompa is unclear.
According to an Atzompa informant, his ancestors once lived
at La Nopalera, a Late Formative Monte Alban I site surveyed
by Kowalewski (1976, pp. 45^6) and located not far from one
of Atzompa’s 20th-century clay sources. Although Postclassic
production sites have not been located in the vicinity of the
modern town, the continued presence of white inclusions in
the Postclassic pottery types, described as sandy cream and
gris cremosa by Kowalewski et al. (1989, app. VI), suggests
continued production utilizing the same or nearby clay and
temper sources. In addition. Postclassic sherds were noted
during the Valley of Oaxaca Survey near the town (Kowa¬
lewski, 1976: 540). Too, according to oral tradition among
modern Atzompa potters, prior to the introduction of the
green glaze in the Colonial Period, their ancestors decorated
the natural clay color with red slip. This description is not
dissimilar to a sandy cream bowl with red paint, category
5425, described by Kowalewski et al. (1978, p. 837). Red-
slipped ornamentation persevered as a minor ware into the
20th century, becoming more frequent in the mid-1990s.

Late 17th- and 18th-century documents belonging to the
Atzompa municipio refer to litigation over rights to the gritty
clay mines in Santa Catarina and to contracts with San
Lorenzo Cacaotepec for purchase of clay (Aguilar, n.d.).
These documents refer to the use of the mines since a time
immemorial, and, as mentioned, there is the oral tradition of
pre-Hispanic ceramic production prior to the arrival of the
Spanish. According to Atzompa informants, the green glaze
characteristic of modern Atzompa pottery was introduced in
the Colonial Period, approximately 1 650, utilizing by-products
of Spanish silver mines. The glaze is composed of lead oxide,
copper, and silica. In 1991, several informants reported to me
that there was mention of the source of the lead oxide in a book
housed in the municipio, but that the book was no longer there,
and unfortunately I was unable to locate it. Within memory of
some potters, men from Atzompa went to Santa Maria Penoles
in the mountains to the west to obtain glaze material, and
abandoned silver mines have been identified in the area (inegi,
2005). Ten sherds from the Santo Domingo convent in Oaxaca
City, excavated in 1994, were analyzed at the University of
Missouri Research Reactor Center as part of the Instituto
Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (inah) archaeological

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

project to restore the convent. The clay composition was
compared with reference groups of clays from sources in
Oaxaca, elsewhere in Mexico, and Spain, including clays and
sherds from Atzompa analyzed in 1992 as part of my research.
One green-glazed sherd showed a convincing match with the
Atzompa group, implying that it originated in the vicinity of
Monte Alban, perhaps in the community of Atzompa itself
(Neff & Glascock, 1995, 2007, p. 325).

An Explanation for Longevity — Pena (1992, pp. 93-95),
in a study of raw material use among potters in Vasanello,
Italy, noted that the high quality of Vasanello cookware was
attributable to the peculiar properties of the clay obtained
from the town’s principle clay sources. This, along with certain
historical circumstances, constraints on local agriculture, and
regional demand for craft goods, was a significant factor in the
persistence of the pottery industry there. Most if not all of
these factors could apply to ceramic production in the
Atzompa area. According to Shepard (1963, p. 7), Atzompa
pottery, made from “buff-firing clay tempered with ground
feldspathic rock, makes a soft porous body that has one great
advantage: it withstands the expansion and contraction to
which a cooking vessel used on an open fire is subject.” In the
1930s, preference for Atzompa cooking vessels was attributed
to the need for less fuel (Malinowski & de la Fuente, 1982,
p. 104), and Stolmaker (1976, p. 191) thought that the
popularity of this cookware was due to the porosity that
allowed it to be used over open wood fires.

If we examine the circumstances for the development and
continuation of pottery production, utilizing the clay sources
that have continued to be exploited for so long, we can note
that the advantageous access to raw materials was combined
with historical circumstances and the structure of the regional
demand for craft goods, from the time of the rise of Monte
Alban to the arrival of the Spanish and continuing through the
20th century. This can be demonstrated by the distribution of
pottery with white feldspathic inclusions in the Valley of
Oaxaca and beyond from Formative times to the present. Buff
(crema) wares were produced during the Formative Period.
Ceramic production containing this material continued with
gris cremosa during the Classic Period and the green-glazed
ware introduced in the Colonial Period. In the 1930s,
Atzompa was reputed to be the most important center of
earthenware production in the region, with its products found
in the most remote villages (Malinowski & de la Fuente, 1982,
p. 104). Although we cannot presume that there was biological
continuity of the population of potters, it can be suggested
that knowledge and use of clay sources, production methods,
and vessel forms may have been transmitted by potters from
earliest times. The innovations and changes in production
strategies that began to occur in the mid-1990s could be
viewed as simply the most recent in a long tradition of
adaptation by potters to changing social, economic, and
technological circumstances.

The Town Itself

The modern town dates at least to the Early Colonial
Period. According to Burgoa (1989, p. 402), Atzompa was a
dependency of the Mixtec town Cuilapan in the Postclassic
and Early Colonial periods (see also Paddock, 1966, p. 375).
Although Foster (1955, p. 23) called it a Zapotec town,
Parsons (1936, pp. 61, 569) refers to it as being in the Mixteca.
However, Paddock (pers. comm.) thought it likely that both

Mixtec and Zapotec speakers could have been moved to the
town during the Colonial Period following the Spanish policy
of concentrating settlements. In addition, I was told by a
middle-aged Atzompa informant in 1991 that some elderly
people had still spoken Mixtec and Zapotec in his childhood.
By the 1990s, only Spanish was spoken.

Hendry (1992) described Atzompa in the 1950s as a large
village of over 1600 inhabitants, with unpaved and often
gullied streets. Water, abundant except at the end of the dry
season, came from wells. Most houses had thick adobe walls,
some plastered or whitewashed, with the house plot surround¬
ed by a fence of organ cactus. The town is built on a hillside
downslope from the Atzompa site, and this contributes to
street erosion. Hendry described two sections, a large and a
small ward {barrios grande and chico), with streets laid out on
a grid, although this broke down in the upper area of the
town. A stream runs through the small ward, where there is a
deep well that never runs dry. In the late 1960s, Stolmaker
(1996, p. 7) called Atzompa a village of more than 2000
inhabitants. By 1990, the census indicated a population of
3345, with 622 households, of which over 90% were involved
to some degree in pottery production. Atzompa is the head
town (cabacero) of a municipio that includes eight surrounding
hamlets with a total population in 1990 of 5781 (Instituto
Nacional de Estadistica Geografia e Informatica, 1990,
pp. 244, 509). The population had more than doubled during
the 40 years following Hendry’s study, and with the increase in
population, the town expanded into previously uninhabited
areas, primarily in the common lands to the east and on the
hillsides to the south.

Transportation — In the 1950s, there was regular bus service
five times a day to and from Oaxaca City, but the route was
not simple, and it was necessary for the bus to ford the Atoyac
River to reach the town. In the rainy season, it could not do
this, and travelers had to walk to San Jacinto and cross the
often swiftly flowing river to board the bus on the other side.
At the height of the rains, the river could not be crossed safely,
and the journey took three or four hours by foot or burro
through the hills to a bridge on the south side of the city
(Hendry, 1992, pp. 17, 19). By the late 1960s, there were
improvements in the route; a new road had been built,
connecting to an unpaved spur of the Monte Alban highway.
This road was first used in 1965, greatly reducing the
difficulties of rainy season travel (Stolmaker, 1996, p. 13).
By 1990, there was bus service to Oaxaca every half hour.
Communal taxis ran regularly between the town and Oaxaca
City for those who preferred to pay the higher fare they
charged rather than wait for the bus. In 1992, a new paved
road to Monte Alban was opened, crossing a new bridge and
connecting directly with the Pan American Highway. This
enabled the buses to avoid a stretch of unpaved road that
sometimes flooded.

The improvement in transportation routes and the resulting
increased ease of travel between Oaxaca City and Atzompa
were important factors in the changes in the town. It became
possible for people to travel back and forth with ease, and
Atzompa become a suburb of Oaxaca City. In 1955, Hendry
(1992, p. 24) knew six families with relatives working in
Oaxaca; they returned to Atzompa only for weekends and
holidays. In the 1990s, the buses going into Oaxaca City in the
early morning and returning in late afternoon were filled with
adults going to work and young people going to school. By
1995, with the increasing numbers of taxis going back and

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

forth, one needed to wait only a few minutes for a communal
taxi or a bus to come along. Many people traveled to the city
regularly to shop, for medical treatment, and to visit friends,
compadres, and family members as well as to sell pottery and
buy glaze.

Other Changes — Within the town itself, there were also
physical changes over time. In the 1950s, there were no paved
roads. By 1990, the bus route had been paved, as in 1992 were
the streets adjacent to the church. In 1995, the town hired a
road grader to widen the main dirt road above the central
plaza to make it possible for cars and trucks to pass each
other. Electricity became available in 1970 (Stolmaker, 1996,
p. 89), and by the early 1990s, most households had been
connected; streets and houses were lighted at night. This
changed the work patterns of the potters, making it possible
for them to work indoors and continue production after dark.

The accumulation of electrical goods is one of the choices
people have for their disposable income. Electrical appliances
proliferated, the most common being radios, television sets, and
blenders. Stolmaker (1996, pp. 90-93), in a list of “non-
traditional desired possessions of 78 households,” included
such items as radios, beds, bicycles, cement floors, and stoves.
By the 1 990s, many of those objects had been acquired by most
households, and most owned television sets. A 1990s list of
desired and attained innovations would have included electric
or propane gas stoves, refrigerators, stereos, color television
sets, video recorders, trucks, and automobiles. Although many
people in the southern hillside area still got water from the wells,
new pipes continued to be laid, making piped water increasingly
available to those who chose to connect.

In the 1990s, the town itself had a different appearance. No
longer did one see the cane and thatched-roof houses (jacales)
reported by Hendry (1992, p. 32) and Stolmaker (1996, p. 9).
In the center of town, many older adobe houses with tile roofs
remained, although they had often received an outer coating
of stucco and had acquired cement floors. Many people
continued to prefer adobe, but some families were putting up
houses of cinder block or brick. Increasingly, people were
building two-story houses and houses with glazed windows.
New ones went up each year. In 1991, an adobe building. La
Casa de los Artesanos (The House of Artisans), ornamented
with handsome brick arches, was built on the main street
entering the town. This institution is discussed further in
Chapter 5.

Many householders imitated that style in new houses and in
porches and gateways. Local entrepreneurs sold cinder block,
and there was a welding shop. Corrugated metal (called
lamina) had replaced cane as an inexpensive building material
for new dwellings and for outbuildings such as kitchens,
pottery workshops, and storage sheds, although cane contin¬
ued to be used for some of these. An innovation related to
pottery production was the use of wood for roofing, fences,
and sheds. These edifices were built from the trimmings or
“slabs” from lumber mills, the 2.5-m lengths that were
purchased by the truckload as fuel for pottery kilns. The
constructions were relatively temporary since the wood was
burned or sold as needs arose and before the wood could be
destroyed by insects.

Each year, new shops opened, selling staples, soft drinks,
and so on and, by the mid-1990s, often pottery as well. These
shops were located in people’s houses or in sheds on house lots
near or attached to dwellings. Increasing numbers of
household production units (HPUs) put up signs advertising

their pottery and maintained small inventories on-site for
direct sales. This was a change from Hendry’s (1992, p. 89)
reports that little pottery was sold in the town in the 1950s.

Public buildings also had changed. In the 1960s, the town
built new municipal buildings adjacent to the school. In 1994, a
second story, in the arched brick style, and a kiosk in the plaza
were added. The colonial church, renovated and reroofed
between 1945 and 1954, was repainted in 1992. A town
loudspeaker system announced meetings and other special
events to the entire community. Stolmaker (1996, p. 9) described
the construction of a new school, in process in 1969. Completed,
it was a source of pride and community involvement in the
1990s. The old building had become a special secondary school
for television technicians and drew students from outside
Atzompa. A secondaiy school in the nearby town of San
Lorenzo Cacaotepec had existed since the early 1 980s, and many
Atzompa children traveled to it daily on bicycles or by foot.

As noted above, much changed in Atzompa between the
1950s and 1990s. The population had roughly doubled, and
with this increase people had moved onto land on the south and
east of the town. Improved transportation and paved roads
meant more frequent travel in and out of Oaxaca City. With
electricity came appliances, radios and television, and modified
work patterns; a change in building materials led to a different
appearance. Changes in pottery production are examined in the
following chapters. However, despite these changes, much
persevered in this town and among these people, whose
tradition has been the production of pottery for hundreds and
perhaps thousands of years. In the final decade of the 20th
century, one could see highly persistent continuity of traditions
and practices along with evidence of change. The options and
choices available to families and individuals had increased, and
people in the town had chosen to take advantage of both
technological and economic opportunities available to them.
With flexibility and initiative, Atzompa potters have been able
to survive and even prosper in an ever changing environment
and to continue to produce and market pottery.

CHAPTER 2: THE FORMS AND STYLES OF
ATZOMPA POTTERY

Classes of Pottery

For the purpose of the present study, I have divided 1990s
Atzompa pottery into three main classes: Domestic ware, fully
glazed decorative Greenware, and Artesanias (nonfunctional
decorative ware). Production methods for all classes include
the rotating disk (nwlde), hand modeling, the kick wheel, and
molds. Surfaces are enhanced by incising and applique, and
color is added by slips and glazes and, in later years, by enamel
paint. This chapter presents descriptions of the three classes of
ware and their components, with some comparisons to those
described by Hendry (1992) and Stolmaker (1996) for earlier
periods.

Each potter had his or her own particular form or vessel
type first learned (oficio), although women sometimes changed
their oficios at marriage, adopting that of the marital
household (Hendry, 1992, p. 100). However, having his or
her own particular oficio did not limit the options for
individual potters or HPUs to expand their repertoires by
learning new oficio?, or classes of ware as opportunities arose.

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Table 2.1. Pottery types, early 1990s.

Pottery type

Size range in cm

Finish

Domestic

Olla

64 high X 44.5 diam.-3 high X 2.5 diam.

glazed interior

Casserole

12-25 high X 8M0 diam.

glazed interior

Jug

14-44 high X 17-140 diam.

glazed interior, upper outside

Basin

36 high X 95 diam. rim, 55 diam. base

glazed interior

Griddle

28-82 diam.

unglazed

Greenware

applique, incised, fully glazed

Jar and jug

see above

fully glazed

Casserole

see above

fully glazed

Mug

5.5-10 high X 7.5-19 diam.

fully glazed

Teapot

20 X 15 X 23

fully glazed

Carafe

25 high X 15 diam.

fully glazed

Ashtray

10-13 diam.

fully glazed

Napkin holder

9 high X 9 long X 5 wide

fully glazed

Candlestick

9-16.5 high X 6.5-13 diam.

fully glazed

Vase

11.5-36 high X 3-20 diam.

fully glazed

Salsa dish

8-10 diam.

fully glazed

Salt dish

5-7 diam.

fully glazed

Salt cellar

9.5 high X 7.5 diam.

fully glazed

Miniature animal

3.5-7 high

fully glazed

Miniature vessel

1-6 diam.

fully glazed

Artesanias

Figurine

various: 4-100 high

unglazed, applique, red-slipped accents

Vessel

see above

multicolor glazes, red slip

Flowerpot

widely varied

multicolor glazes, red slip

Cross

8M0 high

applique, red-slipped accents

Pendant

4-6 diam.

applique, red-slipped accents

Nativity scene

9-15 high

unglazed

Candelabra

27-30 high

applique, red-slipped accents

Wall hanging

various, 10-20 high

unglazed, applique, slip accents

Animal musician

various

unglazed or reduction fired

Redware

Covered jar

18-27 high X 23-28 diam.

red slip, incised floral designs

Carafe with cups

23-25 high

red slip

As is shown here and in subsequent chapters, this occurred
more frequently in the 1990s than it had in the 1950s, when
Hendry (1992, p. 61) reported that 91 of a sample of 124
potters from 59 families made only one type of ware.

In the 1950s, most Atzompa potters glazed their ware with
lead-based green glaze. Decoration was incised, stamped, or
appliqued, and pottery was not painted. Hendry (1992,
pp. 49-53) divided Atzompa pottery of that time into two
classes: Domestic pottery (i.e., pottery for everyday use) and
Specialties or ornamental ware. Most of the Domestic pottery
was glazed on the inside, the outside being left fully or
partially without glaze, showing the natural clay color; this
ranged from buff to red, depending on the clay. Pottery in her
Specialties category was produced in smaller quantities than
Domestic pottery but in a greater variety of shapes. Included
was fully glazed Greenware: vases and flowerpots, jugs for
chocolate, coffeepots, sugar bowls, decanters with trays and
six small cups, and three-legged incense burners. Other
Specialties were slipped Redware, figurines of animals playing
musical instruments {musicos), and chias (animal figures with
glazed heads and unglazed striated bodies). These were filled
with water during the Easter season and the bodies rubbed
with chia seeds {Salvia hispanica L. [Martinez, 1979]), which
gave them their names. When the seeds sprouted, the animal
would be covered with a fuzzy green coat and placed on the
family altar during Holy Week (Stolmaker, 1996, p. 25). By
the 1990s, these figures had become a popular tourist items.

Described here and listed in Table 2.1 are the classes and types
of pottery made in the 1990s.

Domestic Ware — My Domestic ware class conforms
approximately to that of Hendry (1992, pp. 49-52) and to
her descriptions and drawings of the basic shapes: olla,
casserole dish (cazuela), basin (apaxtle), iug (jarro), and griddle
{comal) (Hendry, 1992, pp. 50-51). Hendry (1992, p. 117) also
describes variations of these forms. Many Domestic ware
forms have a long tradition; they appear to have been made
continuously since the Formative Period, and it is notable how
similar many are to the forms described by Caso et al. (1967)
(see Appendix II). The modern Atzompa forms are made in a
range of sizes for general everyday use, primarily as cookware.
The inside surface of the cookware and of large ollas for water
storage are glazed to prevent leakage. Since Atzompa clays are
known for their heat tolerance and conductivity, the exterior of
cookware is left fully or partially unglazed to better conduct
heat. The quality of this cookware has perhaps made these
vessels a popular and preferred choice of cooks of all classes
and periods, and Hendry (1992, p. 49) observed that in the
1950s Atzompa Domestic pottery was standard equipment in
virtually every kitchen in the valley, with a wide distribution
throughout the state of Oaxaca. In the early 1990s, ollas,
casserole dishes, and jugs were being produced in greater
numbers and sizes than in the 1950s, while other forms, such as
the tall, narrow jars {barrillos), had diminished in quantity or
frequency compared to Hendry’s period of study.

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Olla — The traditional olla is an olla with a rounded bottom.
It dates from at least the Formative Period (Flannery &
Marcus, 1994, frontispiece A&B) and continues to be
important and popular in modern times. In the 1990s, most
of those produced in Atzompa were made on a rotating disk,
but some kick-wheel users made the smaller sizes. Several sizes
are roughly standardized according to function:

Large, used for water storage — 64 cm high X
44.5 cm in diameter

Medium holding an almiid of maize — 27 cm high X
31 cm in diameter (mst 118)

Small holding an almud of beans — 18 cm high X
25 cm in diameter (fmnh 339194)

(The term almud is used both as a measure of volume and as
a basis of land measurement, i.e., the amount of land that can
be sown with an almud of seed [Beals, 1975, pp. 78-79].)

Yet smaller ollas are made and sold for such purposes as the
preparation of herbal medicines. Sizes vary but include 13 cm
high X 15 cm in diameter and 6.4 cm high X 7.6 cm in diameter
(fmnh 339193, 339194, 339195). Those with a handle over the
top [alias de asa) are used to take lunch to farmers in the fields or
filled with food for guests to carry home from fiestas (fmnh
339154). Traditionally, ollas were made with a rounded bottom
and, supported by three stones, set over a wood fire. However,
some with a flat base and small handles on each side are
designed to be set on a gas stove [ollas estufas) (fmnh 339196,
339197). The quality of Atzompa clays enabled these ollas to
withstand the heat of both wood fires and gas stoves. Another
variation is an olla perforated with many small holes [pichancha,
fmnh 329210); these are used in the processing of maize for
tortillas and also by makers of pottery miniatures who place
their ware in these vessels during the first firing (see Chapter 4).

Long the preferred cookware for beans and soups in
Oaxaca, ollas were produced in substantial quantities in the
early 1990s, and hundreds could be seen each Saturday at the
pottery market in Oaxaca City. They were sold in small and
large quantities both to individual housewives and to traders
from throughout the region. An exception to this volume was
the large olla; these were produced by only one HPU during
my study period. Nevertheless, most Atzompa households had
at least one large olla to hold its drinking water, and I
observed them being used to prepare the traditional maize
drink [atole) for a Christmas event in 1995.

Cazuela — The casserole dish is a common and frequently
preferred type of Domestic ware in many Mexican kitchens.
These bowls range from large sizes for cooking to small ones
for serving salsa. Diameters range from 40 cm to 8 cm (fmnh
339165, 339166, 339188-339192). This was a change from
Hendry’s report (1992, p. 53) of little variation in size from the
23-cm-diameter average. In the 1990s, small ones containing
salsa could be seen in many Oaxaca City restaurants, usually
fully glazed. Most had scalloped rims, and the makers would
vary the design. One variation is a shallow dish [sarteu]
described by Hendry (1992, p. 49).

Jarro — The jug has a deep neck and high flaring handle; it is
a commonly used item in Oaxaca kitchens and restaurants for
preparing and serving the hot chocolate drink. Jugs are both
half glazed (mst 49) and fully glazed (fmnh 339146), and some
of the latter are elaborately ornamented with appliqued
decoration. The larger sizes, circumference circa 140 cm and
height 44 cm (49 cm with the handle), were made on a
revolving disk. Smaller ones, circa 17 cm in diameter X 14 cm

high (19 cm with the handle), were also made by some of the
potters who used kick wheels (fmnh 339146).

Apaxtle — The basin or out-leaning bowl is also an ancient
form, dating at least to the Formative Period (Caso et al.,
1967, Lam. VIII; Flannery & Marcus, 1994, frontispiece A).
Basins were reported in a range of sizes by Hendry (1992,
p. 49), but in the 1990s one saw few of the small sizes finished
as half-glazed Domestic ware. However, in the late 1990s,
some were ornamented as Artesanlas. There were two makers
of large basins in my sample. These vessels, measuring circa
95 cm in diameter at the rim, 55 cm diameter at the base, and
36 cm in height, were made on a rotating disk. Most HPUs
had one or more large basins in their work areas for soaking
clay.

Macetas — Flowerpots were described by Hendry (1992,
p. 49) as similar to basins but taller. In the 1990s, flowerpots
came in many forms and sizes; some were round and glazed
green on the outside (fmnh 339216), large ollas were left
unglazed and provided with a drain hole in the bottom (fmnh
339215), and others were incised, ornamented with applique or
red slip, and painted as Artesanlas (mst 136). Hemispherical
flowerpots [jardineros) were made to hang against a flat
surface (fmnh 339217).

Comales — Unglazed griddles for baking tortillas are pro¬
duced in several sizes, ranging from 28 cm to 82 cm in
diameter (fmnh 339211). Household production units that
specialize in making griddles were not observed to make any
other ware. Production costs are low. The potters use local
clays, free to Atzompa residents, and since the griddles are not
glazed, only one firing is necessary. Production is primarily for
local and regional markets.

Barrillos — Tall, narrow jars were rarely made in the 1990s,
except as Artesanlas (mst 101).

Greenware — My class of fully glazed Greenware, which
Hendry (1992, pp. 49, 54-55) includes in her Specialties class,
includes both some traditional forms and modern ones: plates,
mugs, cups, teapots and coffeepots, decanters, ashtrays,
napkin holders, candlesticks, vases, salsa dishes, salt dishes,
toothpick holders, and a full range of miniature vessels known
as toys [juguetes) (fmnh 339203-339205). The latter range in
size from 1 cm to 6 cm. Bowls with combed bases [molcajetes)
are mortars for preparing food; some with the head of a pig
are called “chimoleras'’" (fmnh 339176). A small proportion of
the total volume of Greenware is made up of Domestic ware
vessel forms glazed on both the outer and the inner surfaces,
mainly ollas, jugs, and small casserole dishes (see Appendix
VIII for additional fmnh pieces. Greenware catalog numbers,
and descriptions).

The group photo in Figure 2. 1 illustrates the pottery made in
the 1990s. On the right is a group of Domestic ware vessels; in
the rear is an olla (mst 1 1 8), and in the front are a basin (mst 33),
a bowl, an olla with a handle (fmnh 339154), casseroles (fmnh
339190, 339191), a jug (fmnh 339146), and a combed base bowl
(fmnh 339176). In the front left is a variety of Greenware,
including vases (fmnh 339158; mst 55), a candlestick (fmnh
339156), a teapot (fmnh 339169), and a toothpick holder (fmnh
339170). Behind them, a jar with red-slipped appliqued
ornamentation (mst 116) and a figure of a woman (mst 30)
exemplify the Artesanlas of the early 1990s. Next to the figure is
an incised Redware lidded jar (fmnh 339206).

Artesanias — The Artesanla class, developed during the last
half of the 20th century, is purely decorative. The class
includes figurines of animals and humans, both religious and

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Fig. 2.1. Pottery produced in the early 1990s.

secular, and traditional vessel forms ornamented with outwork
designs, applique, flowers, or human faces. Flowerpots of
various sizes, wall hangings, and pendants are also made.
Some of this ware is left completely unglazed or bisque; other
pieces have ornamentation painted onto them with colored
glazes or slips (Fig. 2.1). Figure 2.2, a kiln load of Artesanias
from the late 1990s, illustrates the later styles. Similar are
FMNH 339200 and mst 101, 128, and 129. Whereas Hendry
included this purely decorative ware in her Specialties class
along with Greenware (Hendry, 1992, pp. 53-55), the increase
in variety and volume and the differential marketing of this
ware led me to place this pottery in a separate class, as did the
Atzompa potters themselves.

Much of the credit for the creativity and initiative that led to
the development of this class has been attributed to Teodora
Blanco, whose work achieved great popularity and interna¬
tional recognition in the 1950s and 1960s. Her talent and
creativity have been amply described elsewhere (Mulryan,
1982; Hendry, 1992, p. 117; Stolmaker, 1996, p. 30). In the
1950s, she was making small figurines of people and of
animals playing musical instruments (Hendry, 1992, pp. 53,
117). By the late 1960s, her work included large unglazed
human figures ornamented with appliqued designs of birds,
fish, and flowers (Stolmaker, 1996, p. 30). Following her death
in 1980, this style continued to spread through the town.
Further discussion of creativity, innovation, and its diffusion
is given in Chapter 7.

In the 1990s, in addition to the use of red slip on flowerpots
and as decorative accents on Artesamas, there was a distinctive
slipped, polished Redware with incised designs, usually floral
(Fig. 2.1) (fmnh 339206, 339207). This burnished, incised
Redware was reported to me as being a relatively recent
technique, diffusing then through the second generation of an
extended family. Vessel forms were mainly lidded jars in
several sizes and carafes with handleless cups. Although

Hendry (1992, p. 49) describes some use of red slip on both
utilitarian and decorative objects by a few families, this does
not appear to be the highly polished Redware with incised
decoration that was being produced in the 1990s.

Continuity and Change

A shift in the proportion of Domestic ware to Greenware
occurred in the years between the 1950s and the early 1990s.
The growth in production and sale of Greenware and the
proliferation of forms during the 40 years between Hendry’s
study and the early 1990s was stimulated by the increasing
market for this ornamental ware from buyers in Mexico and
abroad. Writing in the late 1960s, Stolmaker (1996, pp. 29-30)
commented on the increasing market for decorative ware and
attributed it in part to the opening of the Pan American
Highway and the increasing tourist market. This created a
demand for the miniature pots, decorated ashtrays, and
figurines (Stolmaker, 1976, p. 192, 1996, p. 30). By the
1990s, the ability to satisfy this demand was facilitated by
both the availability of prepared glaze and the growth in
number of kick-wheel users able to produce pottery rapidly.
Both factors changed the way in which male labor was
utilized, as is discussed further in later chapters. In the early
1990s, the total volume of Greenware (i.e., fully glazed
traditional and modern forms and miniatures) equaled in
volume that of the Domestic ware class and, if one counted the
numbers of individual miniatures, exceeded it. Some changes
also appeared in Domestic ware itself (e.g., flat-bottomed ollas
for use on stoves and greater variety in the sizes of casserole
dishes). Other forms became less common (e.g., tall jars, large
ollas, and small basins). Congruently, potters were making
chias for the tourist market, and there was some increase in the
production of Artesankis. In addition to the forms that had
been made since the 1950s, such as chkis, banks, and various

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Fig. 2.2. Kiln load of Artesanias, late 1990s.

animal forms, in the early 1990s a few potters were making
large unglazed human figures, some ornamented with applique
or red slip.

By 1993, potters were expressing concern about decreasing
sales of lead-glazed Domestic cookware and Greenware, not
only to individual local and tourist customers in local and
regional markets but, more important, also to dealers whose
bulk purchases were the more critical to their livelihood. As a
result, more potters were trying alternatives, leaving their
pottery unglazed or beginning to experiment with glazes other
than green. This trend continued and is discussed further in
Chapter 8.

In response to market forces, potters made choices to shift
toward increased production of Artesanias, an option in the
palette of choices available to HPUs since mid-century. By the
mid-1990s, increasing numbers of potters were adding it to
their repertoire. The number and variety of forms and styles
made by Atzompa potters in the early 1990s was an important
factor in their capacity to shift their production and adapt to
changing circumstances as the decade progressed.

CHAPTER 3: CERAMIC MATERIALS

In this chapter, we look at the materials used by the potters;
the clays, glazes, and slips; and their sources and composition.
Traditionally, men were responsible for the procurement of
the clays and glaze materials used in the production of
Atzompa pottery. While the basic pottery materials had
changed little from Hendry’s (1992, pp. 64-66, 71) and
Stolmaker’s (1996, pp. 21-22) descriptions (see also Flannery
& Marcus, 1994, p. 22), some new ceramic materials had been
introduced, and there was decreased availability of others.

The Clays

Clays used by Atzompa potters are mined from five or more
sources, prepared and combined in varying recipes, based on
defined criteria of vessel type, size, and finish. The potters mix
clays of different compositional characteristics to achieve
specific results for practical, aesthetic, and economic reasons.
To make pottery, clay must be plastic enough to form a pot,
but the clay body must contain enough nonplastic material for
the vessel not to collapse. Some nonplastic material may occur
naturally in the clay, but if it is insufficient, the potter will add
more. These additions are what archaeologists call temper
(Rice, 1987, pp. 406^13; Arnold, 2008, p. 191).

We investigated the raw materials, their sources, methods of
preparation, and the choices and uses of the materials by the
potters. Accompanied by them, we visited and mapped the
clay sources (Fig. 3.1; Table 3.1) and collected samples. From
potters’ workshops, we collected additional samples of raw
clays, pastes, and sherds of known composition. Sixty-nine
samples of these materials were subjected to INAA at the
University of Missouri Research Reactor (Appendix III).

There are two classes of clays. The first consists of smooth
alluvial clays that are soaked in water. These are called by the
potters “clays-to-soak.” The second group consists of coarse
gritty materials known as gritty clays (barros dsperos) or clays-
to-beat; the nonplastic inclusions present in them function as
temper. The soaked clays also contain some nonplastic
inclusions, and one should note that the potters call both
groups “clay” (barro). The gritty clays are beaten, then sieved
to form powder that is kneaded into the moist, soaked clays.
In general, potters use coarser powder and greater proportions
of it when they are making larger vessels.

Gritty Clays — White gritty clay is the most widely used of
these materials, mined about 3.8 km west-southwest of

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Fig. 3.1. Clay sources.

Atzompa, northwest of Santa Catarina Atzompa, a hamlet of
the Atzompa municipio (Figs. 3.2, 3.3). Donald Thieme, an
archaeological geologist, accompanied me to this source in
1992 and subsequently examined the material (Thieme et ah,
2000). The source, which extends over an area of approxi¬
mately 25 ha, is a hillside slope that shows evidence of
extensive utilization. The potters mine clay beds and overlying
deposits of rock and clay that appear to result from a large
debris flow, probably in response to an earthquake. As
discussed in Chapter 1, Anna Shepard, looking for a source of
the white inclusions observed in ceramics at Monte Alban,
conducted mineralogical analysis on this material in the 1960s.

Table 3.1. Clay sources.

Source

UTM coordinates

Area (ha)

Distance from
SMA (km)

San Lorenzo

E 733,000/N 1893,500

3.8

Laguna

E 735,000/N 1893,500

San Felipe

E 735,000/N 1893,500

White gritty

E 733,000/N 1891,000

3.8

Black gritty

E 734,000/N 1891,800

2.2

Colored earth

E 734,300/N 1891,600

1.8

She concluded that it was not produced solely by surface
weathering (i.e., is not “primary” clay) and suggested that the
feldspathic crystals she identified resulted from alteration of
igneous rock in the last stages of cooling and consolidation.
She also suggested that the material was “altered rock that
had been destroyed by earth movement” (Shepard, 1967,
p. 478).

Monte Alban is located on a ridge in a Lower Cretaceous
erosion remnant. Within this ridge, there are igneous dikes and
a core of Precambrian basement. Donald Thieme is of the
opinion that the clay beds and overlying deposits of rock and
clay result from a large debris flow, probably a result of an
earthquake, and he noted at least one dike of igneous rock far
upslope of the source. This would represent the deuteric
alteration that Anna Shepard noted in the feldspathic crystals.
The actual clay beds represent a flow of debris off the upper
hillslope in which large dikes of the parent material were
separated and reworked into small fragments that eventually
weathered to the individual crystals in the clay. The basement
complex is mapped as gneiss (INEGI, 1984), but neither the
outcrop upslope of the Santa Catarina source nor the material
in the mine contains any dark minerals or visible banding
characteristic of gneiss. The clasts which the Atzompa potters
are mining appear to be almost entirely plagioclase feldspar.

THIEME; CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Fig. 3.2. Hillside slope, white gritty clay mine.

and the parent rock should therefore be classified as an
anorthosite. The altered clasts can be seen with the naked eye
as white specks in both the modern Atzompa pottery and
sherds of the pre-Hispanic pottery from Monte Alban and

Fig. 3.3. Mining white gritty clay.

other sites. Feldspar clasts in the Atzompa pottery are unique
and easily recognized when examined in thin sections under a
petrographic microscope using polarized light. The feldspars
have long thin grooves or “twinning” striations that result
from growing in contact with one another. They also have
spots of bright pink, green, or blue “birefringence” that result
from parts of the feldspar changing to minerals such as epidote
and mica. These brightly colored spots can be seen only when
the feldspars are examined by passing polarized light through
a thin section of the pottery. As first suggested by Anna
Shepard, these petrographic characteristics may be a finger¬
print for the source and paste recipe used in this portion of the
Valley of Oaxaca (Thieme et ah, 2000).

The ridge system in which this temper mine is located is in
fact the geologic source for all of the ceramic materials
traditionally used by Atzompa potters. The diverse materials
derived from the nearby stream valleys and their adjoining
slopes define a single compositional continuum according to
the chemical analyses reported by Hector Neff as part of this
study. Appendix III, (Thieme & Neff, 1993; Joyce et ah, 2006,
pp. 585-596).

Black gritty clay {barro dspero negro) comes from a slope
about 1 km northeast of the source of the white gritty
material; approximately 15 ha in area, it lies in what appears
to be a high alluvium. This gray or black earth, high in humic
material, is used primarily but not exclusively by those HPUs
using the kick wheel, and some potters report that it makes the
pottery stronger and less liable to break during transport.
However, INAA of the black gritty clays showed close
chemical similarity to the white gritty clay, consistent with
their derivation from the same parent material; the different
appearance is a probable indication of a different weathering
history (Neff, 1993b). The inclusions in the fired ware appear
white, probably because the humic material burns out on
firing. Included in the area are sources of a reddish gritty
material used by some makers of large ollas and jugs, and 300
to 400 m from it is a source of similar material used by makers
of large basins.

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Alluvial Clays — The clays-to-soak came from three
sources in the early 1990s. San Lorenzo Cacaotepec, located
about 4 km northwest of Atzompa, is a town that does not
itself produce pottery. As mentioned above, documents
belonging to Atzompa describe 18th-century contracts with
San Lorenzo for purchase of clay; they provide evidence that
the clays have been used for at least 200 years (Aguilar, n. d.).
The area of exploitation extends over approximately 40 ha
around the town, and there are indications of present and past
mining activities in several widely separated areas. One source
is a seam along a stream southwest of the town with several
collapsed pits, evidence of long-term exploitation. At the
juncture of two creeks, there was a pit no more than 5 m
across where the miners had dug 1.5 m and reported that they
would need to get to 3 m to reach the clay. We observed both
a gray seam and a black seam. The gray clay, from closer to
the surface, was said by potters to dry more rapidly. The black
clay, from a deeper level, dries more slowly. Potters reported
no preference or any difference between the two clays in
working or in the final results. Perhaps the difference in color
is simply the presence of more organic material in the darker
clay. The gray to black San Lorenzo clay is smooth, with few
inclusions, and fires to a buff color.

The laguna, the second source of clay-to-soak, is located in
the Atzompa municipio, 2 km northeast of the town, an area
that had been used for at least 40 years. A black, buff-firing
clay, it has been mined over a fairly extensive, 60-ha alluvial
area that is regularly flooded seasonally (Fig. 3.4). Hendry
(1992, p. 64) describes a clay source she called “barro de
Crespo” as located near an open quarry in the Atzompa
municipio. It was considered to be inferior and full of stones
that had to be picked out. Stolmaker (1996: 22) locates Crespo
on her map as near the laguna source. In the 1990s, most
potters took laguna clay from 40 to 120 cm below the surface,
although those who made griddles took theirs from 15 to
40 cm. The mines belong to the town of Atzompa, and the
clay is available at no cost to residents.

San Felipe Tejalapan, approximately 10 km west of Atzompa,
is the third source of alluvial clay. According to Hendry (1992,
p. 64), in the 1950s most makers of cookware used this clay,
with some making the trip with burros, others purchasing it
from Atzompa men who transported it as their business.
Stolmaker (1996, p. 22) also included this source on her map of
clay sources, indicating its use in the late 1960s. However, by
the 1990s, only a few HPUs and only one in my sample were
still using it. The mine was reported to be deep and dangerous
and inaccessible in the rainy season. The reported depth
indicated that it had probably been worked for a long time, but
when I visited the area in 1995, I saw only abandoned pits.
Preparation of San Felipe clay was similar to San Lorenzo.
Gray in color, it fires to a warm, slightly reddish color, and its
unavailability had had an interesting result. Most makers of
half-glazed cookware were using laguna clay but reported that
their customers did not like the buff color, so they were adding
to the paste a colored earth from a 15-ha site near the black
gritty clay mine. This addition resulted in a fired color closer to
that of San Felipe clay. Potters reported that the addition made
the vessels break more quickly, “but that is what the customers
want.”

Analysis of Clay Materials — Sixty-nine samples of clays
and sherds with known composition were submitted for
compositional analysis at the University of Missouri Research
Reactor by Michael J. Glascock and Hector Neff in 1992. This

Fig. 3.4. Laguna clay mine.

was done with the goal of determining whether compositional
subdivisions based on clay sources could be recognized in the
Atzompa pottery and raw materials. Included were samples of
the three alluvial clays, {laguna, San Lorenzo, and San Felipe),
the gritty clays, the colored earth, prepared clays consisting of
the variety of mixtures or recipes used by the potters, and fired
sherds representing the clays, mixtures, and vessel types in the
Atzompa universe of pottery. In addition to the pottery
materials, clays used in kiln construction, red slip, and 22
samples of raw materials and fired sherds from three other
pottery-producing towns in the Valley of Oaxaca, San Bartolo
Coyotepec, San Marcus Tlapazola, and Ocotlan de Morelos
were analyzed for comparative purposes (see Appendix VI for
a brief discussion of pottery production in these towns).

Hector Neff (1992) conducted the analysis much as he
would have done if the data set were archaeological (i.e., as if
the source of the materials was unknown). The results of the
analysis, shown in Figure 3.5, indicated that the laguna and
San Lorenzo clay sources each forms a distinct compositional
group within the larger Atzompa continuum (see Appendix
III). Gritty clays are distinct from soaked clays, and the two
main clay sources, laguna and San Lorenzo, are distinct from
each other. For the San Lorenzo-derived analyses, clays and
pottery fall into a single compositional group, while analyses
of laguna pottery indicate that it is a mixture of laguna clay
and gritty clay. The chemical distinctions we expected to find,
based on raw material and procurement location, are indeed
present in the Atzompa data.

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

PCOl

Fig. 3.5. Plot showing the major structure of the data.

It is also possible to step back and look at the Atzompa
ceramic raw materials as representing a single “source.”
Geologically, the “source” of clays and pottery is the ridge
system in which the white gritty clay mine is located. The few
San Felipe analyses are generally consistent with the other
Atzompa pottery, logical since the San Felipe source probably
consists of clays weathered from the same ridge. The
mineralogical and textural variation that Atzompa potters
recognize and use to classify and identify their raw materials
reflects differing weathering histories of material ultimately
derived from the same parent rocks. Although far from
chemically uniform, the diverse materials derived from this
alluvial system define a single compositional continuum. The
INAA further described in Appendix III shows that Atzompa
potters use a variety of plastic and nonplastic ceramic
materials that are all ultimately derived from the Cretaceous
deposits of the Monte Alban ridge and the underlying igneous
structures. The alluvial and gritty clays represent different
stages of decomposition of these parent materials (Neff, 1992;
Thieme & Neff, 1993; Thieme, 2001; Joyce et ah, 2006).

Clay Acquisition and Preparation — A round-trip to the
laguna mine for one burro load takes about 2 hours, to the
white gritty clay mine in Santa Catarina about 2.5 hours, to
the black gritty clay mines about 1.5 hours, and to San
Lorenzo about 4 hours. As shown in Table 3.1, all clay
sources except San Felipe Tejalapan fall within the 5-km
radius that Arnold (1975, p. 192, 1985, pp. 32-35) posits as
preferred by potters. As suggested above, it is probable that
the utilization of the Atzompa clays has considerable time
depth, and it is possible that San Felipe clays were used by

some of the ancestors of present potters who may have
relocated from that area to Atzompa during the Colonial
Period.

Table 3.2 lists the varied strategies for procurement of clays.
In this table and subsequent ones and in Appendix VIII, the
clays have been given the following codes for simplification:
Cl San Lorenzo, C2 laguna, C3 San Felipe, T1 white gritty, T2
black gritty, T3 colored earth added by potters to provide
color for partially glazed vessels, T4 reddish gritty material
used with large ollas and jugs for color, and T5 gritty material
for large basins. Table 3.3 lists the tools and equipment that
the potters use in mining and preparing clay.

In most households using laguna clay (C2), the men or boys
dug it themselves. In contrast, most potters using San Lorenzo
clay (Cl) purchased it from San Lorenzo Cacaotepec or from
Atzompa men who mined it there for resale. Of the 29 HPUs
using white gritty clay (Tl), 19 sent men or boys to Santa
Catarina to dig the material, and 10 purchased it from resellers
either by burro load or by truckload. Among those who
purchased their materials were four HPUs in which men were

Table 3.2. Clay procurement choices.

Source

Dig

Buy

Total

San Lorenzo (Cl)

Laguna (C2)

San Felipe (C3)

White gritty (Tl)

Black gritty (T2)

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Table 3.3. Tools for mining and preparing clay.

Tool

Function

Mining clay

Crowbar

dig clay

Metal spade

dig clay

Wooden digging stick

dig clay

Folded mat

carry clay

Clay preparation

Wooden beater

beat

Tin washtub

hold clay

Tin and plastic pails

hold clay and water

Ceramic bowl or basin

soak clay

either not present or not participant. In three of these
households, laguna clay was purchased, and four bought their
white gritty clay. Also purchasing gritty clays were some
HPUs in which men participated in the forming of pottery and
the HPU that used San Felipe clay. Most makers of miniatures
or small Artesankis did not use gritty clay. Some HPUs used

Table 3.4.

more than one soaked or gritty clay, and most of them were
making more than one type of pottery, using whichever clay
was appropriate for that type (Table 3.4), and, as noted above,
some users of black gritty clay believed that its addition made
their pottery stronger and better able to travel.

Preparation of San Lorenzo clay is accomplished by letting
the clay dry thoroughly and then soaking it in water for at least
1 to 2.5 hours, although some HPUs reported soaking it longer.
It could be soaked for several days if other tasks intervened. The
clay is then set out to dry in patties roughly 45 cm in diameter.
The appearance of cracks indicates that it is ready to knead
(Hendry, 1992, p. 66). San Lorenzo clay was rarely sieved in the
early 1990s. The few stones were picked out by hand during
kneading. However, in 1995, several HPUs were observed to be
sieving their clay after soaking it. These potters reported that an
increase in the number of stones in the clay they were buying
necessitated sieving. Since San Lorenzo clay sources have been
mined for hundreds of years and the volume extracted increased
in the latter half of the 20th century, it is possible that the
availability of quality clay is diminishing.

Clay choices.

Clay

Dig/buy

Type of ware

dig

Artesamas, figures, Domestic flowerpots

buy

Artesanias, miniatures

buy

Artesanias

buy

Artesanias

buy

Artesanias, Greenware

buy

Greenware miniatures (kick wheel)

buy

Greenware miniatures

buy

Greenware miniatures (kick wheel)

dig

Greenware vessels

Cl T1

buy Cl, dig T1

Artesanias

Cl T1

buy

Artesanias

Cl T1

buy

Artesanias

Cl T1

buy

Artesanias, replicas

Cl T1

buy Cl, dig T1

Artesanias, flowerpots

Cl T1

buy

Domestic casseroles

Cl T1

buy

green ashtrays etc.

Cl T1

buy

green vessels

Cl T1

buy

Greenware

Cl T1

dig

Greenware

Cl T1

dig

Redware

Cl T1 T2

buy

Artesanias

Cl T1 T2

buy Cl, dig T1 T2

Greenware (kick wheel)

Cl T2

buy Cl, dig T2

Greenware

Cl C2 T1

dig C2 Tl, buy Cl

Domestic vessels, Greenware miniatures

Cl C2 T1 T2

buy

Artesanias, Domestic, Greenware

Cl C2 T1 T4

buy Cl, dig C2 Tl, T4

Domestic large globular jars

Cl C2 T1 T5

dig

Domestic large basins, flower pots

C2 T1

dig

Redware

C2 T2

dig

Greenware vessels (kick wheel)

C2 T1

dig

Domestic casseroles, flowerpots

C2 T1

dig

Domestic griddles

C2 T1

dig

Domestic ollas

C2 T1

dig

Domestic ollas

C2 T1

buy

Domestic vessels

C2 T1

dig

green vessels

C2 T1 T2

dig

Greenware casseroles (kick wheel)

C2 T1 T2

dig

Greenware, Domestic casseroles

C2 T1 T2 T3

dig

Domestic ollas, jugs, flowerpots

C2 T1 T3

dig

Domestic casseroles

C2 T1 T3

dig

Domestic ollas, bowls, etc.

C2 T2

dig

Domestic casseroles.

C2 T2

dig

Domestic casseroles, jars

C2 T2

dig

Domestic griddles

C2 T2

dig

Domestic jugs

C3 T1

buy

Domestic large basins

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Fig. 3.6. The ethnographer sieving laguna clay.

Laguna clays contain more extraneous material than those
from San Lorenzo and require more preparation, including
levigation. Clay is left in a shaded area for several days. When
partially dry, it is put to soak in water for as long as a week,
then sieved to remove coarse material (Fig. 3.6) This is
accomplished by putting the wet clay into a sieve and shaking
it over a second basin. The clay is not pressed through the
sieve, and clay that does not pass through is put back to soak
longer. Grit and stones are tossed aside, resulting in a pile near
the preparation area. Finally, the sieved clay is put to soak for
an additional day in a second basin, then kneaded with
powdered gritty clay to prepare the clay body (Fig. 3.7).

Gritty clays are prepared by spreading the raw material in
the patio area to dry, hastening the process by shuffling
through it with their feet when partially dry, thus exposing the
undersurfaces to the sun’s rays. When rain threatens, the clay
is quickly shoveled into buckets or baskets and put under
cover until the rains pass; these are among the first tasks
performed by children. When the clay is thoroughly dry, it is
beaten with a beater made from a bent tree root (Fig. 3.8). The
beaters are purchased in a range of sizes, generally related to
the size of the user. After the lumps of clay have been broken
up by beating, the material is shaken through a sieve to form
powder (Fig. 3.9). In the past, sieves were made of twigs, and
Stolmaker (1996, p. 25) reports the utilization of metal
screening as a technical innovation in the late 1960s, although
Hendry (1992, p. 66) also reports use of metal screening. By
the 1990s, plastic had become the more commonly used
material. For example, plastic mesh, derived from worn-out
shopping bags in common use in the markets, would be
attached to a wooden frame to form a sieve. The size of mesh
selected was related to the degree of fineness required by the
potter for the type and size of ware to be produced; bigger
mesh and coarser powder were used by makers of griddles,
large ollas, and basins, and smaller mesh and finer powder
were used by those making small vessels or throwing on a kick
wheel. Any material that did not pass through the sieve is

discarded and the residue eventually swept up and piled
outside the immediate work area (see Appendix V for residues
of ceramic production).

Choices of Clays — The potters are discriminating in their
use of clays, with attention to selection for specific purposes.
They combine clays according to generally acknowledged
recipes, based on experience and tradition but also with
flexibility to particular circumstances; this is analogous to the
compounding procurement strategy in the typology proposed
by Bishop et al. (1982, pp. 317-318), whereby desirable
properties are obtained by mixing clays from distinct
resources. Most of the potters working on the revolving
platter combined one of the soaked clays with the gritty white
powder, using approximately the same proportion of powder
by volume, with somewhat higher proportions being used for
larger vessels (Table 3.5). This is likely to reduce thermal
shock in these larger, thicker vessels (Rice, 1987, pp. 229, 366).
One maker of large, ornamented ollas used two parts white
powder to one part soaked clay. Makers of unglazed griddles
used similar proportions, forming their vessels on a bed of
wood ash, selecting clay from the upper levels of the laguna
mine. Makers of the large basins combined the soaked clay of
choice with a gritty black material used only for large basins,
saying that this makes the vessels stronger.

1950s — At that time, Atzompa potters used either San
Felipe or San Lorenzo clays. While a few potters considered
them equal and used whatever was available, most had
preferences, saying that San Lorenzo was considered to result
in clearer green when glazed but was too soft for large pieces
and that San Felipe resulted in a muddy green when glazed but
that its red color made it more popular for the half-glazed
Domestic pottery (Hendry, 1992, p. 64). Although San Felipe
clay was no longer readily available in the early 1990s, it was
still used by one maker of large basins. Another HPU,
however, used San Lorenzo clay for its large basins and laguna
clay for flowerpots. Potters in the only HPU still making large
ollas mixed equal proportions of laguna and San Lorenzo

FIELDIANA; ANTHROPOLOGY

Fig. 3.7. Kneading gritty clay powder into soaked laguna clay.

clays and kneaded in both blaek and white gritty clays to form
the clay body.

1990s — As shown in Table 3.4, most makers of fully glazed
Greenware chose clay from San Lorenzo. Depending on the

type and size of ware, they would use pure San Lorenzo clay
or mix it with one of the gritty clays. They said that San
Lorenzo gave a better color green than laguna, and the rate of
firing breakage was also reported to be lower for pottery made

Fig. 3.8. Beating gritty clay.

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Fig. 3.9. Sieving black gritty clay.

with San Lorenzo clay than that made with laguna clay,
perhaps because San Lorenzo has fewer inclusions. Potters
using San Lorenzo clay usually invested more time in the
production of each vessel than those who used laguna', thus, it
was a cost-effective choice for them to take more care in
production to avoid firing damage. Makers of miniatures and
Artesanlas used pure San Lorenzo clay, virtually without
exception. Laguna clay, being less pure, was considered to be
unsuitable for small objects, and this was true whether
production was by hand or kick wheel.

Those who used kick wheels to make Greenware vessels
varied in their strategies. Some chose to focus on large volume,
rapid production, and low cost. Those potters used laguna and
black gritty clays. Others chose to purchase San Lorenzo clay

in order to decrease breakage and achieve a preferred color.
Except for those who made miniatures, they usually mixed it
with the white gritty powder. This seemed to be an area of
individual experimentation or preference. Finally, the crafts¬
men who produce Artesanlas all chose San Lorenzo clay, and
if they used gritty clay, they chose the white powder.
Proportions varied according to the size of the pottery.

Materials for Surface Treatment

Glaze — The Atzompa green glaze, the most common
surface treatment, was introduced during the Early Colonial
Period, approximately 1650 ce, utilizing by-products of
Spanish silver mines as described above. It is composed of
lead oxide, which the potters call greta (copper and silica); the
lead serves as a flux for low temperature firing in the wood-
burning kilns, and the copper provides the green color.

Prior to the late 1960s, most HPUs ground and mixed the
glaze materials in stone glaze mills. These mills consist of stone
basins and two stones attached to a vertical axle; the stones are
rotated by means of an attached horizontal bar propelled
either by manpower or by a burro, an arduous and time-
consuming task (Hendry, 1992, pp. 71-72). The source of the
basalt stone for the mills lies along the stream leading to the
black gritty clay mine. Several informants described the
procurement, sources of materials, and methods of prepara¬
tion of the glaze prior to the availability of commercial glaze
materials. Silica-bearing quartz rock was obtained from San
Felipe Tejalapan, sometimes in exchange for pottery, and, as
mentioned in Chapter 1, some potters remembered when
Atzompa men went to Santa Maria Penoles in the mountains
to the west for other glaze materials. The quartz- and copper¬
bearing rocks were roasted in the kiln before grinding, to make
them softer. According to Hendry (1992, p. 71), in the 1950s
the lead oxide and copper sulfate were purchased in Oaxaca
City; the silica, from a white crystalline rock that could be
picked up in Atzompa, was crushed with a stone hammer and
added to the copper and lead oxide. She gives the proportions
as 1 kg lead oxide, 85 g copper, and 1 kg rock.

By the late 1960s, Atzompa potters could purchase their
glaze fully prepared and premixed with copper oxide and
water from four local stores and a Oaxaca City retailer who
got his materials from the Monterrey region. In 1967, the
retailer was offering glaze premixed, and by 1968, most potters
were buying the premixed glaze, and only a minority of men
continued to grind their own (Beals, 1975, p. 310; Stolmaker,
1976, p. 193, 1996, pp. 21, 25). By the 1990s, the glaze mills
were no longer used to grind glaze materials. However, some
HPUs that had them continued to employ the mills to mix the
glaze; they preferred to buy the raw materials and mix the

Table 3.5. Clay recipes.

Class

Method

Type

Clays

Mixture

Domestic

revolving platter

ollas, bowls

C2 T1 T3

equal C2T1, 10% T3

Domestic

revolving platter

griddles

C2 T1

equal

Domestic

revolving platter

large ollas

Cl C2 T1 T2

equal parts all

Green

kick wheel

vessels

C2 T2

equal

Green

kick wheel

miniatures

Green

kick wheel

mugs, ollas

Cl T1 T2

Cl -1- equal parts T1 T2

Artesanlas

revolving platter, hand

vessels, figures

Cl C2 T1

varies by size

Artesanlas

hand

figurines

Cl T1

applique pure Cl

Artesanla

hand

small figures

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Table 3.6. Glaze procurement choices.

Table 3.7. Glaze prices.

Source

No. HPUs

Year

Co-op

Store

Co-op

1987

2000 MXP

1600 MXP

Oaxaca store

1990-1991

8000 MXP

4000 MXP

Other

1993

10 MXN

6-6.5 MXN

Not using

glaze themselves, claiming that they got a better product this
way.

In the 1990s, the glaze components came from commercial
sources in northern Mexico, primarily Monterrey and
Guanajuato. The greta was identified by Pamela Vandiver of
the Smithsonian Conservation Analytical Laboratory (pers.
comm., 1995) as pure lead oxide. Michael Boylen, professor of
ceramics at Marlboro College in Marlboro, Vermont (pers.
comm., 1995), further defined it as a litharge or white lead
oxide. See also Foster (1948, pp. 90-92).

Retail sources were the Oaxaca City store described by
Stolmaker (1976, p. 193, 1996, p. 25) and a glaze cooperative
in the town. The glaze cost less at the store, but purchasing it
was less convenient, and some potters reported the quality to
be inferior, saying that it contained less copper (Table 3.6).
However, the Oaxaca City vendor was willing to extend credit,
whereas the cooperative required cash. Also, a few HPUs kept
a stock of glaze on hand for resale to others.

The glaze cooperative was started in 1984 with a $1,200,000
MXP loan from the town government that had been repaid by
1991. In 1984, there were 24 individual members, of whom 20
participated actively in the work of purchasing materials and
preparing the glaze. With one exception, all the members were
men from potter households. This is consistent with the
customary practice in which men were in charge of glazing (see
Chapter 6 for discussion of division of labor). The exception
was Ofelia Aguilar, the youngest daughter of the potter family
with whom Hendry lived in the 1950s; she is Hendry’s
goddaughter. Her HPU consisted of herself and her elderly
mother, who died in December 1991. From a prominent
family, she is a strong and independent woman.

Located one street away from the plaza, the public
buildings, and the church, the cooperative consisted of a
building where raw materials were stored, sales were
conducted and accounts kept, and a patio area with a glaze
mill was used for mixing the materials. Records were kept of
each sale and each purchase of materials, a responsibility
usually handled by Ofelia Aguilar. The lead oxide, copper
oxide, and silica were purchased in 100-kg bags from
Guanajuato or Monterrey. In 1991, the cost per metric ton
was $20,000 MXP for the copper, $5000 MXP for the lead
oxide, and $2000 MXP for the silica. Two kinds of liquid glaze
were prepared and sold. Yellow {amarillo), used for Domestic
ware vessels, was said to contain less copper and was a paler
green than the green (verde) glaze sold to makers of Green¬
ware. In 1991, six vats of glaze, 25 kg each, were prepared
each week by a member of the cooperative.

Proportions were reported to be 4 kg of lead oxide to 1200 g
silica and 200 g copper oxide. First, water was added to the
copper oxide and the solution stirred for about 15 minutes.
Then silica was added and stirred for another 15 minutes.
Finally, the lead oxide was introduced and the mixture
blended for 30 to 45 minutes. The mixing thus took nearly

an hour, and there was talk of buying an electric motor to
reduce the labor of preparation by cooperative members. Since
water was added at each stage and the amount left to the
discretion of the man doing the mixing, it is possible that this
resulted in inconsistencies in the concentration of the
suspended glaze material. Some buyers reported feeling that
they were “buying water,” and, as mentioned, some customers
with access to glaze mills bought the raw materials from the
cooperative and prepared the glaze themselves, believing that
they got a better, more consistent product that way. In 1991,
24 HPUs in my sample reported using glaze from the glaze
cooperative.

A sign on the wall listed prices from 1987 to 1990. Prices for
glaze varied over the years in both the cooperative and the
Oaxaca store (Table 3.7). In 1993, the Mexican government
issued new currency as the inflation of the 1980s had resulted
in an inflated currency: $1000 MXP being worth approxi¬
mately US$.33. The new peso dropped the zeros, making
$1000 MXP equivalent to $1 MXN (new pesos). The cost per
kilogram of mixed glaze rose steadily, going from 2000 MXP
in 1987 to $8,000 MXP in 1990. By 1993, the price had been
raised to $10 MXN per kilogram. The Oaxaca store
consistently undersold the cooperative, going from $1600
MXP in 1984 to $4000 MXP in 1990. In the summer of 1994,
during the economic crisis, with the consequent devaluation of
the peso and concurrent inflation, costs rose to the point that
the glaze cooperative was not functioning. In 1995, it was
again operating, but the selling price of glaze was $18 MXN
per kilogram.

Although in 1991 over 50% of potters in the town used glaze
from the cooperative, the number of cooperative members had
decreased from the original 24 to 15, with five working each
week. Some had left because they did not want to spend the
time working at the cooperative. Subsequently, disputes
resulted in resignations of more members, and in 1995
membership was down to 12. The future of the glaze
cooperative thus remained uncertain, impacted by rising costs,
decreasing membership, and decreasing use of the green glaze
resulting from national and international concern about its
lead content.

Other Surface Materials — These include two slips. Red
slip is made by dissolving in water an iron-rich red earth from
San Pablo Etla or San Felipe del Agua north of Oaxaca City.
Use of red slip has a long history; it occurs in the Formative
(Monte Alban I) Period buff {crema) pottery at Monte Alban
(Caso et ak, 1967) and, according to oral tradition in the town,
was used by their ancestors prior to the advent of green glaze.
A white slip available from the Oaxaca store was also used by
some makers of Artesanias. Kaolin slip has been used since
pre-Hispanic times (Caso et ak, 1967); the mineral occurred at
ancient hot springs where rocks had broken down (Payne,
1982, 1994, p. 8).

In 1992, some HPUs began to apply enamel paint to
unglazed ware; by 1995, this practice had increased and some

THIEME; CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

HPUs were applying tempera paint to fired ware. Some HPUs
experimented with glaze in colors other than green as
decorative accents on Artesamas, mainly cobalt blue, yellow,
and brown. These more expensive glazes were available
through the Oaxaca store, and most also contained lead.

Continuity and Change

By the 1990s, there had been some changes in ceramic
materials and procurement from those of earlier periods. In
the late 1960s, Stolmaker (Beals, 1975, p. 309) listed more
potters in her sample using San Felipe Tejalapan clay than
that from San Lorenzo Cacaotepec, but by the 1990s, the San
Felipe mine had become deep and dangerous, and only one
HPU in my sample was using that clay. Many more were using
laguna clay, particularly makers of Domestic ware. Stolmaker
(1996, p. 22) shows the laguna mine on her map as a clay
source and lists a few potters as using a source on “communal
lands” (Beals, 1975, p. 309), so this shift may have already
begun by the late 1960s. A source of gritty clay called La
Casaguatera, which Stolmaker (1967) listed as being used in
the 1960s, was not in use in the 1990s.

Changes in procurement also occurred. Some potters were
purchasing their clay in the late 1960s (Beals, 1975, p. 309).
However, while the majority of potters using San Felipe clay
at that time purchased their clay, the number of potters who
dug clay was equal to those purchasing it. In contrast, in the
1990s only 25% of the potters in my sample using San Lorenzo
clay dug their own. While trucks were in use for the transport
of finished pottery to market in the late 1960s (Stolmaker,
1996, p. 39), there is no indication that they had replaced
burros in the transport of pottery materials. While burros were
still used by some in the 1990s, most HPUs using clay from
San Lorenzo purchased both this clay and white gritty clay by
the truckload, as did other potters at times. Clay materials,
while utilizing sources and methods that were centuries old,
underwent modifications as clay sources played out. The San
Felipe clay source was used by only one potter in my sample,
and he did not dig it himself but purchased it by the truckload
as he did his gritty clay. Increasing numbers of potters utilized
the services of men who dug and transported clay to the town.

The advent of plastic as a by-product of the petroleum
industry resulted in some changes by the 1990s. Plastic sieves
had replaced the metal ones for sieving the clay, and these, in
turn, had replaced earlier ones made of sticks. Plastic sheeting
served many purposes, from covering dry clay to wrapping
clay bodies to keep them moist prior to and during the
forming of pottery.

In the 1950s, most Atzompa pottery was green, and most
potters ground their own glaze, although some of the materials
could be purchased. In the late 1960s, many potters were
buying glaze, and only a few still ground their own. By the
early 1990s, all potters bought glaze. Glaze mills were used
only to mix the materials by those few potters who had them,
and there was a glaze cooperative in the town. Production of
glaze had become less labor intensive; it was no longer ground
from materials that had to be laboriously collected but was
purchased from either of two sources: a local cooperative or a
Oaxaca store.

As the 1990s progressed, the concern over lead glaze led to
innovations, including increased use of red slip and glazes of
colors other than green as decorative accents and, in the mid-
1990s, the use of commercial enamel and tempera paint. While

efforts were made to produce a lead-free glaze, the results were
unsatisfactory. In 1996, a glaze manufacturer from Monterrey
brought samples of a lead-free glaze to Atzompa for testing.
The formula used borax instead of lead as a flux. It did not,
however, produce satisfactory results in Atzompa kilns, and
the manufacturer was continuing to work on the problem.

CHAPTER 4: THE PRODUCTION PROCESS

Although the basic methods of forming pottery had
changed little from those described by Jean Hendry and
Charlotte Stolmaker, in the 1990s some modifications had
occurred, mostly as a result of the increased production of
Artesamas but also because of some change in materials.

Forming the Pottery

Before a potter begins to form the ware, the clay body must
be prepared. Soaked clay of choice is kneaded or sieved, as
described in the previous chapter. If powder is to be added, it
is spread on a mat and the wet clay kneaded into it,
proportions varying according to the size of the ware to be
made. The resulting clay body is wrapped in plastic and set
aside until the potter is ready to use it.

Atzompa potters use four methods to form their pottery; the
revolving platter, hand modeling, kick wheels, and molds. The
first two methods are used for all three classes of pottery, and
the kick wheel is used mainly for Greenware. Molds are used
by some makers of Artesamas. The use of a revolving platter
or turntable (molde or kabal) is a widespread Mesoamerican
tradition that was described by Foster (1959a, 1967), Rice
(1987, p. 133), Arnold (2008, p. 234), and others. While the
rotating platter is used by makers of all three classes of ware,
makers of Domestic ware use only this method of pot forming.
Forming times vary considerably by method and type of ware
(Table 4.1).

Domestic Ware — Hendry (1992, pp. 66-69, 75-79) illus¬
trated and described in detail the use of the revolving platter to
form the Domestic pottery that was being made in Atzompa in
the 1950s. The pot formers, usually although not exclusively
women, spin it on an upturned jar or rotating base. The
platter, a flat disk or convexo-concave ceramic platter, is
approximately 4 cm thick and varies in diameter with the size
of vessel to be made. Some potters make their own; others
purchase them from other HPUs. The platters are made of
laguna clay, even by those who use San Lorenzo clay for their
pottery. Flat disks are used for casseroles, basins, and other
flat-bottomed vessels, and convexo-concave platters are used
for round-bottomed vessels. Generally, an inverted jar is set
into a dirt floor, either in the house or on the veranda, the
upper portion or neck and shoulder being buried in the dirt to
make the olla stable, with its convex bottom forming the point
of contact with the revolving platter (Fig. 4.1). In houses with
concrete floors, the inverted olla is simply set on the floor. A
small flat potsherd or cement sherd may be placed on top of
the olla beneath the revolving platter. Hendry (1992, p. 84)
observed a small rotating table or disk being used in the home
of a male pot former, and in the late 1960s it was used by his
son and two unrelated women (Stolmaker, 1996, p. 25). This
may be the ball-bearing disk {tornillo) that I observed in the
1990s fastened to a cement pedestal set into the floor, the

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Table 4.1. Some forming times.

Class

Type

Method

Time

Domestic

olla

revolving platter, ball-bearing disk

16-18 min. + 19 min.

Domestic

large basin

revolving platter

1 hr., first stage

Domestic

griddle

revolving platter

15 min.

Domestic

neck of olla

revolving platter

1 min. 52 sec.

Domestic

large casserole

revolving platter

7 min. 25 sec.

Domestic

small casserole

revolving platter

4 min. 45 sec.

Greenware

vase

hand

10-11 min.

Greenware

sauce dish

hand

2-3 min. with applique

Greenware

sauce dish

hand

1 min. 30 sec.

Greenware

animal

hand

4.5 min.

Greenware

vase

hand

4 min.

Greenware

sauce dish

hand

2 min. 20 sec.

Greenware

bowl for salt

hand

45 sec.

Greenware

mug

kick

50 sec.

Greenware

miniature

kick

30M0 sec.

Greenware

miniatures

kick

1 min.

Greenware

mug

kick

1 min.

Greenware

large vase

kick

3 min. 42 sec.

Greenware

Jug

kick

2 min.

Greenware

miniature

kick

1 min.

Greenware

Jug

kick

1.6 min. (22 in 45 min.)

Greenware

mug

kick

1 min. 15 sec.

Greenware

vase

kick

2 min.

Greenware

58 jug handles

kick (hand)

33 min.

Greenware

oval dish

revolving platter

4 min. 16 sec.

Greenware

oval dish

revolving platter

3 min. 57 sec.

Artesamas

sheep figure

hand

1 hr. 10 min.

Artesajtias

angel figure

hand

1 hr. 47 mm.

Artesamas

cross

mold, hand

5 min. mold, 6 min. applique

Artesanias

virgin figure

revolving platter, hand

2 hr. 53 min.

Artesamas

tall jar

revolving platter, hand

2 hr. 45 min.

Artesanias

basket

revolving platter, hand

15 min.

Artesamas

tall jar

revolving platter

23 min.

Artesamas

bowl for flowerpot

revolving platter

3.75 min.

Artesamas

dish with bird

revolving platter, hand

dish 5 min., bird 41 min.

revolving platter being placed on the disk instead of on an olla
(Fig. 4.2). In the 1990s, all users of these ball-bearing disks
were women making Domestic ware vessel forms (i.e., ollas,
casseroles, and basins). Of the two makers of large basins in
my sample, one was using a ball-bearing disk purchased in
Oaxaca; the other placed her revolving platter on a stone
cobble buried in the dirt floor of her work area (Fig. 4.3).

In preparation for forming a vessel on a revolving platter,
the potter places a pile of prepared clay, a bowl with water,
some powdered gritty clay, an oval piece of gourd for
scraping, and a small strip of leather for smoothing near the
place where she will sit. Then she takes some clay, pats it with
her hands to form a thick tortilla, and places it on her
revolving platter, which has been sprinkled with some of the
powder. She pats it with one hand, rotating the revolving
platter slowly with the other, pressing the clay out until it has a
low wall around the edge. With the leather piece, she pulls the
clay wall up and smoothes the clay with the gourd. She does
this by alternating between clockwise and counterclockwise
rotation of the revolving platter. If she is making a large, high
vessel, she adds coils to build height. Stolmaker (1992, p. 21)
estimated forming times as about 10 minutes for a medium¬
sized casserole and a little more than half an hour for an olla
18 inches high. An accomplished olla maker in my sample
spent 16 to 18 minutes for the first phase, then, after allowing
the olla to dry while she made another, she put the first one
back on the revolving platter, thinning the walls, first inside,
then outside, by scraping with the gourd tool (Fig. 4.2; fmnh

329210; mst 118). During the rainy season, an olla would
sometimes be left overnight before the second phase. Finally,
she smoothed it with a cazajuate leaf [Ipomoea murcoides
[Alvarez, 1994, p. 168]). She measured the diameters with a
stick, the only potter I observed doing this. Interestingly,
Hendry (1992, p. 79) also observed just one olla maker using
sticks as measuring devices.

Production of griddles requires special preparation of the
work area. First, the potter cleans an area of ground slightly
larger than the griddle, removing vegetation and stones and
smoothing the bare earth; next she spreads wood ashes on the
cleaned area. One HPU purchased its wood ash from a bakery
in San Lorenzo Cacaotepec. To form the griddle, she first
makes a thick “tortilla” of clay in her hands, then lays it on the
prepared space and stretches it until it is about 5 cm smaller
than her revolving platter. Then, sliding her hands underneath,
she lifts the incipient griddle and places it on the revolving
platter, which has also been sprinkled with wood ash to prevent
the clay from sticking. She scrapes the clay out to the edge of the
revolving platter with a gourd tool and adds coils at the outer
edge. The finished griddle is left on the revolving platter until it
is partially dry. This process takes about 15 minutes.

Greenware — Makers of Greenware formed their pottery
on the revolving platter, on the kick wheel, and by hand.

Hand Modeling — This method of forming pottery was
described by Hendry (1992, pp. 81-82) when it was used
during the 1950s in the making of miniature vessels known as
toys (juguetes). After forming a round ball of clay, the potter

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Fig. 4.1. Forming an olla on a revolving platter.

makes an indentation, enlarging it with one hand while rolling
the ball in the other hand. The piece is next thinned,
smoothed, and formed into its final shape with the first two
fingers. This technique, reported to have been developed at the
end of the 19th century, by the 1990s had diffused through the
Aguilar extended family and some other families. Potters were
hand forming Greenware vessels as large as salsa dishes,
ashtrays, and small vases (Fig. 4.4). A skilled practitioner
could produce a salsa dish in a minute, as rapidly as a potter
using a kick wheel. Hand modeling is also used by makers of
Artesanias for forming both small figures and parts of large
ones (Fig. 4.5) (mst 56).

The Kick Wheel — Two brothers of the Olivera family,
Jacinto and Manuel, learned to use a kick wheel in a Oaxaca
City pottery workshop in the 1940s. They purchased wheels,
returned to Atzompa, and began to produce pottery using this
technique. Hendry (1992, p. 84) mentions the kick wheel as a
minor technique, used with limited success by a few men in the
1950s. By the late 1960s, its use had spread somewhat,
primarily to members of the Olivera extended family, although
in 1969 only nine men were using it regularly (Stolmaker,
1976, p. 192, 1996, pp. 25, 29). Use grew slowly, and in 1991
Jacinto Olivera reported 21 kick-wheel users, of whom two
were women. Most were related to the Olivera family, but a
few others had adopted its use. Although most were men,
increasingly during the 1990s women and girls were learning
this technique.

Fig. 4.2. Forming an olla on a ball-bearing disk.

The wheel (Fig. 4.6) is suspended from a wooden worktable
that has two legs on the front side, its back fastened to wall
supports. Incorporated into it is a sling seat suspended with
leather straps into which the potter must climb in order to work;
the wheel and turntable are fastened to the center of the table.
The turntable is located above the potter’s waist, which,
according to a North American potter informant, makes it
difficult to form vessels of large size (Tracy Martin, pers. comm.,
1992), and most kick-wheel users form relatively small vessels
compared to those made on a revolving platter, approximately
26-cm maximum height (Fig. 4.7) (fmnh 339146). Before
throwing vessels on a kick wheel, the potter kneads the clay
body to the proper consistency and places it on the turntable,
having previously sprinkled some powder onto the surface
beneath the clay. He works the clay up, adding water as needed,
making vessels from the top and cutting them off the lump of clay
when done (U.S. potters call this “working off the hump”). The
pace is rapid; a minute for a coffee mug, two for a small vase,
40 seconds for a 1-cm miniature vessel, and five dozen 6-cm
miniature vessels in an hour. A kick -wheel user might make a
gross or more of coffee mugs or several gross of miniatures in a
week. In 1994, one maker of miniature vessels connected an
electric motor to his wheel in order to make production less
strenuous for him as he aged.

Applique — Both Greenware and Artesanias were often
ornamented with applique. Although not strictly a forming

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Fig. 4.3. Forming a large basin.

method, when used, it is an intrinsic part of the forming
process. The technique, known as bordado, consists of the
application of small pellets of clay to the surface of a vessel or
figure while the clay is moist (Fig. 4.8). It is a relatively recent
phenomenon that spread first through the extended families of
its innovators during the last half of the 20th century and
subsequently was attempted and utilized by others in the
village. Its development by Catalina Aguilar in the 1940s and
utilization and modifications by Teodora Blanco in the 1950s
have been described by Hendry (1992, pp. 56, 82, 117-121). By
the 1990s, HPUs unconnected to either family had begun to
imitate the result, and there were some differences in the way
applique was applied by those not taught by Aguilar family
members. The strong family feelings about its use and
diffusion are discussed in later chapters.

Artesanias — Makers of this ware used all four forming
methods. In addition to the revolving platter, hand forming,
and the kick wheel, some used molds.

Press Molds — The men who made animal figures in the
1950s used press molds, and Hendry (1992, p. 84) indicated
that more potters used molds than the kick wheel. Although
Stolmaker (1996, p. 25) suggested that this method seemed to
have had less currency in the late 1960s, observing only two
users, and that in the 1990s they had become more common. I
saw several artisans forming the heads of figurines in plaster

molds bought in Oaxaca City, and one HPU that specialized
in miniature Artesanias used molds for one segment of its
ware, sun and moon face pendants, crosses, and ornaments.
Molds were also used by some makers of chias, the hollow
animals with striated surfaces. Often, makers of Artesanias
made figures and figurines combining several forming
techniques; the body might be started on the revolving disk
or formed by hand, the head or face made in a mold, and the
limbs and ornamentation added by hand (Fig. 4.9).

Finishing the Pottery

After a piece has been formed, it is set aside to dry. The
initial drying takes place in the shade near the work area,
usually inside the house; later, pieces may be set outside in the
patio. Handles are added after the ware has partially dried.
During the first phase of drying, vessels are set upside down.
Subsequently, especially after the addition of handles, vessels
are set upright. The location in which a piece is set to dry
depends on weather and season, the strength of the sun, and
the urgency to fire for market or to fill an order. If firing is
immanent, pieces may be set in the sun but must be turned and
moved frequently to prevent cracking during drying. Knowing
when and how to place the ware to dry requires knowledge
and skill, and inexperience, or mistakes can lead to cracks and

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Fig. 4.4. Forming a vase using the hand-modeling method.

breakage. During the rainy season when drying is difficult,
slightly damp pottery may be placed to dry in a kiln that is still
warm following firing.

When the pottery is leather hard, it is scraped and
burnished. Traditionally a task of men for Domestic ware, it
is done by women in kick-wheel HPUs. Tools for these tasks
are steel scrapers in various sizes and quartz burnishing stones;
the scrapings are collected and soaked with new clay for use in
future production. In the 1990s, Greenware was often incised
with designs or words. “Oaxaca” or “Recuerdo de Oaxaca”
(Reminder of Oaxaca) was thought to appeal to tourists, and
the names of the honorees were often written on ware that had
been special ordered for fiestas. Sometimes simple designs,
often floral, were incised in addition to or in place of writing.
Incising and stamping was done when the ware was leather
hard, the customary tools being agave or maguey spines or
metal nails. In addition to ceramic stamps, some Greenware
potters made creative use of objects on hand, using such tools
as bottle caps and the ends of magic markers to stamp designs
on their ware.

Artesamci ware was sometimes neither glazed nor slipped,
remaining the natural clay or bisque color, but makers of
Artesanias also used red slip to highlight appliqued or incised
design elements, applying it either to unfired vessels or to
bisque fired vessels in combination with colored glazes. In

1992, some potters began to apply enamel after firing, and by
1995, greater use of enamel and tempera paint could be seen.
This was a change from the 1950s when Hendry (1992, p. 53)
reported that decoration was either slipped, incised, or
modeled and that, except for touches of white slip on red
animals, pottery was not painted. In the 1990s, another use of
red slip was in Redware. When leather hard, these slipped
vessels were burnished, and when they had become thoroughly
dry and hard, designs, usually delicate flowers and leaves, were
incised into the surfaces (Fig. 4.10) (fmnh 339206, 339207). As
mentioned above, in the 1990s this technique was diffusing
through the second generation of an extended family.

Equipment and Spatial Organization of Work Areas —
Probably the most striking physical changes in the appearance
of the village since the 1950s and 1960s were in the area of
house construction. These changes affected the buildings and
work areas but did not appreciably alter the organization of
space or general placement of pottery production. Both
Hendry (1992, p. 134) and Stolmaker (1996, p. 13) described
the locations of various functions on the house lot. Although
variable, house lots always included an open space for pottery
production, including clay and temper preparation and firing,
and also space for such household tasks as laundry and
dishwashing, with large ollas for water storage. The house lot
might have farm animals and fruit trees. Sometimes there was

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOEOGY

Fig. 4.5. Hand modeling a figurine.

a kitchen shed of cane and maize leaves, or cooking might be
done in a corner of the veranda, but it was rarely done in the
living quarters. That space was needed for pottery production
and storage of finished ware or maize.

This pattern prevailed in the 1990s with work areas
specifically allocated for pottery production (Table 4.3); these

dL. _ Orj —I

Fig. 4.7. Jacinto Olivera forming jugs on a kick wheel.

included areas for clay storage and preparation, pottery
forming, drying, and firing. Clay awaiting preparation was
usually stored in baskets kept outside in dry weather and
under cover in wet. As new houses were built or rooms added
to older ones, potters turned rooms in former living quarters
into work areas. Areas that might previously have been shared
with pottery forming and storage became spaces used
primarily for those purposes.

Production Steps — Those steps marked with an asterisk
occur in all cases; the others are options that depend on the
type of ware and the choices made by the potters.

CLAY

Acquisition

Dig soaked clay
Dig gritty clay
Dig colored earth
Purchase clay

Preparation

*Soak clay
Sieve soaked clay
Knead soaked clay
Beat gritty clay
Sift gritty clay

Knead soaked clay into gritty clay powder

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Fig. 4.8. Adding applique to a figure of the Virgin.

FORMING THE WARE

*Eorm body of vessel or other piece

Add handles

Scrape

Burnish

DECORATION OE THE SUREACE (before firing)

Incise
Applique
Apply slip

EIRING

*Eirst firing
*Check each piece
*Mend cracks or discard
*Get fuel

From own land, communal lands
Buy/use wood

*Load kiln
*Light fire

*Fuel and manage fire
*Check pottery for color
*Unload kiln
*Dust each piece

Fig. 4.9. Adding decoration to an Artesamas figure.

GLAZING

Purchase glaze pre mixed
Add extra copper

Purchase materials unmixed and mix in glaze mill
Apply glaze — pour, dip, or paint

Second firing

Get wood (sources vary)

Load kiln
Light fire

Euel and manage fire
Check pottery for color

Unload kiln

Pack

Firing the Pottery

The Kiln — Atzompa pottery is fired in open-top updraft kilns
constructed of adobe and stone. This kind of construction has a
long tradition, dating at least to the Classic Period. Two Classic
Period kilns were excavated in a residential area at Monte Alban
in 1972-1973 (Winter & Payne, 1976; Payne, 1982). Two others,
located on hills near San Lorenzo Cacaotepec, were excavated in
1981 (Winter & Nardin, 1982). The similarity to the modem
Atzompa kilns, particularly of feature 5, the larger Monte Alban
kiln, is striking and discussed in Appendix IV. The particulars

EIELDIANA; ANTHROPOLOGY

Table 4.3. Locations of work areas.

Fig. 4.10. Incising decoration on a Redware vessel.

include excavation into bedrock, adobe and stone construction,
and in feature 5 the spoked- wheel design of the grills that hold
pottery. Although many modern Atzompa potters eonstruet
grills of arch or rectangular configurations, some use a spoked-
wheel design, ineluding those who make large ollas (Fig. 4.11).

Table 4.2. Tools and equipment for pottery production.

Tool

Function

Revolving platter production

Flat or concave ceramic disk

template

Gourd piece

to form and scrape

Stick

to measure

Leaf (Ipomoea murocoides)

to smooth surface

Kick-wheel production

Kick wheel

Piece of tin

to form exterior

Bowl sherd

to form interior

2-m length of cord

to cut vessel from hump

Both forming methods

Small bowl, gourd

to hold water to add to clay

Piece of deerskin or felt

to smooth rims or edges

Metal scraper

to scrape leather hard

vessels

Quartz or marble stone

to burnish

Firing

Updraft kiln

Wooden paddles

to remove kiln coverings

125-cm stick with metal hook

to open and unload kiln

Task

Location

Clay preparation

patio

Forming

shed or room with concrete or dirt floor

Finishing

indoors or on veranda

Drying

indoors or in covered or shaded area

Firing

kiln in patio

Glazing

in kiln area

Potters living in the lower seetion of the town where there is
less building stone construct their kilns of adobe; those in the
upper seetion use mainly stone. Often a member of an HPU
would have the expertise to eonstruet a kiln. If not,
arrangements would be made with a relative outside the
household with the skill, or the HPU would hire it done. Kilns
are generally set into a slope so that approximately half to a
quarter of the back of the kiln is belowground. If a slope is not
available, the ground is built up behind the kiln or the ground
in front excavated. The floor of the firebox is usually about
30 cm below the ground level of the firebox opening. This
opening ranges from 30 to 70 em high and 20 to 60 cm wide.
The pottery is placed on an open grid or series of arches that
penmit the fire to penetrate the firing ehamber. Kilns are
round, sometimes oval, although one innovative potter built a
square kiln. Walls of kilns are generally from 20 to 30 cm thick
(Fig. 4.12).

Each of the HPUs in my sample had at least one functioning
kiln sometime during the fieldwork period. Some had more
than one, usually of different sizes, enabling the HPU to fire
more or less pottery depending on produetion and/or
marketing circumstances. Ten HPUs in my sample had two
kilns. Sometimes the larger one would be used for a bisque
firing, and sometimes both were fired concurrently. At times a
small kiln would be used for an irregularly seheduled firing of
a speeial order. As HPUs were shifting to the production of
Artesamas in the mid-1990s, some were building new kilns. By
1995, several HPUs had done this in order to fire more
efficiently the smaller ware that they were producing. Finally,
when a household dwindled in size because of the death or
departure of members, it sometimes would allow a kiln to fall
into disrepair. It might then fire at the HPU of an extended
family member, as was also done by a newly established
household until it could construct its own.

Kiln size, proportions, and type of grid are related more to
vessel form and size than to the class of ware made by an HPU
(Table 4.5). The kilns for larger Domestic ware, particularly
large basins and ollas and also large Artesamas figures,
generally have larger diameters and greater height at the front
than those for smaller vessels (see 11 and 15 in Table 4.5).
Some HPUs making miniatures had large kilns sinee they fired
their pieces in saggers. Their kilns corresponded in size more
to those of Domestic ware makers than to those of the makers
for Greenware mugs, salsa dishes, and ashtrays. The kilns for
the large basins have a protuberanee or “ear” on one side for
resting the rim of the stacked vessels.

Kiln longevity varies, depending on degree and quality of
maintenance and probably also on the quality of the original
eonstruction. Maintenanee consists of repairing craeks and
periodic relining. After a number of years, the surface will
begin to crack and break off. With repeated use, residues of
green glaze accumulate on the grids and inner walls.

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Table 4.4. Some production times.

Form and method

Tasks

Times

Ollas, revolving platter

get T1

120 min. round-trip

60 min. dig

30 min. load

get C2

45 min.

form jar

16-18 min. base

19 min. collar

23 min. scrape

get fuel for first fire

53 min.

load kiln

36 min., 55 min.

tend fire

50 min.

glaze

90 min.

load second fire

55 min.

tend fire

98, 118 min.

unload

50, 27 min.

pack

60 min.

Large basin, revolving platter

get Cl

6 hr. round-trip

3 burro loads

3 days/week

get T4

3 hr. round-trip

3 burro loads

Green, kick wheel

get T2

1.5 hr.

get C2 clay

2 hr.

beat T2

4.5 hr.

form vessel

1.5-3 min.

get fuel for first fire

3.5 hr.

load kiln

20, 45, 17 min.

tend fire

1 hr.

unload

12 min.

prepare pottery

1.5-2 hr.

glaze

70 min.

load second fire

7 min.

tend fire

72, 44, 92 min.

unload

10 min.

particularly in the kilns of those who make fully glazed
Greenware. Also, the smoke from the glaze firing coats the
inside, resulting in less efficient firing. The presence of these
residues results in a need for more fuel to achieve the requisite
temperatures. Thus when its kiln ceases to function well, the
HPU would usually reline it. Some HPUs had maintained
kilns for 40 to 50 years and report that they were built by their
fathers or grandfathers.

As in forming pottery, some potters take infinite pains,
eonstructing carefully and slowly over a period of months a
kiln that will last for years. Others choose to build more
quickly and replace more frequently. One HPU moved and
reconstructed its kiln twiee between 1989 and 1992. On the
other hand, Teodora Blanco’s son was still using his mother’s
kiln. Described below is the careful and meticulous construc¬
tion of a kiln in an HPU that made prize-winning ollas.

Construction of a kiln was followed over a period of four
months in the spring of 1991 (Figs. 4.13, 4.14). Work was
intermittent, depending on time available from farming and
other aetivities and on weather conditions. The members of
the HPU — Gudelia Perez Olivera, her husband Abel Ruiz
Juarez, and their two teenaged sons, Abelito and Francisco —
took time and eare in all their aetivities. Gudelia formed ollas
on a ball-bearing turntable, placed on a post set into the tiled
eoncrete floor of her veranda. Abel Ruiz mined and prepared
the clay and, assisted by his sons, scraped and polished the
leather hard olla^. He was in charge of the firing, assisted by
other family members.

As with the production of onus', the kiln was built with
meticulous care and attention to detail. The decision to
construct a new kiln oceurred because the old one was close to
the gas tank for the kitchen stove, a location that had proved
unsafe. His two sons assisted Abel Ruiz from time to time
during the course of the four-month period. It was clearly a
learning process for both youths. On 14 March, Abel and
Abelito began excavation on a slope situated well away from

the house. It took two weeks. They removed the shallow
surface soil and excavated bedroek to a level surface,
measuring the diameter with a stick to ensure that it was
round. Depth at the back (upslope) was 84 cm and at the front
52 em. After completing the excavation, Abel placed two
stacks of bricks at the front to mark the eventual fuel portal.
Standing in front of this “door,” he made shoving motions to
simulate potential stoking of fuel, then adjusted the bricks,
made measurements with a stick, and further adjusted the
opening. This took 10 to 15 minutes, after whieh he marked
lines in the dirt for the portal width (33 cm).

The walls would be built with the bricks and stones from an
old kiln that had been dismantled. These he bonded with a
mixture of two special clays, thoroughly mixed with water.
INNA analysis showed the composition of these clays to be
quite distinct from the pottery clays, showing a higher level of
caleium and strontium concentrations than the general
Atzompa clays (Neff, 1992). Abel Ruiz earefully selected each
stone, painstakingly fitting the larger ones and chinking them
with small stones and sherds or pieces of broken tiles, often
redoing sections. Only when satisfied did he mortar them with
the kiln-clay mixture. By 10 May, the kiln had been built up to
the level of the ground at the back, and construction of the
arches was begun. The three arches would support the ollas
during firing.

Next, Abel Ruiz took green cazahuate stieks {Ipomoea
murocoides [Alvarez 1994, p. 168]). He bundled together sticks
2.5 to 5 cm in diameter and curved them to form the desired
arch. On the arch, he plaeed bricks (Fig. 4.13). These were
reported to be specially made for kilns by a briekworks east of
Oaxaca City (Santa Lucia). During the construction, a
wooden support was placed at right angles to the arches.
Working from each side toward the center, he seleeted and
fitted the bricks carefully, then bonded them with the kiln-
clay. Later, he would cover the arch completely with a layer of
the clay compound (Fig. 4.14). Since construction took place

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Fig. 4.11. Grill with spoked-wheel design.

during the rainy season, completion was slowed by the need to
allow sufficient time for drying at each stage. When the walls
had been finished and the mortar and arches were dry, he
coated the entire kiln, outside and inside, with a layer of the
kiln-clay mixture and left it to become thoroughly dry before
it would be used.

Firing Practices — Glazed wares are fired twice, the first, or
bisque, firing at a lower temperature than the second, or glaze,
firing. Burnished, incised Redware and unglazed Artesama
ware are fired once. In the 1990s, there was greater variability
in scheduling and frequency of firing than Hendry (1992,
p. 69) reported for the 1950s. At that time, the first firing was
“customarily late Friday afternoon, with the second Saturday
morning so as to have the ware ready for market day in
Oaxaca.” In the 1990s, firing of Domestic and Greenware was
usually done weekly or biweekly, although scheduling could be
affected by weather, fiestas, and market fluctuations. The
variability in firing schedules was also related to the increased
variety of both pottery and market outlets. Desiring to have
their ware ready for truck transport to the Saturday market in
Oaxaca City, some HPUs preferred, if possible, to complete
their firing on Friday to be ready for pick up of the packed
baskets late Friday night or in the early hours of Saturday.
HPUs producing mainly on special order or for the Artesamas
market generally fired with less regularity. As by 1995 an
increasing number of HPUs was producing for those markets
and for the Mercado de Artesankis in Atzompa, variability was

increasing. Furthermore, as more HPUs were producing
Artesanias, more fired their ware only once.

Fuel for the first firing was generally cane, sunflower or
maize stalks, or other available material. This fuel is called
basura (trash) to indicate the use of whatever is available. It
often included sweepings of leaves and bits of plastic bags.
This was especially the case for Domestic ware, although
wood would be used if other fuel was not available. Fuel for
the second, or glaze, firing was always wood, although one
innovative HPU was observed firing with old rubber tires, and
several used gasoline to start the fires. A hotter fire is needed
for a glaze firing in order to fuse the glaze (Sheehy, 1988).
Wood was also the fuel used for those wares fired only once.
These include griddles. Redware, and the unglazed Artesania
ware. Some makers of miniatures and the finer Greenware
used wood for both firings since they preferred to avoid the
soot that might otherwise result.

In the 1950s, most firewood came from forests in the
nmnicipio or from San Felipe Tejalapan (Hendry, 1992, p. 71).
By the 1960s, Stolmaker (Beals, 1975, p. 310; Stolmaker, 1976,
p. 192, 1996, p. 25) reported that the Atzompa resources had
been depleted and that more wood was being purchased from
San Felipe Tejalapan vendors. Some men from Santo Tomas
Mazaltepec or San Pedro Ixtlahuacas also came to Atzompa
to sell wood, but this, too, was becoming scarce. At that time,
one household agreed to try kerosene, but nothing came of it.
Gas firing was also considered but ruled out as too expensive.

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

fueling door

Fig. 4.12. Kiln dimensions.

i--

ground level at rear

wall thickness = 15-30 cm

In the 1990s, most firewood was brought by truck from Etla,
about 20 km away (Table 4.6). It consisted of the trimmings
from a sawmill there, cut to 2.5-m lengths. Prices were
inconsistent but trended upward during the early 1990s. When
funds were available, HPUs would buy a truckload as an
investment, sometimes reselling the wood to other potters. The
lengths of wood were also used to construct sheds for kitchens,
washing, and pottery production or storage and to construct
fences. These sheds and fences could be torn down readily to
fuel kilns as needed. Costs per truckload ranged from $120 to
$250 MXN during the study period, and an HPU could sell it
for $.20 to $.30 MXN per kilogram to other potters. The
lowest price was paid by the HPU that used San Felipe clay.

As with its clay, it bought wood by the truckload during the
dry season when it was less costly. Both Sheehy (1988) and
Arnold (2008, pp. 282-284) have discussed problems of
availability of firewood for potters as a result of deforestation,
particularly for those located in or near urban areas with
increased population density. In the last half of the 20th
century, Atzompa potters made several adjustments in their
fuel acquisition. The availability of trimmings from sawmills
have, for the time being, solved that problem, but it may not
be a long-term solution.

First, or Bisque, Firing — Loading the kiln for the bisque
firing was done with care. First, before loading, each piece
would be reexamined, cracks repaired, rough places smoothed.

Table 4.5. Kiln dimensions (cm).

Ware type

Diameter

Height, front

Height, rear

Arch

Top to arch

Artesanias miniatures

grid

Artesamas miniatures

104

115

grid

Artesanias.

106

grid

Domestic small jars, bowls

107

grid

Green (kick wheel)

125

grid

Greenware

125

grid

Green (kick wheel)

150/140

grid

Greenware miniatures

135

100

cross

Greenware

154

100

grid

Greenware miniatures

150

arches

Domestic jars

150

189

136

arches

Domestic casseroles

146/143

100

grid

Artesanias large figures

150/136

grid

Domestic casseroles

175/215

112

grid

Domestic large basins

221

126

grid

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Fig. 4.13. Mortaring the bricks of the arch.

and handles reinforced with clay if necessary, all under the
supervision of the man or woman who had formed the ware
(Fig. 4.15). If a piece did not meet the HPU’s standards, it
would be discarded and put with the scrapings to be soaked
and mixed with new clay for the next cycle. It was considered
better to discard defective pieces before firing, when the clay
could be reused by adding it to the trimmings. Placement and
arrangement of pieces in the kiln would be done by the person
in charge of the firing or under his supervision. This requires
skill and experience. Boys learn by assisting their fathers or
other adult men in the packing and fueling. Women and older
girls might also participate in packing the kiln. Children help
and learn by carrying the ware from the place where it has
been readied to the person or persons loading. Miniatures are
placed inside globular ollas perforated with small holes
(pichanc/ias) (fmnh 329210) before being placed in the kiln;
these serve as saggers to hold the small pieces. HPUs that
made small vessels or miniatures often bought unfired larger
ware to place over or under their small pieces in order to
achieve better results in the firing. Generally, these purchases
were made from neighbors or extended family members who
were unable to fire themselves, either regularly or at a
particular time because of illness or other circumstance. The
arrangement might be direct purchase but more often on
shares, a practice that will discussed further in Chapter 6.

Once loaded, the kiln is covered. Coverings consist of
pottery; broken, cracked, and undamaged griddles; and sherds
of ollas, large jugs, casseroles, and other vessels. In the 1990s,
griddle makers regularly sold their ware to other HPUs for
kiln coverings. Some HPUs covered their kilns with roof tiles
or pieces of corrugated metal, a common building material for
roofs, walls, and sheds, although some potters reported that
covering with corrugated metal produced inferior firing
results. After firing, kiln coverings were collected, saved, and
stored around and inside the kiln for repeated use, firing after
firing.

The person in charge of firing was usually a man (firing in
HPUs without an adult male is discussed in Chapter 6). He
fueled the kiln, monitoring it visually by looking at the pottery
through the cracks, watching the smoke and the color of the
ware. In the rainy season, he might let the fire burn slowly for
up to an hour in order to dry the ware before building up the
heat to firing temperature. The heat would always be built up
gradually during the first portion of the firing and more
rapidly in the second half. When he thought the pottery
sufficiently fired, he would usually say so and then allow a few
minutes to pass, during which the temperature would drop
slightly, before starting to remove the coverings. He might be
assisted in the firing by a boy or youth who fetched the fuel
and sometimes helped in loading, thereby learning skills. If

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Fig. 4.14. Working on the kiln walls.

elderly, the man in charge would often stand by and quietly
supervise a grandson or other youth in the task (Fig. 4.16). A
young person was usually allowed to participate in or handle
the bisque firing before he would be given responsibility for
the glaze firing, and often knowledgeable senior women would
be consulted and also participate in checking the pottery.
When firing was completed, the kiln coverings would be
removed with two wooden paddles, then the fired ware was
unloaded with metal hooks attached to long wooden poles
(Fig. 4.16). It was necessary to dip these into a pail of water
periodically to cool or to prevent the wood from catching fire.

Firing times ranged from 42 to 120 minutes. Breaking this
down, unglazed Artesankis, griddles, and red-slipped and
polished ware, for which this was the only firing, averaged
90 minutes; first firing of ware to be glazed averaged
63 minutes (Table 4.7). As part of my study, some tempera¬
tures were measured with a pyrometer and cones. While they
varied depending on the placement of the measuring devices in
the kiln, they ranged between 550°C and 725°C for the first, or
bisque, firing (Table 4.8). After unloading, the bisque ware
was allowed to cool and then dusted to remove ash or cinders.
At this time, the pottery would again be examined for cracks
or rough places, particularly handles and incised letters or
designs. These were smoothed with the metal scraper and
minor cracks mended with clay before glazing. Ware that
would not be glazed was also dusted and examined for firing
defects. Minor defects could be remedied by refiring the pieces
and small cracks repaired with clay. Refiring would also

Table 4.6. Fuel costs.

Date

Amount

Cost (MXN)

1989

1 kg green

.20

1989

1 kg trim

.30

1989

truckload

160

1989

truckload

1990

truckload

120

1991

truckload

180

1991

truckload

150

1991

truckload

200

1991

truckload

150

1991

truckload

120

1992

truckload

200

1992

truckload

250

remove any charring from smoke or incomplete oxidation.
Firing deficiencies in otherwise satisfactory ware could and
should be remedied by refiring. Longer firing time is needed to
fire thicker ware, such as the large basins, adequately, and one
HPU that fired this ware for 61 minutes and removed the
pieces immediately had a higher proportion of its vessels crack
than one that fired for 88 minutes and allowed the vessels to
cool in the kiln before unloading. Potters pointed out to me
that it is possible to determine from looking at the core of a
sherd that a piece was insufficiently fired, and some potters
could be quite critical of the firing skills of other HPUs.

The bisque firing could be left to cool in the kiln and at
times was left overnight. However, often it was unloaded
quickly in order to proceed with the glaze firing or another
bisque firing. Sometimes this would be done in order to utilize
the heat stored in the kiln walls for another firing or to dry
pieces that were still damp, particularly during the rainy
season.

Glazing — Sources and composition of the green glaze have
been described above. In the 1990s, most of the HPUs that
used glaze bought it already mixed with water. They
purchased it by the kilogram on the day it was to be used
and brought it home in a plastic bag set in a pail, with the bag
kept closed to prevent the glaze from drying out. Since the
glaze minerals are suspended in water and settle out quickly,
the product had to be stirred thoroughly and mixed
continuously during application. Often the liquid glaze was
transferred to a large pottery bowl to facilitate easy mixing,
and it might be sieved through a cloth to remove any large
particles.

To glaze a vessel, the liquid is scooped up or poured into it
and sloshed around until coverage of the inside is complete,
then the excess poured back into the glaze container. If the
outside of the vessel is to be glazed, the suspended glaze is later
poured over the vessel with a small gourd or plastic bowl.
These steps were done separately. That is, a quantity of vessels
would be glazed inside; then later, the same or a different
person would glaze the outside. Since glaze dries quickly to a
powdery surface that can be rubbed off fairly easily, the glazed
pottery is handled carefully (Fig. 4.17). One HPU glazed its
miniatures twice to achieve better coverage and color. Usually,
an HPU purchased only as much glaze as it needed for a
firing. However, unused glaze could be kept in a tightly closed
plastic bag and remixed for later use if necessary, and any
remaining glaze is rinsed from the pails or bowls and saved so
that none is wasted. The male head of the HPU was often in
charge of purchasing, mixing, and applying the glaze, but
women were also observed to handle these tasks, perhaps

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Fig. 4.15. Preparing the kiln and pottery for firing.

more frequently than in the 1950s, when Hendry (1992, p. 71)
reported that “glazing too, is ordinarily done by the men, with
the assistance of their wives.”

The Second, or Glaze, Firing — When all pieces had been
glazed, the kiln was loaded for the glaze firing (Fig. 4.18).
Often unfired ware or pottery that needed refiring would be
included to make a full kiln load. The loading was similar to
that of the first firing, except that additional care was taken in
handling the ware to ensure that the glaze did not rub off In
firing half-glazed ollas, one HPU took care that vessels not
touch each other or the sides of the kiln, placing sherd spacers
between the vessels and the kiln walls or other ollas.

Saggers, called hornillos or “little kilns,” are used by makers
of miniatures. Nails, fired into the bottom of a perforated
vessel, protrude up from the base, and the glazed miniatures
are set on them. Small animal figures were sometimes made
with holes to enable them to be set on the nails (Fig. 4.19). The
saggers have a limited life; since the heat of the kiln causes the
nails to bend after a few months, they have to be replaced
frequently. Most HPUs that used them made their own; as
with revolving platters, they were made from laguna clay and
white gritty clay, even by those who bought San Lorenzo clay
for their pottery.

The temperatures of the second or glaze firing ranged from
600°C to 825°C, and firing times ranged from 45 to
120 minutes. The longest time was for firing the large basins
and the shortest for small Greenware and glazed Artesanlas

that was inadequately fired. The average for 14 glaze firings
was 73 minutes. Management of the firing resembled the
bisque firing, except that the heat was higher and wood was
always used. The fire was monitored visually, and when the
pottery glowed, it was done. Unloading had to be immediate
and rapid, or the glaze would fuse and vessels would stick
together as they began to cool. As the pottery was unloaded,
any piece that touched another either in the kiln or in a sagger
was quickly pulled apart while the glaze was soft. After the
pottery had been set on the ground, a tinkling sound could be
heard as the glaze cooled, and when the firing was at night,
Greenware could be seen to glow brightly in the dark. Speed
and skill in unloading is critical, and an HPU would gather as
many experienced people as could be accommodated. These
included men, women, teenagers, and sometimes people from
outside the HPU if it was a small one or had few adults.
Usually these would be extended family members from other
HPUs, often those whose ware had been included in the firing.
On firing day, even those HPU members not otherwise
involved in pottery production often gathered to assist in
glazing, loading, and unloading the kiln. When unloading was
complete, everyone would sit around cooling off from the heat
of the kiln and admiring the result, and, as one potter
informant told me, the unloading of the kiln has an
atmosphere not unlike a ritual.

From HPU to HPU, there was considerable variation,
innovation, creativity, levels, and differences in skills involved

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Fig. 4.16. An older man supervises the unloading of a kiln.

in firing. Placement and arrangement of pottery requires skill
and experience, as does managing the fueling and temperature.
While boys and youths would assist their elders in the packing
and fueling of the kiln, they were less likely to be in charge of
the glaze firing than the bisque firing. As with the bisque
firing, in some households women also participated in packing
the kiln and determining when to end the firing. Weather
factors such as rain and wind also play a role.

Packing — After the pottery cooled, it would be counted and
checked earefully. Then if it was to be sold at the Ahastos
market in Oaxaca City, it might be packed tightly into large
baskets (Fig. 5.1) ready for pickup by truck early Saturday
morning for transport. Small amounts or small pottery might
be packed in smaller baskets and go with the vendor on the
bus. Ollas were sometimes packed in rope nets (Fig. 5.2).

Handling of an individual piece of pottery during produc¬
tion could occur as many as 15 to 20 times from its removal
from the forming site, revolving platter, or kick wheel to the
time it was packed for shipment. For example, a coffee mug
made on a kick wheel was handled 16 times from when it was
removed from the wheel until it was sold. If the weather had
been inclement, it would have been moved additional times to
protect it from rain.

Example of Times a Vessel Was Handled

1 removed from wheel

2 set upright in shade to dry

3 set upside down to dry inside or in sun

4 seraped and polished and designs incised

5 set on floor or ground upside down

6 loaded for first firing

Table 4.7. Firing times.

Type

First firing (min.)

Second firing (min.)

Domestic casseroles

Domestic globular jars

118

Domestic globular jars

Domestic large basins

120

Domestic large basins

Green

Green medium

Green small

Artesamas glazed

Artesanlas glazed

Redware

Artesanlas unglazed

Domestic griddles

120

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Fig. 4.17. Ofelia Aguilar glazing a vase (fmnh 339158).

7 unloaded

8 organized for glazing

9 glazed inside

10 glazed outside

1 1 loaded for second firing

12 unloaded

1 3 organized for counting

14 packed

15 unpacked

16 sold (might be handled once or twice more during
sale process)

Continuity and Change

According to Hendry (1992, p. 115), in the 1950s, produc¬
tion of Domestic ware, ollas, basins, casseroles, and so on was
pretty standardized, and each woman’s production was little
distinct from any others, although jugs were somewhat less
standardized and some women rounded the bodies of their
vessels more than others or varied the height of the neck.
However, once a woman had established a style, she tended to
conform to it. My observations confirmed this, and 1 also
noted that in the 1990s an individual’s output could sometimes

be recognized by noting the kind of clay and whether colorant
was added or decorations used. Makers of casseroles, for
example, chose various ways to ornament the rims, sometimes
adding fluting, pinching, or pressing decorative elements into
them. When Donald Thieme came to assist me in the clay
study, he measured the output of an olla maker to determine
variation. That potter was offended at the suggestion that
there was any.

Greenware producers were producing a greater variety of
forms in the 1990s than they did in the 1950s, and an HPU’s
work could often be distinguished from its fellows by type.

Table 4.8. Firing temperatures.

Type

°C

Domestic globular jars

550

725

Green medium

725

800

Green medium

725

Green medium

650

750

Green medium

725

Green medium

650

750

Green small

775

Green small

825

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Fig. 4.18. Firing large basins.

size, or style of decoration. However, an individual potter’s
ware showed uniformity in both size and design, including the
elements of applique. The products of kick-wheel users were
consistent in size and form. A gross of coffee mugs made by
Jacinto Olivera were essentially identical, and many potters
took pride in their size consistency.

Production methods in the 1990s reflected both continuity
and change. The option to purchase clay and glaze by freeing
of male labor was a factor in the dramatic increase in the
production of Greenware in response to tourist demands, and
there were other small timesaving innovations. It also made it
possible for women-headed households to function as pottery
producers. The advent of plastic sheets and bags for holding
glaze made glazing easier, and plastic was also used to cover
prepared clay to prevent it from drying out. Plastic sieves for
gritty clay lasted longer than the stick or rust-prone metal ones
of the past. On the downside, local firewood sources had
played out, and firewood had to be purchased from sawmills.

The number of potters using kick wheels increased as this
technique spread through the Olivera extended family and
beyond, and the users included some women. The roles of
both men and women were changing, as is discussed in
Chapter 6. In the middle of the decade. Greenware gradually
became less salable as concerns about the dangers of lead glaze
resulted in decreased marketability. Concurrently, there was

the development and increase in production of Artesamas,
which grew from its inception observed by Hendry in the
1950s to an important component of the Atzompa pottery
industry.

CHAPTER 5: PRODUCTION AND
MARKETING STRATEGIES

The Market System

The exchange of goods and services through a marketing
system has existed for thousands of years in Oaxaca. The
diverse microenvironments that led to village specialization in
agriculture and craft production encouraged the creation of
regional periodic markets, apparently held every five days in
pre-Hispanic times, shifting to weekly during the Colonial
Period (Whitecotton, 1977, p. 136). These weekly periodic
markets continued to be important in the 20th century. The
cyclical marketing system consists of established and regular¬
ized relationships through which goods are redistributed
between communities and between producers and consumers.
There are several levels of markets with particular markets
operating on different days of the week (Cook & Diskin, 1976,

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Fig. 4.19. Glazed miniatures are placed, inverted, on nails in
saggers.

p. 51). The Oaxaca City market is the focal point of regional
secondary markets, which in turn connect with villages
markets (Beals, 1976, p. 32; Whitecotton, 1977, p. 243).

Goods flow between producers and consumers through this
market system, which Beals (1975, pp. 41-42, 1976, p. 37)
classifies as follows. Intravillage exchange occurs in two
ways — between households in a village and between house¬
holds and stores within the community — and can include
loans, gifts, and barter. The category of intercommunity trade
includes village-to-village direct exchange not passing through
a market and village-to-village exchange passing through one
or more local markets. Village-to-marketplace trade is the
main route for goods leaving a village, and marketplace-to-
village trade is the main route for redistribution of goods to
villages. Through intermarket trade, goods are assembled in
one market and passed to another for distribution. Finally,
through interregional trade, goods go out of or into the
regional marketing system. In modern times, goods entering
the system include increasing numbers of manufactured items,
and those leaving include items purchased by tourists. This
system functions as an essential element in the economic and
cultural lives of the people of the Oaxaca region.

The vendors may be the producers, or they may be traders
(middlemen) who buy and sell, carrying the goods from village
to village or market to market not only in the valley but also

into the surrounding areas in the Mixteca and Sierras Juarez.
Local usage defines a mercado as a permanent market
structure occupied primarily by full-time traders or vendors
with fixed locations, operating on a daily basis. In contrast, a
plaza is an open-air marketplace occupied by intermarket
traders or producer vendors; it is normally a weekly event
(Beals, 1975, p. 8).

Beals (1975, p. 42) describes the following categories of
vendors, although these roles were not always mutually
exclusive:

Producer vendors (proprios)

Traveling middlemen or traders (regatones)

Fixed location storekeepers, mostly resident in
market towns

Storekeepers selling retail to peasants and town
dwellers

Itinerant vendors [arnbulantes) who have a stock of
small items to sell on the street or door to door

Atzompa pottery flows through this marketing system.

Outlets for Domestic Ware and Greenware

The 1950s and 1960s — Atzompa potters have long pro¬
duced their ware almost entirely for use by consumers outside
the town. In the 1930s, Elsie Clews Parsons (1936, p. 51)
reported that a merchant from Atzompa came to Mitla in the
Tlacalula valley to sell his green glazed pottery, which was
very popular with the women there.

The Saturday Market — In the 1950s, the greater part of
Atzompa weekly production went to the Saturday market in
Oaxaca City, although it was also sold in Mixtec and Zapotec
mountain villages (Hendry, 1992, pp. 56-57), something I
observed in a 1992 market in Yalalog, a mountain Zapotec
town high in the Sierras Juarez. Prior to the late 1970s, the
main Oaxaca City market, the Juarez market, was located just
off the main square in the center of the city. In the 1950s, some
potters sent their pottery by truck, and others brought it
themselves on burros or the bus (Hendry, 1992, p. 88). They
would arrive early Saturday morning; although women were
the most active traders, often the whole family came. Since
transportation to Oaxaca and back to Atzompa was difficult,
they would sometimes spend the night in the city if sales were
slow. Some potters sold directly to the consumer, sometimes
by the dozen but more often one at a time. Except for standing
orders, sales always included bargaining rather than fixed
prices, and bargaining was vigorous. Some sales were to
tourists, and some potters shipped in bulk to North America.
Others sold to traders or middlemen who placed standing
orders with the potters; sometimes traders came to the village
to collect the goods, thus saving potters the cost of transport.
Many of the traders were women, and many had permanent
stalls in the market (Hendry, 1992, p. 88).

Of Hendry’s sample of 59 households, 63% sold at stalls in
the market, 24% sold directly to middlemen, 2% sold regularly
to both, and the rest showed no clear pattern (Hendry, 1992,
p. 98). Thus, in the 1950s, while some Atzompa producer-
vendors sold a portion of their pottery directly to consumers,
most sold to middlemen, either in the open market or on
consignment. While some of these may have been traveling
middlemen, Hendry (1992, p. 88) indicates that many had
permanent stalls (i.e., were fixed-location middlemen).

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Fig. 5.1. A transaction at a stall of Greenware and ollas in the Mercado de Abastos.

Other Outlets — Although in the 1950s the majority of the
sales were at the Oaxaca Saturday market, a few potters,
primarily griddle makers, took their wares to sell in other
villages, and one olla maker took the ware to Nochixtlan in the
Mixteca Alta (Hendry, 1992, p. 89). Some potters set them¬
selves up as traders, taking their own and sometimes neighbors’
ware to weekly regional markets, such as the Sunday market in
Tlacalula or the Monday market in Ocotlan (Hendry, 1992,
p. 89). One more outlet should be mentioned. This is the
infomial open-air market (plaza) held every Tuesday on the
street in Atzompa (Hendry, 1992, pp. 88-89; Stolmaker, 1996,
p. 32). The pottery sold was mainly seconds, pieces that were
considered to be of insufficient quality for sale elsewhere, a way
for a potter to acquire a few pesos for what would otherwise be
of no value (Hendry, 1992, p. 88-93). In the 1930s, most of the
transactions were in forms of barter (Malinowski & de la
Fuente, 1982, p. 103). Some of the small-scale itinerant traders
often purchased their ware at this market.

There was yet another option. Some sold their ware unfired
to other potters. Hendry (1992, pp. 94—95) reported that six of
her sample of 59 did not fire their own ware, either because
they had no kiln or because there was no man in the house to
help them. Sales were usually to kin or neighbors. The price
for selling unfired was below what a potter could get for
finished ware, and these potters could feel exploited, but the

buyers had to absorb the cost of glazing and firing. Thus,
while there was little intravillage exchange (no Atzompa stores
sold pottery), the other types of exchange were utilized. While
some potters sold directly to Oaxaca consumers in the markets
(village-to-village exchange), most sold to wholesalers who
distributed the ware through intermarket trade within the
region, and some pottery passed out of the region (external
exchange), particularly the ornamental ware.

From October to May, sales would be good, pottery would
be in steady demand, and Domestic pottery sold well
throughout the state. The Specialties had a wider distribution
but smaller volume, with few sales in rural areas except for the
clilas. These sold well during the Easter season and poorly at
other times; demand for Domestic pottery fell off sharply
during the rainy season, a period when production was also
more difficult. Hendry’s (1992, p. 93) informants suggested
that many of the traders and their customers were farmers
who must spend money on seed, not pottery, and also that
roads were washed out, making transport difficult. The
producers of the ornamental ware were less affected since
their customers were not farmers. In late September, sales
picked up as people began to prepare for Day of the Dead
fiestas at the end of October.

In general, the same market practices were followed in the
late 1960s with options to sell in the Oaxaca market, by the

FIELDIANA; ANTHROPOLOGY

piece to individuals, in bulk to middlemen, or to take the
pottery to another town for a slightly better price but higher
freight cost. However, more potters were selling to traders and
Oaxaca City shops (49%), and fewer were making lengthy
selling trips (Stolmaker, 1976, p. 197, 1996, pp. 32-38;). While
in the 1930s and 1940s (Parsons, 1936, p. 51; Stolmaker, 1976,
p. 197) Atzompa potters traveled to other towns in the region
to sell their pottery at the periodic weekly markets, by 1970
only eight in Stolmaker’s sample traveled beyond Oaxaca City
to sell, but 15 reported that their fathers had done so. Changes
in modes and costs of transportation had affected this
practice. Nevertheless, in the late 1960s, several griddle makers
still transported the fragile ware from town to town by burro,
perhaps because their customers were loathe to carry these
fragile pieces home from regional markets themselves (Stol¬
maker, 1 976, p. 197). Stolmaker ( 1 996, p. 3 1 ) noted that it was
not uncommon for potters to sell their ware unfired, a practice
usually undertaken by the poorest potters, those in constant
need of ready cash. They often asked for advances and so
remained in debt. Another option was selling unfired ware on
shares. The buyer would take a percentage of the finished ware
as a fee for firing, and glazing might or might not be included.

The seasonal sales patterns persevered, with increased
production and sale of decorative ware peaking before
Christmas and Easter. It appeared that much of the trade
was going to Mexico City and abroad (Stolmaker, 1976,

p. 198). De la Fuente (Malinowski & de la Fuente, 1982,
p. 104) noted that this was already occurring in the 1930s,
when pottery from Oaxaca and Atzompa could be observed
on sale in Mexico City at the shrine of the Virgin of
Guadelupe and elsewhere during Holy Week. In the 1970s,
Felipe Aguilar shipped regularly to three outlets in the United
States, and another potter reported sending 20,000 pieces to
Boston alone. However, while some Domestic ware could be
seen in the Mexico City and Chiapas markets, the bulk of that
ware remained in the Oaxaca market system (Stolmaker, 1976,
pp. 195-198, 1996, p. 39).

The 1990s — In the 1990s, potters had several options for
selling their pottery. Both Hendry (1992, p. 88) and Stolmaker
(1976, pp. 195-198, 1996, pp. 33-38) reported that their
informants identified a principal or preferred sales outlet; this
continued to be the case in the early 1990s when most HPUs
making Domestic and Greenware sold the bulk of their
finished goods to traders either at the point of production or
on Saturdays at the main Oaxaca City market, the Central de
Ahastos. Sales on special order to traders were at fixed prices.

In the late 1970s, the main Oaxaca City market, the Juarez
market, was relocated. The Central de Ahastos was construct¬
ed on the southwest edge of the city, and vendors were forced
to relocate there; it is reputedly one of the largest open-air
markets in Mesoamerica (Murphy & Stepick, 1991, pp. 81-82,
114-115).

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

The main pottery section of the Abastos market (Fig. 5.1)
was located at the back of this large market. It consisted of a
permanent fenced area (mercado), with roofed and fenced
permanent stalls of varying sizes (Fig. 5.1). Vendors also sold
on the sidewalk and the street outside the fenced area {plaza)
where large-scale buyers brought their trucks to load the
baskets of pottery they had purchased. Although the majority
of vendors in the pottery section of the market were from
Atzompa, as was most of the ware sold, there were also
vendors from elsewhere who bought and sold pottery made in
Oaxaca City, other villages in the Valley of Oaxaca, and
Puebla. A few women from the Zapotec-speaking village San
Marcos Tlapazola would come each week and sell their
Redware near the entrance to the pottery market. However,
although the well-known blackware from San Bartolo
Coyotepec was sold in some of the stalls, Coyotepec potters
did not themselves sell their ware in the Abastos market.

Some Atzompa HPUs chose to rent or purchase stalls inside
the enclosed area [mercado)', others paid a small weekly fee to
sell along the street in the outer unfenced area [plaza)
(Table 5.1). Potters reported that the stalls were more costly
and that sales at times were better outside on the street, but the
stalls provided them with a place to store unsold ware for
future sale. With no storage available, vendors in the street
section sometimes had to lower their prices at the end of the
day to dispose of unsold ware. An alternative was to arrange
with extended family members with stalls to store their unsold
ware for the following week’s market. Some stalls in the
market were staffed daily, mainly by full-time traders,
including some from Atzompa, and some Atzompa potters
with stalls were traders as well as producers, purchasing
pottery from other HPUs. This they did in both in Atzompa
and at the market. Most Atzompa HPUs, however, did not
staff their stalls every day. However, a smaller market was
held on Tuesdays, and some HPUs at times sent a member to
sell then, particularly if sales had been slow on Saturday.

In the 1990s, pottery was transported from point of
production to the Oaxaca market on Saturdays by truck or
bus. The buses went into the city every half hour, and potter-
vendors with baskets and net bags departed for the city as early
as 6:00 a.m., their pottery placed on top or in the back of the bus
as well as sharing a seat. To transport large quantities or large
vessels, HPUs utilized the services of the several Atzompa
residents who owned trucks. These entrepreneurs transported
the ware on Saturdays for a small fee, traversing the town to pick
up baskets of pottery Friday night or early Saturday morning
and returning the empty baskets on Sunday or Monday.

In addition to the main pottery market, there were two
other Oaxaca City outlets for Domestic ware and Greenware.
Inside the main building of the Abastos market, there is a
section of small stalls, known as the Galeria, which is open
every day. On Saturdays, one member of an HPU would make
the rounds of these stalls to sell, deliver, or take orders while
another member staffed the stall in the pottery market. In
addition, in the center of the city just off the main square,
there is a street of small shops or stalls next to the Juarez
market, the former main market. These shops cater mainly to
tourists. Several specialize in pottery, and many Atzompa
potters regularly visited these outlets, often taking and
delivering orders as well as making direct sales to the shops.

Traders — Many HPUs had long-term trading relationships
with particular middlemen who sought them out in the
Abastos market or came at regular intervals to Atzompa to

Table 5.1. Mercado de Abastos costs.

Location

Costs, 1991 (MXP)

Street place

$ 1000/Saturday

Inside stall

$4000/day

Inside stall

$30,000/month

Inside stall

$300,000-5400,000 to purchase

place and pick up orders (Fig. 5.2). According to Stolmaker
(1976, p. 195), these relationships were “stable but flexible,”
and this continued to be so in the 1990s. Some provided cash
advances against future deliveries. In addition to production
for sale and for advance orders from traders, HPUs also filled
special orders for people holding fiestas. Most sales were by
the dozen, gross (12 dozen), or half gross. It was not
uncommon for an HPU to make a gross of ashtrays, vases,
or salsa bowls for a wedding, a 15th birthday celebration, or
other special event. Both makers of the large basins in my
sample made their vessels regularly on special order for clients
from villages and towns throughout the state of Oaxaca who
required them for the preparation of large volumes of food for
fiestas. The people in charge of the fiestas came from towns in
the Valley of Oaxaca or the mountains of the Mixteca to order
the basins. Some would come to Atzompa to place these
special orders and return to pick up the finished ware; others
conducted their transactions on Saturdays at the Abastos
market (Table 5.2).

There continued to be seasonality in the sales, peaking in
October for Day of the Dead and at Christmas and Easter.
Sales were also affected by weather during the rainy season.
Although not a systematic part of my study, I visited regional
markets in the Valley of Oaxaca, (Ocotlan and Tlacalula), in
the Mixteca (Nochixtlan and Tlaxiaco), and in Yalalog in the
Sierras Juarez. At these markets, I observed Atzompa pottery
being sold by vendors who were not from Atzompa, mainly
Domestic ware, jars, and jugs. In 1991, 11 stalls at the weekly
market in Nochixtlan were selling Atzompa pottery. The
buyers at these markets, although occasionally tourists, were
usually women who were purchasing one or two pieces
probably for their own use. However, one trader regularly
purchased Greenware mugs at the Saturday Oaxaca market
for sale in the Mixteca, where they were highly valued. Thus,
while much of the sale of Greenware was to tourists, some had
become a coveted prestige item in Oaxaca towns and villages;
for example, small vases, ashtrays, or miniatures were ordered
as favors for those attending weddings or other events, and
large fully glazed vases could be seen in village and town
churches throughout Oaxaca (Table 5.2).

Other Outlets — By the 1990s, few members of HPUs were
traveling to other villages to sell. As the number of traders
from outside the town had increased and more were buying
directly from the potters, they reported that traders could
transport pottery more economically and efficiently than they
were able to do. The traders brought trucks to Atzompa or to
the Abastos market to purchase from the potters. However, a
few HPUs still traveled to regional fairs and periodic markets
in the region, and one Greenware maker in my sample went
each month to Mexico City to sell. By the 1990s, only one
elderly man in a griddle-making HPU still took the ware to
nearby San Lorenzo Cacaotepec by burro; most sold from the
point of production to wholesalers who resold them in the
Oaxaca market or elsewhere.

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Table 5.2. Outlets and prices, early 1990s.

Class

Type ware

Sale site

Date

Ask price

Sale price (MXN)

Domestic

casserole

Tlaxiaco trader

7/90

4 ea.

Domestic

casserole, large

Tlaxiaco trader

7/90

10 ea.

Domestic

casserole, small

Tlaxiaco trader

7/90

1 ea.

Domestic

casseroles

Abastos

4/91

24/doz.

10/doz. (0.83)

Domestic

casseroles

Abastos

9/89

15/doz. (1.25)

Domestic

casseroles {Vi doz.)

Abastos

4/91

30 'A doz.

20 '/2 doz. (3.3)

Domestic

casseroles (24 doz.)

Abastos trader

3/91

12/doz. (1)

Domestic

olla, large

Tlaxiaco trader

7/90

25 ea.

Domestic

olla, medium

Tlaxiaco trader

7/90

1.6 ea.

Domestic

olla, small

Tlaxiaco trader

7/90

4.5 ea.

Domestic

ollas, medium

trader at house

9/89

3.5/doz.

3.5/doz. (29)

Domestic

ollas, small

trader at house

9/89

3/doz.

3/doz. (2.5)

Domestic

ollas with handles

on order

5/91

12/doz.

Domestic

ollas (4 doz.)

trader at house

3/91

0.4 ea.

Domestic

jug

Tlaxiaco trader

7/90

1.5 ea.

Domestic

jugs

trader at house

3/91

8/doz.

0.1 ea.

Domestic

jugs (4 doz. small)

Abastos trader

4/91

18/doz.

10/doz. (0.83)

Domestic

jugs (55)

Abastos

4/91

1 8/doz.

15/doz. (1.25)

Green

ashtrays

Abastos

4/91

2.6 ea.

Green

ashtrays (300)

at house

4/91

2 ea.

Green

candlesticks (6 pairs)

house

6/92

12 (1 ea.)

Green

candlesticks, large (36 pairs)

house

6/92

15 (4)

Green

casseroles, small

Abastos

4/91

0.5 ea.

3/doz. (2.5)

Green

coffeepots

Abastos

4/91

3.6 ea. 36/doz.

Green

frog pencil holders (12)

house

7/91

38 (3.16)

Green

fruit dishes

on order

4/91

20 ea.

Green

jugs, small

Abastos trader

3/91

15/doz.

10/doz. (0.83)

Green

jugs, small

Abastos trader

4/91

7/doz. (0.58)

Green

miniature animals

house

7/92

1.5 ea.

Green

mortars, pig faced

Abastos

7/93

2.5 ea.

Green

mugs

Abastos

3/91

8-7/doz.

6/doz., 5/doz.

Green

mugs

Abastos

4/91

0.5 ea.

4 for 2 (0.50)

Green

mugs

special order

4/91

8/doz.

Green

mugs

trader at house

3/91

7/doz.

5/doz. (0.42)

Green

mugs (1 gr.)

on order, Abastos

4/91

65/gr. (0.45)

Green

mugs (11 doz.)

Abastos trader

4/91

6. 5/doz. (0.54)

Green

pen holders (frogs)

house

5/91

15/doz.

Green

salsa dishes, large

Abastos

4/91

36/doz.

3.6 ea.

Green

salsa dishes, small

Abastos

4/91

2.6 ea.

Green

salt cellars

house

7/92

2 ea.

Green

vases (200)

on order

4/91

0.2 ea.

Green

vases, small

Abastos

7/93

2 ea.

Artesanias

figure of a woman

house

7/91

Artesanias

angel figure

house

7/91

Artesanias

angel figure (18 cm.)

house

6/92

5 ea.

Artesanias

applique crosses (6)

house

7/93

7 ea.

Artesanias

applique crosses (4)

house

7/93

4 ea.

Artesanias

chia

house

6/92

1.5 ea.

Artesanias

face plaque

house

6/92

5 ea.

Artesanias

jar, tall

on order

5/91

50 ea.

Artesanias

miniature animals

house

7/91

2 ea.

Artesanias

miniature animals

house

7/94

150 @ 2 ea.

Artesanias

moon pendants

house

7/91

2 ea.

Artesanias

sun pendants

house

7/91

3 ea.

Artesanias

virgin figure

house

7/91

As formerly, the open-air street market held in Atzompa on
Tuesdays and Fridays continued to provide a way for HPUs to
acquire quick cash or to dispose of small amounts of unsold ware
through sale or barter to buyers who come to the town looking
for bargains. Some small-scale vendors who sold produce,
clothing, fruit, or other goods also visited particular HPUs to sell
their wares and purchase pottery. These trading relationships
might include the barter of goods for a few pieces of pottery.
Hendry (1992, 98, endnote 3) noted that barter appeared to be
less common than it had been reported for an earlier period.
However, I observed many occasions of barter both in the
Atzompa market and at the houses of producers, the frequency

perhaps related to the instability of the currency in the early
1990s.

The option of selling ware unfired to other HPUs was as
important an alternative in the 1990s as it had been in the 1950s
and 1960s. As formerly, selling pottery unfired was usually
undertaken when a potter was unable, for physical or economic
reasons, to fire. Two HPUs in my sample bought or sold unfired
ware on a regular basis, and this option was always available for
any potter when illness or other misfortune made firing difficult
or impossible for short or long periods of time. As mentioned
above, makers of small Greenware often purchased unfired
casseroles or other large Domestic vessels to fire with their ware.

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

In the mid-1990s, some potters sold unfired ollas, griddles, or
other vessels to HPUs who transformed and ornamented them
for the Artesama market.

During the 1990s, there was increasing awareness and
discussion in the town about U.S. regulations prohibiting the
import of lead-glazed pottery, about local and national publicity
about its danger, and about the Mexican legislation designed to
discourage its use. Studies of health problems caused by lead,
most particularly lead-glazed pottery, include one in Atzompa
as a result of public health concerns about lead exposure
(Hernandez-Serrato et ah, 2003). A sample of 185 households
was randomly selected, and 413 adults were interviewed and
blood samples taken. The sample included both potters and
nonpotters, and the majority were women between 26 and 55.
The team concluded that there was high lead exposure even in
those who were not potters and that the smoke and fumes from
the firing process played an important role, indicated by the fact
that men had the highest blood lead concentrations.

Already in 1991, potters were discussing decreased sales of
Domestic and Greenware, and by 1993 there was a noticeable
increase in the proportion of unglazed Artesanias being
produced as well as increased concern expressed about
decreasing sales of cookware. In 1995, it was reported to me
by several potters that North Americans were not buying in
the Ahastos market.

Outlets for Artesanias

The market outlets for Artesanias differed from those for
the Domestic and Greenware classes. Artesanias were not sold
in the Oaxaca City Ahastos market, at the shops near the
Juarez market, or in regional periodic markets but rather were
sold by the potters directly to Oaxaca and Atzompa shops,
government outlets, and middlemen who shipped them
elsewhere in Mexico and abroad. Already in the 1950s,
Teodora Blanco was selling her musical animals and
ornamental Jugs to a handicraft store in Oaxaca City, and
through her that store sometimes bought from other makers of
decorative ware (Hendry, 1992, p. 93). In 1969, she sold
regularly to the Museo de Arte Popular in Mexico City
(Stolmaker, 1996, p. 39).

The number of shops in Oaxaca City that served as outlets
for Artesanias continued to increase in the mid- to late 1990s,
and each year more HPUs who made this ware were operating
shops or selling out of their houses. Most sold their own ware,
but some acted as middlemen for other HPUs. Potters also
sold directly to buyers who came to the town to purchase
pottery for stores in major cities in Mexico and the United
States. Some HPUs established trading relationships with
buyers from Mexico City, Monterrey, Acapulco, and Texas,
who in turn sold the ware in Mexico, the United States,
Europe and even Japan. Several artisans traveled yearly to
Santa Fe, New Mexico, to demonstrate their craft as well as to
sell; others traveled to fairs elsewhere in the United States and
Europe. One very entrepreneurial HPU had received external
recognition, and two of its members traveled abroad regularly
to give demonstrations, and their Atzompa shop had become a
regular stop for tourist buses. The opening of the Mercado de
Artesanias in Atzompa added an additional outlet.

The Mercado de Artesanias — In 1991, a new outlet
opened. La Casa del Artesanos (House of the Artisans), also
called La Casa de las Artesanias. In the late 1980s, a Union de
Artesanos (a guild or union of artisans) had been formed.

About 70 potters were invited to join; around 50 did, although
some later dropped out. In 1991, there were 40 members. A
plan to construct a building developed from the interest and
leadership of this group. The Union secured town, state, and
federal funding for the construction of a market building.
Union members were asked to pay a fee ($40,000 MXP) and
contribute labor for cleanup and finishing. On completion, a
formal opening was held in April 1991, with Mass performed
by a priest, followed by speeches by a representative of the
state governor and the head of the Union de los Artesanos. Bus
loads of tourists arrived to view the pottery and the
demonstrations given by the potters. However, there were
problems with faulty construction and lack of security. There
was no space for potters to store their wares safely, and
although a few potters brought their wares to sell on Tuesdays
and Fridays, they were willing neither to leave their ware
unguarded nor to carry it back and forth daily. Then the roof
collapsed during the rains of 1991.

In 1992, the building stood empty, and many members of
the Union expressed anger about the way the building had
been built and the use of planners and builders from outside
the town. There was also lack of agreement throughout the
town about the building’s use and the lack of access to it for
townspeople who were not members of the Union. Old feuds
and resentments between potter families surfaced, and some
who were not asked to join objected to the use of nmnicipio
funds for a project that did not serve all. These problems were
gradually resolved, and by the summer of 1993 additional
funds had been made available from the State of Oaxaca
Department of Tourism and from the nmnicipio. With greater
local control, repairs and improvements were accomplished,
and the market reopened in October 1993. Water, electricity,
and security had been added, and membership broadened. In
1995, the name was changed to Mercado de Artesanias. New
signs, sponsored by Coca-Cola, were put up along the road to
the town and on the entrance to the building. The market was
open every day, and there was regular traffic of tour buses and
wholesale buyers from Oaxaca City and elsewhere.

Membership in 1994 was between 45 and 50 individual
potters, including 1 1 HPUs in my sample. The potters
represented all sections of the town and all three classes of
pottery. Each member had a numbered stall consisting of a set
of shelves marked with his or her name and membership
number, and each member paid a fee to cover costs of utilities
and maintenance (Fig. 5.3). There was a weekly schedule of
assignments for each member, and although membership was
in an individual’s name, the duties were shared by others in the
HPU of the named member. By the winter of 1995-1996, there
were 70 named stalls. Some sold only their own pottery; others
sold the ware of other HPUs who might not be members. The
variety was representative of the universe of Atzompa pottery,
including all three classes of ware. Atzompa was now on the
regular tourist circuit, and the tourists came in bus loads on
regular schedules to the Mercado (for a discussion of the
dynamics of interaction between members of the Union and
the town mayor and also the important roles played by women
in its operation in late 1990s, see Perez 1997, 2003).

Continuity and Change

In summary, Atzompa potters have long produced their ware
almost entirely for sale to and use by consumers outside the
town, participating in the traditional market system that has

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Fig. 5.3. Stall in the Mercado de Artesamas in 1996.

been an important feature of Oaxaca for millennia. This can be
understood by examining the types of exchange described by
Beals (1976, p. 37) as they relate to Atzompa pottery
production in the late 20th century. There was little intravillage
exchange of pottery in Atzompa. While most household
possessed a large basin for soaking clay and a large olla for
water storage, these vessels last for many years and do not need
frequent replacement. Clay griddles are not as durable, but in
the 1990s more households were using metal ones for cooking
tortillas, although, as noted above, griddles were sometimes
purchased for kiln coverings. Otherwise, except for damaged
pieces, potters rarely kept and used their own pottery or that of
other potters. On occasion, decorative pottery might be
acquired from another potter as favors for guests at such
special events as weddings, for example, vases incised with the
name of the bridal couple. Until the mid-1990s, there were few if
any stores in Atzompa that sold pottery. However, after the
Artesama market was established, both potter proprietors there
and potters with their own stores sometimes purchased the ware
of other potters. While this was a foiTn of mtravillage exchange,
it should be noted that the buyers of the pottery in both the
market and the stores were outsiders, tourists, or traders,
resulting in the pottery passing out of the community.

Intercommunity trade includes village-to-village direct
exchange, goods not passing through a market, and village-
to-village exchange, in which goods passed through one or
more local markets {plaza). The pottery sold at the Tuesday
market in Atzompa falls mostly into the latter category,

although some of the traders also visited particular potter
clients to buy or barter for a few pieces (direct exchange).
While in the past some Atzompa HPUs took their pottery to
other villages (Hendry 1992, p. 89), in the 1990s only one
household in my sample did so: the elderly man who took
griddles by burro to San Lorenzo Cacaotepec.

Stolmaker (1976, p. 197) reported that in the late 1960s, a
higher proportion of potters was selling to traders and to
Oaxaca shops than had been the case in the 1950s; the number
of the Oaxaca stores had inereased, and fewer potters traveled
to other towns themselves than previously. Thus, there was a
decrease in intercommunity village-to-village exchange and an
increase in intermarket exchange. Also, with the increase in the
production of decorative ware for the tourist market, the
amount of external exchange increased as more of this pottery
passed out of the regional marketing system.

Village-to-marketplace and marketplace-to-marketplace
trade has long been the principal way in which Atzompa
pottery was distributed. Atzompa potters transported their
Domestic and Greenware to the Oaxaca market and sold it to
traders for sale there or in the secondary markets at Ocotlan,
Tlacolula, and other secondary or village markets in the Valley
of Oaxaea, the Mixteca, or Sierras Juarez. One can also note
the development of both interregional and international trade
in Greenware and Artesamas, the latter occurring outside the
traditional marketing system.

Market demand is an important faetor in innovation and
change in forms and styles (Foster, 1965, pp. 52, 59; Mossman

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Table 5.3. Market outlets — changes in the 1990s.

Class

Type

Outlet 1990-1991

Mid-1990s changes

Domestic

griddles

house, San Lorenzo Cacao (by burro)

Domestic

casseroles, flowerpots, vases

Abastos market stall, bought from extended family

deceased

Domestic

casseroles, mortars

Abastos market stall and street

Domestic

casseroles.

Abastos market stall, traders

Domestic

large basins

special order to other towns

Domestic

ollas, bowls, basins

trader Ocotlan, Atzompa street market

Domestic

casseroles

unfired to father

unfired to artisan

Domestic

large basins

special orders for fiestas

stalls Atzompa Artesamas

{Artesanias later)
Domestic

ollas

trader Ocotlan

market, house
stall Atzompa Artesanias

{Artesanias later)
Green

miniatures

Abastos market stall

market
closed stall

Green

ashtrays, dishes

Abastos market stall

joined family Abastos

Green

miniatures

Abastos market stall with sons, traders

market stall
smaller Abastos market

Green

miniatures

Abastos market stall with sons, traders

stall

smaller Abastos market

Green

vessels

Abastos market stall, Atzompa street market

stall

Abastos market stall.

Green

vessels

Abastos market stall, Mexico City monthly

closed stall

Green

jugs, mortars

Abastos market stall, traders at house

Green

vessels

Abastos market stall, traders, gallery

retired, ceased production

Green

casseroles

Abastos market stall

stall Atzompa Artesamas

Green

vessels

shared Abastos market stall, traders

market

Green

applique vessels

shared Abastos market stall, traders, barter

Green

applique vessels

shared stall Abastos market, special orders, fairs

stall Atzompa Artesanias

Green

vessels

unfired to sisters

market

deceased

Redware

incised vessels

Abastos market street, traders

Artesanias

dishes, figures

Oaxaca shops, special orders (Japan), Atzompa

Atzompa Artesanias

Artesanias

various large

street market

shop in house and Oaxaca shops

market

Artesanias

miniatures

house shop, Oaxaca shops, special orders, fairs

Oaxaca stall, Atzompa

Artesanias

various

shop in house, special orders

Artesanias market

Artesanias

various

shop in house, special orders

Atzompa Artesamas

Artesanias

various

shop in house, traders

market

Atzompa Artesamas

Artesanias

figures

special orders to traders, shops

market

Artesanias

animal musicians

Oaxaca shops, government outlets, special orders

ArtesaniastY^omQSiK

figures, flowerpots, casseroles

Oaxaca shops, special orders, Atzompa street market

1988, p. 217), and there is no question that tourism has been a
major factor in the marketing of Atzompa pottery. In the late
1980s, foreign tourism in Mexico increased dramatically,
becoming second only to oil (Kaplan, 1993, p. 114), and this
does not include the numbers of Mexican tourists, especially
those from Mexico City who throng to Oaxaca for holidays.
The changes in Atzompa, although coming a decade or more
later, bore similarity to the changes in production and
marketing strategy that occurred in Acatlan, just over the
border of Oaxaca in the State of Puebla. The shifts and
fluctuations in the numbers of tourists passing through that
town with the development of the Pan American Highway had
successive impacts on the styles of pottery being produced
there (Lackey, 1988).

Successive changes in the production and marketing
strategies of Household Production Units occurred in the last
decades of the 20th century. Improved transportation to and
from Oaxaca City facilitated sale to increasingly wider
markets. This had had an impact on the producers of
Greenware who had responded with increased production to
the growing market demand for this ware in the decades prior

to the 1990s. By the mid-1990s, concern and legislation
restricting sale of lead-glazed pottery led to a decreasing
market both for this ware and also for Domestic ware. This
affected the continued growth of the Artesama class, leading to
greater diversity in both production and marketing strategies.
Some makers of Domestic ware sold their unfired vessels to
artisans who added ornamentation to turn them into
Artesanias. Others began to add the production of Artesamas
to their repertoire.

By the 1990s, selling strategies had already become more
complex than in earlier periods, and they shifted in the course
of my study. In 1990-1992, only eight HPUs of my sample
indicated that they used primarily only one outlet, selling
either at the Oaxaca Saturday market or to a trader on
consignment (Table 5.3). All the others had multiple outlets,
either selling both in the market and on special order or to the
increasing numbers of Oaxaca City stores. While only three
or four potters sold Artesamas from their houses in the early
1990s, by the mid-1990s this had more than doubled and
continued to increase as the Mercado de Artesanias brought
more tourists and traders to the town. Some of these shops

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

also carried the ware of other HPUs. Concurrently, an olla-
making HPU that had formerly sold all its ware on special
order to a trader for resale at the markets in Ocotlan and
Tlacalula reported that the trader no longer brought them
orders. At first, they sold their ware unfired to makers of
Artesanias but soon began to ornament the ware themselves
and sell from their own stall in the Mercado de Artesanias.
Thus, there was an increase in intravillage exchange, a type
that had previously been very minor. At the same time, there
was less village-to-village exchange carried on by producer
vendors or traders. Very few HPUs carried their ware to
other towns or village markets, and the amount of Domestic
ware that could be seen in the regional markets in Tlacalula
and Ocotlan decreased each year during the mid- to late
1990s. Whereas in the past the majority of consumers of
peasant products were peasants (Beals, 1975, p. 41), and this
may have been still true even in the early 1990s, by the mid-
1990s, with the increased demand for Artesanias and the
increasing number of outlets, this was shifting for Atzompa
potters.

In summary, by the early 1990s, the production and
marketing strategies of Atzompa HPUs had undergone
significant changes from the 1950s and 1960s and continued
to change as the decade progressed. More potters were
choosing to produce the purely decorative Artesania class,
which used glaze sparingly if at all, and the market for this
ware continued to grow. By the mid-1990s, HPUs were
maximizing their options through utilization of several outlets
concurrently or consecutively, combining and shifting strate¬
gies from year to year, with production often explicitly
oriented toward lucrative markets. Also, production appeared
to be more market driven than Hendry (1992, p. 98) reported
for the 1950s. Although at that time some potters adjusted
their production to seasonal fluctuations and the demands of
the middlemen within the limits of their oficio type and several
women went so far as to change their oficios, taking up ones
they believe would be more profitable, it was not nearly so
common at that time as we have seen it to be in the mid-1990s.
Although the intraregional market for Domestic ware was
decreasing, with the opening of the Mercado de Artesanias and
the increased number of both Atzompa and Oaxaca City
stores selling Artesanias, the number of market outlets for that
ware had increased substantially, giving Atzompa producers a
bigger range of choices for the marketing of their pottery.

CHAPTER 6: FAMILY DYNAMICS

The Household Production Unit (HPU)

As elsewhere in Mesoamerica, in Atzompa the household is
the focus of identity and the primary social and economic unit;
it includes those who live under one roof or in one compound
and have a common kitchen. A strong sense of collective
identity also prevails in Atzompa households; Household
Production Units claim ownership of pottery production, and
although individuals do own property and keep track of
earnings, ownership of production is assigned not to an
individual but to the HPU, similar to what Sol Tax (1953,
pp. 11-12) found in Panajachel, a Maya town, and John
Monaghan (1995, p. 35) noted in the Mixtec town of Nuyoo.
An individual’s receipt of prizes and formal or informal

recognition for innovation and creativity from the outside
world is in conflict with traditional attitudes, which emphasize
the shared production process of the HPU. An olla maker who
won prizes for her ollas said, on occasion of being introduced,
"'We make jars.” Her husband privately expressed annoyance
that when he went to a government outlet to pick up money
owed for jars, they would give it not to him but only to her,
although, as he said, he had mined and prepared the clay,
scraped, glazed, and fired the jars. Also, although the stalls in
the Mercado de Artesanias are assigned to named individuals
rather than to households, HPU members share the tasks of
selling and attending to the various tasks required of members.

Division of Labor — In Atzompa, the successful production of
pottery generally requires the participation of both the men and
women of a Household Production Unit. As materials, materials
procurement, and techniques of production changed, the division
of labor also underwent modifications. However, despite changes
in specific task allocations, most HPUs continue to utilize the
complementary labor of both men and women in their pottery
production strategies.

Under the traditional division of labor, women and girls
formed vessels on a revolving platter, and each woman had
her particular form or vessel type first learned {oficio), such as
ollas, griddles, miniatures, and so on. Men and boys mined,
transported, and prepared the clay and fetched, ground, and
mixed the glaze. Men also did much of the scraping,
polishing, and finishing and were in charge of firing, packing,
and selling (Fig. 6.1). In the late 1950s, regardless of whether
a man had another occupation, it was expected that he would
perform specific pottery production tasks: obtaining and
preparing the clay and glaze and participating in polishing,
glazing, and conducting the firing (Hendry, 1992, pp. 59, 71).
At that time, men also incised the freehand designs of flowers,
birds, and so on, usually with a nail and with no sketches or
patterns to guide them. Women felt unable to do this,
although they did sometimes put stamped decorations on
jugs. One man told Hendry (1992, p. 117) that he had learned
the designs in a school drawing class, and this may have been
the source of many designs. Few women attended school at
that time and did not realize that it was lack of education
rather than an innate deficiency that made this task difficult
for them.

By the late 1960s, the traditionally established division of
labor was not immutable, and some tasks had begun to
change. While it was still expected that men would dig the
clays and beat the gritty clay, women might sift it.
Increasingly, San Lorenzo clay was purchased from resellers,
mostly village potters who mined it to supplement their
incomes. Some potters also bought the gritty clay, and many
were purchasing wood for firing. While men continued to
spend some time polishing and also stamping or incising
designs or names on pot exteriors, the changes in clay
procurement had affected men’s roles. With prepared glaze
available in Oaxaca and in local stores, many households were
freed from this laborious task, and Stolmaker (1996, p. 21)
estimated that the ability to purchase it eliminated about four
hours of arduous labor for each firing. Thus, men’s tasks had,
to some degree, diminished, and a growing number were using
this free time to engage in pot forming.

By the early 1990s, more modifications to this pattern had
occurred, but much still held true. Men and boys as young as
10, rarely women, mined clay and transported it by burro to
the production area. However, as noted in Chapter 3

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Fig. 6.1. A father and son scrape and burnish ollas.

(Table 3.2), most HPUs using San Lorenzo clay no longer
mined it themselves, purchasing it from San Lorenzo
Cacaotepec or from Atzompa men who mined there and
transported it by truck for resale, as was the case with the few
HPUs that still used San Felipe clay. Thus, mining clay had
shifted to a cash occupation for some Atzompa men.
Although women at times and as needed engaged in all the
other tasks related to pottery production, it continued to be
extremely rare for a woman to mine clay or go to the mines,
and my desire to visit the mines was considered strange and
improper. One informant arranged for his daughter to
accompany us. Others were more comfortable when my son
Donald was participating in the mine trips. As we have seen, in
the 1990s all HPUs that used glaze purchased the materials
already ground and usually premixed with water. This and the
purchase of clay freed more men to engage in other activities,
including pot forming.

Domestic Ware — In HPUs making these vessels, much of the
traditional division of labor was maintained. Forming was
almost all done by women and girls on a revolving platter. Men
or older boys usually prepared the clay and did much of the
finishing. Although Stolmaker (1996, p. 21) had observed men
forming casseroles, ollas, and flowerpots, in my sample this
occurred in only one HPU. Perhaps the decrease in the number
of men forming Domestic ware was related to the increasing
number engaged in the forming of Greenware and Artesamas.

Greenware — The Division of labor in these households was
essentially the same as that for Domestic ware. Although a

task assigned primarily to men, some women were also
making miniatures in the 1950s (Hendry, 1992, p. 118), and
Hendry (1992, p. 120) describes the adding of applique by
members of the Aguilar family as an “assembly job, not an act
of creation.” They talked, joked, argued, and ate while they
worked, and sometimes looked at magazines while their
fingers added the applique pellets. In the 1990s, the Aguilar
extended family practiced a particular method and division of
labor, often dividing the forming of a piece into separate tasks,
handled by different individuals of either gender. These HPLIs
(six in my sample) made decorative Greenware in all sizes
using the hand-modeling method described in Chapter 4. One
person formed the vessel, another added applique, figures,
and so on. Each potter — women, men, and sometimes older
children — worked on several pieces at a time before passing
them on to another person to add figures, applique, and so on,
something of an assembly line. By this method, they were able
to produce the pottery rapidly and in large quantities, and this
division of labor enabled the HPUs of this extended family to
utilize the labor of members of both genders and different
ages, abilities, and levels of skill to produce in volume. It also
provided opportunities for the development of members’ skills
and for flexibility in response to market changes.

Kick- Wheel Users — The kick wheel utilized the labor of men
in forming pottery. In the late 1960s, Stolmaker (1976, p. 192)
observed that although the kick wheel utilized the labor of
men, pot forming was generally regarded as women’s work.
Further, she noted that the rapidity with which pottery could

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Fig. 6.2. A child learning to make a casserole.

be produced, as much as a gross of ollas a day, created a
problem of availability of materials; thus, some who had tried
the wheel had given it up. By the 1990s, a solution had been
found. In those HPUs where men were forming the pottery,
women usually did much of the clay preparation (i.e., soaking,
beating, sieving, and mixing). The scraping, application of
handles and decoration was often done by women and girls.
The ability to purchase glaze changed those tasks. While
mining clay continued to be a task for men and boys, of the
eight kick-wheel HPUs in my sample, only three mined and
used laguna clay, and two of these had sons who shared the
task. The other five purchased San Lorenzo clay.

Children — Children are involved in pottery production from
an early age, observing, learning, and participating as they are
able. Toddlers learn not to touch or damage pottery,
sometimes being given a damaged piece as a toy. In HPUs
producing small items, children as young as four may assist in
the endless tasks of moving pieces from place to place as they
are formed and dried and handing them to the person in
charge of loading, glazing, and so on. By age 10, children help
move clay into the sun as it is drying, or away from rain
showers, and they participate in beating the gritty clay and
sieving the soaked clay. The application of glaze was an
activity participated in by all family members old enough to
do so, although after the publicity about the dangers of lead
one mother told me she was not allowing her children to

Table 6.1. Composition of household production units (HPUs).

Family type Totals

Nuclear families

With minor children 12

With teens 4

Without children 3

Total nuclear families 19

Extended families with male head

With grown married sons 5

With grown unmarried daughters 6

With grown married daughters 9

With productive elderly parent 1

Total extended families with male head 21

HPUs without adult male present 4

handle the glaze. In some HPUs, children began to learn
forming techniques around age 10.

Most Atzompa potters learn the pottery skills as children,
observing and participating as they grow (Fig. 6.2). Instruc¬
tion is mainly verbal, similar to that described by Deal (1998,
p. 27) for the Maya community of Chanal. Hendry (1992,
pp. 100-105) noted that girls learned the forming of Domestic
vessels from women but that boys, then more often in school,
were less involved in pottery production. However, my
observation was that boys participated in the male gender
role activities of fetching and preparing clay, scraping and
polishing vessels, collecting fuel for first firing, and, when old
enough, assisting with firing (Figs. 4.13, 4.16). In the 1990s,
more girls attended school, but although school attendance
may have reduced the amount of time school-age children
participated in pottery production activities, in most HPUs
both genders continued to be involved when not at school.
Learning while young in the household context is an effective
way of transmitting the skill and provides additional labor for
the HPU (Arnold, 2008, pp. 42, 79).

Women — Changes in clay and glaze procurement also made
it more possible for women to function independently. While
men traditionally mined clay, prepared glaze, built and
maintained kilns, and were in charge of firing, by the 1990s,
in HPUs where male participation or support was not
available, women could and did purchase both clay and
prepared glaze and were thus able to handle these aspects of
pottery production. Nevertheless, firing remained problemat¬
ic. Some women in households without adult male participa¬
tion sold their ware unfired to other HPUs; others fired
themselves or sought assistance and mutual collaboration
from nonresident male kin. Their choices were related to the
size and volume of their pottery and their skills, physical
strength, and ability to maintain good relations with kin. In
addition to the four woman-headed households in my sample
(Table 6.1), there were two households where men were
present but did not participate in firing. One sold its ware
unfired to siblings. In the other, the woman fired herself with
uneven results. There were no HPUs in my sample that did not
include women as participants.

Selected Household Production Units

Selected Household Production Units in my sample are
described below. They exemplify the varied composition of
potter households and the range of production choices made
by Atzompa potters. (Table 6.2).

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Table 6.2. Methods of production used by HPUs in 1992.

Using

Number

Revolving platter

Hand modeling

Kick wheel

Molds

More than one method

Hand and revolving platter

Hand and mold

Kick wheel and revolving platter

Hand, revolving platter, mold

Kick wheel, hand, mold

Kick wheel, revolving platter, hand

Greenware Producers — Jacinto Olivera y Juarez and
Juana Olivera Garcia introduced me to pottery production
in Atzompa and shared their home with me. Jacinto, then in
his late 60s, and his brother Manuel introduced the kick wheel
to the town in the 1950s (Fig. 4.6). Juana, in her late 30s,
married Jacinto when she was 14, and he was a widower with
three daughters. In 1989, this JJPU included son Felimon, age
14; daughter Gudelia, age 10; and an infant son who died of
convulsions in 1991. Felimon was also subject to convulsions
and was seriously ill several times during my study. An older
boy had died previously of this condition, perhaps related to
lead toxicity.

This HPU produced Greenware in large volume — coffee
mugs (fmnh 339181, 339182), candlesticks (fmnh 339156),
vases (fmnh 339157), jugs (fmnh 339146; mst 49), small ollas
with handles (fmnh 339154), and mortars in the shape of pigs
(fmnh 339176) — formed on the kick wheel using laguna and
black gritty clay and firing weekly. They sold this pottery on
the street at the Abastos market. Except for some half-glazed
jugs and ollas, all the ware was fully glazed, often with incised
or stamped designs on the surface, sometimes with the words
“Oaxaca” or “Recuerdo de Oaxaca (Souvenir of Oaxaca).

Jacinto mined laguna and black gritty clays himself, making
a trip to the laguna mine each week and to the gritty clay mine
less frequently. He would leave around 6:00 a.m. and transport
the clay by burro. A few times Felimon went in his place, but
the clay he dug was not always up to his father’s standards
(one sample of black gritty clay proved anomalous on INAA
analysis, and on consulting my field notes I saw that the
sample was brought from the mine by Felimon and rejected by
Jacinto as unsuitable). The soaking and sieving of laguna clay
was done by Juana and her daughter. Juana and Felimon beat
the gritty clay (Fig. 3.6), and Juana or Gudelia sieved the
powder (Fig. 3.7). Juana and Gudelia, when older, kneaded
the powder into the soaked clay and wrapped the clay body in
plastic to keep it moist until it was used. Jacinto did most of
the forming on the kick wheel. However, he was interested in
teaching the skill to other family members. His son, his wife,
and a granddaughter who lived with the family in 1992-1993
all learned to make small vessels, mortars in the shape of pigs
(fmnh 339183), and small casseroles. These were thicker
walled than those that Jacinto made, and none of the others
produced very many.

When the vessels were partially dry, Juana applied handles
on those requiring them. The two adults added decoration to
the pieces when they had become leather hard. Although
Jacinto sometimes purchased glaze from the cooperative, most
weeks he made a trip to the city to purchase it from the

Oaxaca vendor. At times, he added extra copper oxide that he
purchased dry from the cooperative or the Oaxaca store,
saying that it made the green color stronger.

They fired weekly on Thursdays and Friday — one or two
bisque firings and two or more glaze firings. Since the HPU
did not own farmland, getting fuel for the bisque firing
required taking the burro to common lands, sometimes a trip
of several hours. At times, wood for the glaze firing was
purchased by the truckload; at other times, it was bought by
the kilo from neighbors. Often extended family members
brought a few pieces of pottery, usually on shares, to add to
the kiln load, and these people also assisted in unloading the
glaze firing. The identities of the participants varied from year
to year, depending on how congenial the relationships were at
a particular time.

After the pottery cooled, it was counted and packed into
baskets for pickup by a truck that arrived around 4:00 a.m.
Saturday morning to take it to the Abastos market. Around
6:00 A.M., the adults and young children took the bus to
Oaxaca, arriving early to get a good location on the street.
Many sales were wholesale to traders, some local and others
from elsewhere in the Valley of Oaxaca or the mountains of
the Mixteca. The nonlocal traders brought trucks or vans to
the parking area near the street stalls. They generally
purchased pottery in lots of a dozen or gross (12 dozen).
Sales of several dozen coffee mugs, at times a gross or more,
were common. Some sales were in fulfillment of advance
orders, and others sold on the spot. Sales were also made to
the stalls inside the Abastos market or in the section of small
stalls (Galeria). Retail sales of a few pieces sometimes occurred
but were a minor part of the trade. This HPU tried to sell all
its weekly production. However, if no acceptable offers were
received by mid afternoon, they would leave unsold pottery in
the stall managed by Juana’s youngest brother, and someone
would come back midweek to make additional sales. At times,
this brother would buy some of their pottery for resale.

Some examples of weekly production in 1991:

May 4

2 gross coffee mugs

22 dozen pig-shaped mortars

2 dozen casserole bowls (made by Juana)

9 dozen small jug5

6 dozen (2 gross) medium jugs

6 medium ollas (by Jacinto’s adult daughter, Maria)

May 11

32 dozen candlesticks
12 gross coffee mugs

2 large and 6 small casseroles from daughter Maria

Juana’s parents lived nearby with their unmarried youngest
son and daughter. Both her mother and youngest sister,
Gloria, sometimes added pottery to the kiln load and helped
unload the glaze firing. Her mother, Merced, made half-glazed
casserole bowls (fmnh 339166) on a revolving platter. Her
father, whose oficio had been miniatures, was too frail to
participate in pottery production. In 1991, a grandson lived at
this HPU and mined clay for them, but after he left in 1992,
there was no longer a household member to dig clay for
Merced’s casseroles, and she ceased to make them. Instead,
she managed the stall in the Abastos market, referred to above,
operated in 1990 and 1991 by her youngest son. Gloria also
made casseroles and flowerpots (fmnh 339216, 339217), but
after her nephew left, she switched to small Greenware vases

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

using the hand-molding method (mst 56) (Fig. 4.3). This ware,
which was her oficio, required less clay, and she was able to
buy the amount she needed.

Another of Juana’s brothers lived next door. In 1989 and

1992, his wife brought her half-glazed ollas and casserole
bowls to be fired on shares at her sister-in-law’s HPU. In 1992
and 1993, they used his parents’ kiln. After the deaths of his
father and mother in 1993 and 1995, respectively, he built his
own kiln. By 1995, he had acquired a kick wheel and had given
up farming to spend more time in pottery production.

In 1991, Felipa, one of Jacinto’s grown daughters, lived in
his household while separated from her husband. She made
jugs on a revolving platter. While living at her father’s HPU,
she used clay provided by him and participated in the pottery
production tasks of the household, glazing and firing her jugs
on shares. His other two grown daughters lived nearby with
their families. Both visited frequently and often helped with
the unloading of the glaze firings. Reina worked as a
seamstress but learned to use the kick wheel. Maria made
casseroles and ollas on a revolving platter. Her HPU did not
have its own kiln, and she brought her unfired pottery nearly
every week to fire on shares in her father’s kiln. In the early
years of my study, her husband had alcohol problems and was
reported to do little except sell water carried from the well.
Later, he acquired a burro and mined clay, selling it to other
HPUs as well as providing clay for his HPUs production. In

1993, Maria began to make green glazed salsa bowls
ornamented with birds. She reported that she had seen them
in the market, got one to copy, and taught herself The first
were heavy and rough, but the quality gradually improved.

In 1995, Jacinto sold his house in Atzompa and moved to a
plot in the Colonia Gueleguetza, a residential section in the
Atzompa common lands along the road to Oaxaca City. His
kick wheel went to his daughter Maria, who learned to use it
and began making coffee mugs. In January 1996, she refused
an order for casseroles, saying that she did not have time. By
then, her husband had built a kiln, and their older daughter
was making salsa bowls with birds, forming the bowls on the
wheel, the birds by hand. Reina, who lived next door, also
used the wheel, and for a while Jacinto came weekly to make
candlesticks and jugs from clay mined by his son-in-law. His
granddaughter decorated some with applique, leaving them
unglazed (fmnh 339147).

The changes in production in these HPUs relate mostly to
changes in the composition of the HPUs as members aged and
died or matured into fully productive adulthood. However,
the difficulties and concerns about the market for lead-glazed
Greenware were factors in Jacinto’s decision to retire, and the
increased atmosphere of openness to trying new oficios
encouraged his daughter to learn to make salsa bowls
ornamented with birds and to learn to use the kick wheel.
Such changes in both family composition and in the market
for pottery also affected the choices made by HPUs described
below.

Ofelia Aguilar Sargosa was four years old and the youngest
child in the Aguilar family when Jean Hendry lived with that
family during her fieldwork in the 1950s; she is Hendry’s
goddaughter. Ofelia never married and lived with and cared for
her mother until the latter’s death in December 1991. Although
she was the only member, it was a fully functioning HPU,
producing Greenware and later some Artesamas. She cooper¬
ated closely, however, with the HPU of her nephew, Casildo,
next door. Ofelia used San Lorenzo and white gritty clay that

she purchased and prepared herself, forming censers, fruit
bowls, and round and oval salsa dishes (mst 106) on a revolving
platter, ornamenting them with applique. In 1989, she began
learning to use a kick wheel, gradually becoming more
proficient in this method. Her kick-wheel production included
coffee mugs and small vases ornamented with applique (fmnh
339158; mst 54, 55). She experimented with combining the
techniques, forming the base of a fruit dish on the wheel and the
top on the revolving platter. Ofelia Aguilar was the only woman
member of the glaze cooperative. She purchased the raw
materials for her glaze there, mixing it in the family glaze mill.
Her kiln was built by her brother, but when an arch fell, she
repaired it herself, commenting that she used it and thus should
fix it. Although she had her own kiln, firing was usually done in
conjunction with her nephew’s HPU, either in her kiln or in
theirs (Fig. 4.17). Scheduling, although reported to be every
two weeks, was less regular. Weather, illness, production
factors, and the need to fire special orders caused delays and
led to flexibility in scheduling.

Sometimes her sister Francesca added her pottery to the kiln
load. Except for providing truckloads of clay every two or
three months, Francesca’s husband did not participate in
pottery production, and the HPU did not have a kiln. She used
a revolving platter, laguna, and white gritty clays to make
Greenware vases, pitchers, salsa bowls and spoons, fruit
baskets, and compotes ornamented with applique. From the
time of her marriage in the 1960s, she had fired on shares with
Ofelia or at the HPU of her elder sister, Lupe.

Ofelia’s four grand nephews and nieces and the children of a
brother who lived nearby spent much of the time they were not
at school at her house and patio, playing ball, watching her
work, and doing small tasks. They ran errands, fetched tools,
and moved pottery around as it was being produced, dried,
glazed, or loaded into the kiln. The eldest grandniece had
begun to learn kick-wheel production.

After the death of her mother in December 1991, Ofelia’s
nephew, Casildo, and his wife, Alejandra, sometimes joined her
in forming pottery, working side by side with her in her house as
they formed their Greenware by the hand modeling method.
Their pottery was small in size; salsa bowls, napkin holders
(fmnh 339213), and ashtrays, the latter sometimes ornamented
with beautifully made animal figures. Alejandra made the bases
or bowls, usually by hand, but occasionally on a revolving
platter. Casildo hand modeled the animals and attached them
(Fig. 7.1), and she formed and attached the rests for cigarettes.
At times, the older children attached the rests.

Much of Ofelia’s production was for special orders.
Sometimes she delivered the orders directly to buyers in Oaxaca
City; at other times buyers came to her house. She also sold at
regional fairs once or twice a year. Prior to her mother’s final
illness, she had operated a shop in her house and purchased the
pottery of other HPUs to stock it. She did not find it necessary
to sell all her ware when prices were low and would reserve some
for times when production was more difficult and she could get
a better price. The Aguilar extended family owned a large stall
in the Abastos market and could store baskets of unsold pottery
securely inside the fenced area. Ofelia shared half with her
nephew’s HPU. In 1995, the HPU of a brother gave up its
separate stall in another part of the market to share the space
with the HPUs of Ofelia and her nephew.

The other half of this large stall was occupied by the HPU
of the eldest Aguilar sister, Guadelupe, and her husband,
Juan, the parents of Casildo. That HPU produced a large

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

volume of applique-ornamented Greenware. This extended
family HPU included the senior couple in their 70s, two
daughters, two sons, and their wives and children. The
daughters and daughters-in-law formed salsa bowls in several
styles, sugar bowls, mugs, and vases, using the hand-modeling
method and working in the assembly line manner described
above. They worked rapidly, often reading or watching TV as
they formed the balls and disks, and appliqued them to the
vessels. The eldest son, his wife, and children lived at the other
side of the yard and also made Greenware. He was one of the
few potters in my sample who dug San Lorenzo clay himself.
He built and maintained the two kilns located in the yard
between his house and the parental one, and his HPU fired
jointly with that of his parents. Although no longer forming
pottery, the senior couple continued to play roles in pottery
production. Juan went several times a week to the stall in the
Ahastos market and at times to other regional markets. Lupe
was often engaged in preparation of both San Lorenzo and
white gritty clay that they bought because “we do not have a
burro.” She also sold or bartered pottery with itinerant
vendors who came regularly to purchase from the supply kept
in a corner of the veranda. The buyers were most likely to
come to the house on Tuesdays and Fridays, the days of the
Atzompa street market.

Firing was done weekly on Thursday and Friday and every
other week during the rainy season. The volume required
several kiln loads, and sometimes both kilns were used
simultaneously (Fig. 4.14). Bisque firing was done in the
larger kiln, the smaller one used for the glaze firing. Twenty
kilograms of glaze were used per firing, purchased from the
cooperative. In addition to the pottery of sister Francesca,
who was sometimes asked to make specific items, the pottery
of other HPUs was also fired on shares. Usually these were
pieces that were larger than the Greenware they produced, and
the pieces were placed on top of the smaller ones to achieve a
better firing result.

The focus of this HPU was on large volume and rapid
production. One firing in 1991 included the following;

3 dozen salsa bowls

2 dozen vases

3 to 4 dozen appliqued jugs

3 to 4 dozen salt dishes

3 to 4 dozen divided salsa bowls

3 to 4 dozen 8-inch vases

4 dozen 5-inch vases

From sister Francesca:

3 dozen salsa bowls and mortars

2 large vases

2 fruit bowls

2 bowls in shape of a pig

From a neighbor who came because her sister was not
firing:

3 dozen mortars

1 dozen ollas

2 dozen bowls

Of these 6 dozen vessels, the Aguilar HPU acquired 4 dozen
on shares.

Attitudes toward change and willingness to experiment and
innovate varied among the HPUs of Aguilar extended family.

In 1991, Ofelia did not look favorably on the Union de los
Artesanos, whose founder was Mario Enriques Lopez. One of
the Aguilar sisters had married into the Enriques Lopez
family, which then began to use the applique technique and
some of the vessel types made by the Aguilar family. The
Aguilars resented the Enriques Lopez family for copying what
they felt were their oficios. However, after the reopening of the
Mercado de Artesanias in 1993, with its broadened base of
membership, Ofelia and her nephew, Casildo, acquired a stall
and began to produce Artesanias that were unglazed or
ornamented with slip or glazes in colors other than green.
Casildo began to make his small animals free standing and
unglazed or differentially colored. In contrast, the HPU of
sister Lupe continued to make only Greenware, asserting that
“the people at the Mercado de Artesanias are wrong. That is
not Atzompa pottery. Atzompa pottery is green.”

As with HPUs that produced more than one class of ware,
some practiced more than one method of production. The
different members of one successful extended family HPU,
the Velasco family, used three different forming methods —
kick wheel, revolving platter, and hand modeling — in the
production of Greenware miniatures. Rene Velasco, the man
who motorized his kick wheel, and his son Roger used kick
wheels to make Greenware miniatures. Roger’s wife made
salsa dishes on a revolving platter, and one of Rene’s
daughters hand modeled salt dishes. Antonia, Rene’s wife,
made the HPU’s saggers on a revolving platter. She also
prepared clay and added handles to the miniatures that her
husband formed on the wheel. Roger prepared his own clay,
and his wife did the finishing. Each man was in charge of
firing the pottery he produced in the kiln they shared. This
HPU shared a stall in the Abastos market with Rene’s elder
son, Roberto, who produced the same type of ware on a kick
wheel and lived in another part of the town. His wife,
Enadina Vasques Cruz, is the sister of Angelica Vasques
Cruz, described below.

Domestic Ware Producers — The HPUs just described
were making mainly Greenware. Below are several examples
of HPUs that produced primarily Domestic ware.

Francisco (Chico) Perez and Natividad Ruiz, a couple in
their 40s, led an HPU that produced a large volume of half-
glazed casseroles in several sizes. Their household included an
adult daughter, four younger daughters ranging in 1991 from
ages 6 to 16, and two teenage sons. Chico’s mother, in her 80s,
lived with the family and made ollas until her death in 1994
(Fig. 4.1). In 1991, the HPU began to make salsa bowls
ornamented with birds, a new oficio. By 1995, they were
making fewer half-glazed casseroles, claiming that the market
was down, and were fully glazing the ones they made while
producing a greater quantity of the bird-ornamented salsa
bowls. The latter were made and sold on special order.
Natividad reported that she could make two or three dozen
casseroles in the time it took her to make a dozen salsa bowls
since that was a new oficio for her.

With the exception of one son who worked in a store, all the
members made pottery, even the smallest. Natividad and her
grown daughter made large casseroles (fmnh 339190). One
teenage daughter made medium ones (fmnh 339191) and
shared selling tasks with her father at a street stall in the
Abastos market. She also went with her sisters to sell
casseroles in the Tuesday and Friday Atzompa street market
and at times to regional markets. The youngest, who was
learning to make small casserole bowls, preferred pottery to

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

going to school and often stayed home (Fig. 6.2). In contrast,
her next older sister did not like making pottery, enjoyed
school, and was progressing well there. However, she
sometimes modeled bird-ornamented salt dishes (fmnh
339184) and when older assisted with selling. In 1991-1992,
the eldest son was working in Oaxaca, making small animals
from the clay of San Bartolo Coyotepec, but by 1993, he had
returned to Atzompa and was making salsa bowls.

Formerly, this HPU had used San Felipe clay but by the
1990s was using laguna. Colored earth, in amounts equal to
white gritty clay, was added to give color to the half-glazed
casseroles. Chico dug both laguna and colored earth but
purchased white gritty clay annually by the truckload. With
three burros, he could bring back three loads of laguna clay
at a time, thus reducing the number of trips needed to
provide clay for the large volume production. He prepared
all of the clay, although at times other family members
shared the task. He also scraped and polished the pottery,
and his daughters incised any decorations. They fired weekly
in two kilns. Glaze, 20 kg per week, was purchased from the
cooperative.

Example of a week’s production in 1991;

24 dozen casseroles (2 gross)

12 dozen bird salsa bowls (1 gross)

30 ollas made by the grandmother

There were distinct changes in the production strategies of
this HPU, as not only clay sources but also market demands
shifted. Prior to the 1990s, not only were these potters adding
colored earth to laguna clay to replicate the fired color of San
Felipe clay, but during my study period they shifted from
producing mainly half-glazed casserole bowls to including
bird-ornamented salsa dishes in their repertoire. Although
very traditional in many ways, this HPU showed flexibility
and willingness to try a new oficio and to take advantage of
abilities and inclinations of younger members to do so.

Large basins (apaxtles grandes) were made by two HPUs in
my sample. The members of one, a childless couple in their
50s, Pedro Olivera and Tomasa Olorio, used San Felipe and
white gritty clays, both purchased by the truckload. In 1993,
Pedro became seriously ill, and after his death, Tomasa’s niece
and her husband and children came to live with her and
participate in the production of the large basins.

The other HPU making large basins was that of Felipe
Torres and Adelina Vasquez, their three sons and daughter (all
in their teens), a sister-in-law, and Adelina’s mother. Adelina
made basins in several sizes from San Lorenzo clay and the
special gritty clay used for these vessels (Lig. 4.2) (mst 33). Her
sister-in-law made flowerpots using laguna clay. Adelina’s
mother was no longer able to work. Felipe went to clay mines
several days a week with three burros but sometimes also
bought San Lorenzo clay. They bought gritty clay by the
truckload in the dry season. With his sons, Lelipe prepared the
sizable amounts of clay required for these large vessels. This
HPU also bought pottery from other HPUs and sold it from a
shop in a vacant house next door that it owned. It also bought
glaze from the Oaxaca shop for resale. Most of the large
basins were made for special orders. Adelina’s skill in forming
and Lelipe’s in firing (Fig. 4.17) resulted in little breakage and
a reputation for high quality.

Active in the development of the Casa de los Artesanos, they
continued to be very involved in the Mercado de Artesanlas,
contributing time, cash, and leadership to that project, where

they had two stalls. During the later years of my study, this
HPU was shifting from making mainly half-glazed large
basins and glazed or red-slipped flower pots to the production
of Artesanlas (Fig. 2.2). These, usually griddles, basins, and
tall jars (mst 101), were ornamented with appliqued and
incised figures and designs painted with colored glazes and
white slip (Fig. 2.2) (fmnh 339200; mst 128, 136, 137). In 1995,
the sons were participating in the ornamentation.

Gudelia Perez Olivera and Abel Ruiz Juarez made prize¬
winning ollas (Fig. 4.1) (mst 118), and their kiln construction
was described in Chapter 4 (Figs. 4.12, 4.13). This nuclear
family HPU consisted of the parents and two teenage sons.
The elder son, Francisco, was employed by the forestry
department in 1991 and earned enough to buy a truck by 1995
while still in his early 20s. Abelito progressed well in school
and entered the university to study architecture in 1996. This
HPU followed the traditional division of labor. Abel dug and
prepared laguna and white gritty clay (Figs. 3.2, 3.3) and was
in charge of firing. He and his sons scraped and polished the
ollas (Fig. 6.1). They were sold to a trader who contracted for
them and came to the house on a regular schedule to collect
the ollas for sale at the regional market in Ocotlan (Fig. 5.2).
All stages of this HPU’s production were conducted with
meticulous care, resulting in a high-quality product. Firing,
although reported as biweekly, was frequently rescheduled
because of weather, fiestas and other work, which was often
farmwork. In addition, at times during my study, Abel was
employed as a laborer outside the town and was unable to dig
and prepare clay, and at these times pottery production was
curtailed.

This HPU was one of the few from the upper section of the
town that was active in the Union de los Artesanos and
involved from the start in the Casa de los Artesanos. Although
Delia experimented with applique on an olla as early as 1989,
her buyer was not interested in purchasing it, and she did not
continue this technique. However, as the 1990s progressed, the
difficulties and concerns about sales of lead-glazed cookware
impacted this HPU strongly. Although initially denying the
problem, by 1994 they were no longer selling to the Ocotlan
trader. That year, Delia was selling unfired ollas to an HPU
that purchased vessels to ornament as Artesanlas. In 1995, the
HPU was making Artesanlas, small ornamented ollas (mst
129), and appliqued crosses and had built a new, smaller kiln
to fire this ware. Delia was also buying the pottery of other
HPUs for her stall in the Mercado de Artesanlas.

Women-Headed Households — Women-headed households
without adult male participation in pottery production had
several strategies for making pottery.

Dominga Olivera, the widowed eldest sister of Jacinto,
headed an HPU that produced Greenware, fully glazed
traditional forms, mortars, casseroles, censors, and appliqued
jugs. Members included Dominga’s daughter-in-law and her
five children. Dominga’s son had worked on a kick wheel but
had returned sick from working in California in the 1980s and
died several years later. These women used laguna and white
gritty clay that they bought monthly by the truckload.
Dominga’s daughter-in-law and two teenaged girls all formed
the pottery on revolving platters. With Dominga, they added
feet and handles and scraped and polished the pottery. They
preferred glaze from the cooperative but sometimes bought it
in Oaxaca and fired weekly, using wood for both firings since
there was no man to get other fuel for the bisque firing. This
HPU made and sold its ware on special order and in the

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Atzompa and Oaxaca street markets. Volume was substantial;
a gross of mortars could be produced in a week.

Angelica Vasques Cruz is a very creative and successful
maker of Artesanias, small, delicate appliqued figures, the
natural buff color ornamented with red slip. At the time of my
fieldwork, she had already won prizes and gotten high prices
for her pieces, some of which are in museum collections
(Wasserspring, 2000, pp. 66-76). She purchased two burro
loads of San Lorenzo clay and three of white gritty clay every
two and a half months. The strategy of using natural clay
color ornamented with red slip made only one firing necessary.
The small size of the pieces and the high return per piece made
this a successful strategy; she made her pottery only for special
orders. During my study period, Angelica was in her early 30s,
with four school-age children; her husband had gone to the
United States some years before and never returned. She came
from a talented family (Rothstein & Rothstein, 2002, pp. 21-
26). Her father and mother, in their 70s, continued to produce
Artesanias of high quality (mst 105) as well as flowerpots with
animal figures (mst 134). In the late 1990s, her sister, Enadina
Vasquez Cruz, achieved equal renown as a maker of
Artesanias (Fig. 6.3 ) (mst 104).

Mentioned above was a household in which a man was
present but chose not to participate in pottery production;
members were Manuel Lopez and Sara Garcia Marques, a
couple in their 50s with three grown unmarried daughters, the
youngest in her late teens in 1991. This HPU made all three
classes of ware and was already producing Artesanias in 1990.
They bought clay, both San Lorenzo and laguna, and white
and black gritty clay. Sara’s oficio was casseroles, and she
continued to form these on a revolving platter, along with
bowls and tall jars. The elder daughter, Luci, made salsa bowls
and ashtrays on a revolving platter, ornamenting them with
birds and applique. These were fired as fully glazed Greenware
and produced on special order for markets as far away as
Japan. The youngest daughter, Estella, also participated in
this area of production. Justina, the middle daughter, talented
and creative, benefited the HPU by making figures in various
sizes up to a meter in height (fmnh 339122; mst 30). She
ornamented the vessels made by her mother with flowers,
fruits, and animals (fmnh 339208, 339209; mst 117).

Other members of the HPU allowed her the time to work
slowly and carefully and she often spent many hours in the
production of a single piece that subsequently brought a good
price. Although trained in bookkeeping, she claimed she
earned more making pottery (Fig. 4.6).

Sara usually fired the pottery herself. However, both firing
and kiln maintenance was a problem, particularly for the large
figures and vessels. Although there were two kilns, in the early
1990s only one was usable, and this kiln (106 cm in diameter)
was not large enough to fire big figures and vessels well.
Breakage occurred, and incomplete firing resulted in brittle
pottery. In the early 1990s, the HPU sold its ware to specialty
stores in Oaxaca and on special order. During the first two
years of my study, they also had an inside stall at the Abastos
market but gave it up, believing that it was not cost effective
relative to the other outlets. Sara was an early member of the
Union de los Artesanos and the Mercado de Artesanias, her
brother-in-law, Mario Enriques Lopez, being the founder of
the Union.

These potter households represent the range of HPU
composition, choices of materials, forming methods, and

Fig. 6.3. Artesanias figure made by Enadina Vasques Cruz.

marketing strategies. They show the diversity of ways in which
HPUs select from the palette of options available.

Continuity and Change

In the previous chapters, we examined change in the town
and in pottery forms, materials, methods of production, and
marketing strategies. In this chapter, we have looked at the
changes that occurred in pottery production at the household
level. Changes in the manner of procuring both clay and glaze
substantially affected gender roles and the division of labor.
The option of purchasing these materials freed men from those
arduous tasks and enabled more men to engage in forming
pottery, primarily Greenware and Artesanias. Although the
kick wheel had been introduced in the 1940s, the capacity for
rapid production resulting from its use had created a problem
of materials supply that discouraged its spread since men were
both the users of the wheel and the suppliers of the clay. By the
1990s, along with the option of purchasing clay and glaze, a
shift in gender roles had occurred that made it possible for use
of the kick wheel to expand. In those households in which men
produced Greenware on kick wheels, women had taken over
the tasks of clay preparation and much of the finishing,
scraping, adding handles, and decoration, although men were
still responsible for firing the pottery, thus making it possible
for these households to produce vessels rapidly (see Table 4.1)
and in large volume.

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Along with the changes in women’s roles in kick wheel¬
using households, there were other changes affecting women.
Girls were receiving more education than in the earlier
periods, although they continued to participate in pottery
production when not in school, as did boys. Another effect of
the option to purchase clay and glaze was that women were
able to be productive in households without a man present or
involved. Although able to purchase clay and glaze, firing
remained an issue in those households, and the strategies that
women developed to address it included selling their ware
unfired, producing small and/or unglazed ware and firing in
small kilns, and cooperating with extended family members
for assistance in firing.

CHAPTER 7: INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY

Innovation

Innovation or acts of cultural creativity can be viewed on
both an individual and a group level. There are three stages —
invention, acceptance, and adoption — and they can occur
from sources internal or external to the community. In Santa
Maria Atzompa, innovation and change came from both
directions, and it occurred in materials, technology, forms,
styles, and marketing techniques, that is, in both technical and
social contexts. Some innovations were driven by the
availability of new materials and/or opportunities, others by
the difficulties in obtaining former materials, still others by
market forces. Some were tried but neither accepted nor
adopted by the community, while others were accepted and
practiced by one or several HPUs, their widespread adoption
or rejection by the community not yet proven. Some
externally developed innovations also had effects on pottery
production.

Lemonnier (1992, pp. 84-95, 1993, p. 13) points out that the
current structure of a technical system can produce an
innovation but that, in order for it to be inserted into the
system, it must meet certain requirements; it must be
consistent with the current technology, that is, be understand¬
able and suitable and also at the same technological level. In
addition, there must be a need for improvement or change;
thus, the innovation must be both needed and manageable.
Innovations introduced or borrowed from outside have to find
their place in the system in order to be accepted, and this
model can apply as well to forms and styles. Some innovations
in Atzompa pottery production met the requirements and
were adopted; others, such as gas or kerosene fired kilns, did
not. There can also be a time factor; a previously unknown
innovation does not generally fit into the system immediately;
it has to be “locally deciphered” (Lemonnier, 1993, p. 15).
Such was the case with Artesamas. It took some years for the
category to be recognized; neither Hendry nor Stolmaker used
the term, but by the early 1990s, my informants, speaking of
another potter, would tell me that she or he “makes
Artesamas." The Artesamas class was, by then, considered a
recognized category; it had found its place in the system and,
as we have seen, had increased in numbers of producers and
volume of pottery.

Innovation in Materials and Techniques — There were a
number of innovations in materials and techniques tried by

Atzompa potters during the latter part of the 20th century,
both externally and internally derived.

Externally Derived — An important element, as we have
seen, was the change in materials procurement. The availabil¬
ity of commercially prepared green glaze in the late 1960s and
the purchase of clay through middlemen, while largely the
result of utilization of intermediaries rather than technical
innovations per se, saved approximately four hours’ time in
grinding and mixing and thus freed male labor for other
activities (Stolmaker, 1996, p. 21). Another shift in materials
procurement was caused by the need to find an alternative
source of fuel for kilns when local firewood became
unavailable. This led in the 1990s to the purchase of trimmings
from a sawmill in Etla, and these 2.5-m lengths provided a new
building material for sheds and fences. Other fuel innovations
by two HPUs in the creative and innovative Aguilar extended
family included the use of rubber tires for first firing and of
gasoline for starting fires. However, neither of the last two
innovations was generally adopted, perhaps because they did
not meet a specific need or seem suitable, but both took
advantage of externally developed technical inventions.

The presence of concrete floors in some houses changed the
methods of those potters who used revolving platters set on
upturned ollas. Instead of burying an olla in the ground, a
potter set the rim directly on the flat floor, an adaptive change
to a modification in house structure. As noted in Chapter 4,
Hendry (1992, p. 84) reported the use of a disk rotating on a
fixed axis used by a male pot former to make flowerpots, and
Stolmaker (1996, p. 25) noted it being used in the late 1960s by
this man’s son and two unrelated women. Most likely, this
innovation was the ball-bearing disk {tornillo) that I observed
in the 1990s. It appeared to have spread slowly since it met
some needs and was sufficiently understandable and consistent
with the revolving platter technology. Four of the 27 potters in
my sample who formed their pottery on revolving disks were
using ball-bearing disks in 1991, and a fifth acquired one in
1995. All reported that they had purchased the device in
Oaxaca City, and all users were women making traditional
vessel forms, ollas, casserole dishes, and one maker of large
basins. Arnold (2008, pp. 256-262) described this innovation
in Ticul, apparently an internal innovation adopted by some
potters in large production units in the 1970s.

The low cost and widespread availability of plastic, a by¬
product of the Mexican petroleum industry, led potters to
incorporate it into their production methods. As mentioned, in
the 1990s. plastic sheeting was used to cover prepared clay or
clay bodies to keep them moist prior to use and also to cover
pottery as it was drying, thus permitting greater control over the
drying process. Plastic screening, often recycled from mesh
shopping bags, was attached to wooden frames to make the
sieves for sifting the gritty clay into powder (Fig. 3.9); plastic
pails held clay and glaze, the latter purchased in plastic bags that
were kept closed to prevent evaporation before and after use.

As discussed, the Olivera brothers began to use the kick wheel
in the late 1940s. They initially acquired the wheels from outside
the town and continued to work in this method. It diffused
principally through the Olivera extended family, but Stolmaker
(1996, pp. 25, 29) reported that only nine men in the village
using kick wheels in 1969. Spread was slow until a way was
found to handle the problem of material supplies. However, as
described above, the option to purchase materials and modify
gender roles made kick-wheel production feasible. In 1991, 21
HPUs were reported to be producing ware made on kick

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

wheels; some had several members working on a wheel, and two
in my sample had more than one wheel. While most were
related to the Olivera family, a few others adopted its use. Two
were women, and by the mid-1990s, more women and girls were
learning the technique. Two of Jacinto Olivera’s daughters
learned to use his wheel in the early 1990s, and on his retirement
in 1995, one acquired her father’s wheel. In 1992, there was a
new innovation; a kick-wheel user purchased a motor to
electrify his wheel, the first person in the town to do so.

The techniques of other pottery-producing towns can also
be a source of innovation. Some Atzompa potters were
influenced by the reduction fired blackware of San Bartolo
Coyotepec. Stolmaker (1996, p. 31) reported that Felipe
Aguilar used reduction firing to make similar ware but made
it only for export. He did not sell locally, as he did not wish to
offend the potters of that town, which is very possessive about
its techniques (see Appendix VI). In the 1990s, several
Atzompa potters experimented with reduction firing, and
one HPU built a kiln modeled after the underground kilns of
Coyotepec. A kick-wheel user reported attending a workshop
in the early 1990s where he learned the technique of reduction
firing, and he gave me a small water jar {cantaro) (fmnh
339178). However, he did not add this technique to his
production repertoire. Another HPU fired tiny animal figures
playing musical instruments in a small stone fireplace. She
smothered the fire, resulting in black figures approximately
3 cm high. Still another potter requested that I purchase a
particular Coyotepec figure type for her to use as a model; she
subsequently acquired it elsewhere and produced the form but
fired it in the oxidizing Atzompa manner. Despite these
examples, reduction firing was not generally adopted by
Atzompa potters; it did not become part of the Atzompa
repertoire.

With the development of the Artesanki class, innovative use
of surface-enhancing materials took on increasing importance.
While a few potters had occasionally used glazes in colors
other than the traditional green in the past, there had been
resistance to the use of such colors. They were more costly
than the lead/copper green glaze, and villagers considered
green to be their “trademark,” saying that Atzompa pottery is
known for its green color. In the mid-1990s, this was changing,
as glazes other than green and white and red slip grew in use as
decorative accents in Artesanias. The use of enamel and
tempera paint were other innovations, the latter applied after
Artesania ware was fired. Although these materials had been
tried by at least two HPUs in my sample prior to the opening
of the Mercado de Artesanias, teacher-demonstrators from
outside the village were reported to have come to that market
in 1994 and 1995 to teach the techniques to villagers, and use
was growing. It remained to be seen whether they would
become an established part of the Atzompa repertoire.

Internally Derived — Not all material and technical innova¬
tions came from outside. Already mentioned is the addition of
colored earth to laguna clay to produce the reddish color of
fired San Felipe clay, preferred by buyers of Domestic ware.
This became a fairly widespread practice for HPUs making
that ware, and a few makers of Artesanias experimented with
adding colored earth to some of the clay they appliqued. The
contrasting colors of the clays served as decorative elements.

Stolmaker (1996, p. 31) reports the invention by Lorenzo
Aguilar of the sagger, a round vessel with protruding nails
designed to hold miniatures during the glaze firing (Fig. 4.19).
By the 1990s, it had been adopted by all the HPUs in my

sample who made the miniatures. Lackey (1982, pp. 72, 122)
describes saggers used by potters in Acatlan that serve a
similar purpose (i.e., to protect small pottery during firing);
however, they were fixed in place in the kiln, had doors, and
were triangular or square in shape.

In 1995, one of the miniature makers created a device for
use in the nonglaze firing. This was a flat, rectangular pottery
plate, about 15 cm" with perforations. Set on the grid of a
small kiln that had a diameter of only 88 cm, it prevented the
small pieces from falling through the grid, thus avoiding the
need to use the more cumbersome ollas with perforated holes
ipichanchas) for the bisque firing in their kiln. It remained to
be seen whether it would be generally adopted.

Innovation in Forms and Styles — As with materials and
techniques, some forms and styles came from outside the
town. In the 1950s, Hendry (1992, p. 118) noted that at times
some individual potters tried new forms; such were the square
casserole dishes requested by a North American visitor.
Another potter duplicated a form made in a Oaxaca City
factory, and still other innovations were modifications of
traditional forms, such as small squat jugs. Buyer preferences
were at times a spur to invention. However, the success and
continuation of new forms and their adoption as important
components in the repertoire of Atzompa pottery was and is
dependent on the demands of the marketplace. Is there
demand? Do the traders like it? Requests encouraged
innovation, but unless demand continued, the new form or
style would not become a permanent addition to an HPU’s
ware or diffuse through the town. In the 1990s, none of the
above vessel forms was being produced. Although not her
invention, as mentioned above, Gudelia Olivera experimented
with applique on an olla as early as 1989, but since her buyer
was not interested in purchasing it, she did not continue to
produce these decorated ollas. However, in the late 1980s and
1990s, makers of flowerpots produced red-slipped vessels with
bird and animal forms, not unlike those made in the pottery-
producing town of Acatlan, just over the border in the
neighboring state of Puebla (Lackey, 1982, pi. 10). In contrast,
the making of human figures became increasingly popular in
the early 1990s, and the growing demand and market for
Artesanias encouraged a flowering of innovation in the mid-
and late 1990s.

During the middle years of the 20th century, two important
inventions occurred, and Hendry knew both innovators.
Catalina Aguilar developed the technique of applique
(bordado) ornamentation and introduced many of the vessel
forms that were made by the Aguilar family in the 1950s and
later — vases, decanters, and some of the miniature animal
forms; she also modified the miniature forms made by her
father (Hendry, 1992, pp. 117-118, 121). Teodora Blanco,
who was 28 at the time of Hendry’s study, began making
figures of animals playing musical instruments at the age of 13
and in the 1950s was making small male and female figures
with which she ornamented ashtrays. At that time, human
figures were rarely attempted by the potters, so she was
unusual for attempting them (Hendry, 1992, pp. 53, 117, 121).
By the late 1960s, Blanco’s artistry had matured, and her
large, unglazed female figures, elaborately ornamented with
appliqued designs of birds, fishes, frogs, and so on, had
achieved popularity not only locally and nationally but
internationally as well. At least four other households tried
unsuccessfully to duplicate these figures (Stolmaker, 1996,
p. 30). Subsequently, however, both during Blanco’s lifetime

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

and after her death in 1980, family members learned the
techniques and continued to produce figures in the style she
initiated. In the 1990s, unrelated HPUs began to make them
since the making of Artesamas was by then accepted by many
potters as a legitimate Atzompa craft.

As we have seen, these innovations became important
components of the repertoire of Atzompa pottery in the last
half of the 20th century. The applique technique developed by
Catalina Aguilar is an example of diffusion of both technique
and style. Initially, it spread through the village into other
extended families through marriage. People in Atzompa had
definite beliefs about the ethics of ownership of new
techniques and styles of pottery. Inventions were initially
perceived as “owned” by the HPUs of the inventors, a sort of
informal patent or copyright. In the 1950s, applique was made
commercially only by the Aguilars and the households into
which their daughters had married. Nevertheless, several
potters from other families showed Hendry this ornamenta¬
tion, albeit of inferior quality, and she predicted that if the
technique diffused in this way (illegally), it would probably
undergo some variations since it would be picked up and
reproduced from memory rather than directly taught (Hendry,
1992, pp. 119-120). My observations confirmed that this
indeed had happened. As the applique technique diffused
through the town in the subsequent 40 years, some potters
reported seeing it and experimenting with producing it on their
own, and the techniques they used did indeed vary. Clearly,
however, the applique innovation met the requirements
necessary for acceptance; it was compatible with other
techniques and popular with customers.

Traditionally, there were several stages in the diffusion of a
new technique or style in Atzompa. For some years after its
introduction, a successful innovation would be restricted to the
immediate family of the innovator. Gradually, it would begin to
diffuse through the town, almost always along family lines. Just
as a potter was supposed to be taught an oficio only by relatives,
so it was believed that an innovation belonged to that family and
its descendants. Although not the case with forais whose origins
had been lost, even the production of these items was usually
acquired by birth or marriage. There were even instances when
marriage was reported to have been proposed in order to gain
the right to make certain types of ware (Hendry, 1992, p. 119).
One result of this ethic of ownership was that when, after two or
three generations, the new forms and techniques had spread
through the community, some members of the extended families
that originated them might feel resentment toward the new
practitioners for making “their ware.”

Following an invention, a trial period had to occur; if the
innovation was successful (i.e., was an improvement in
technique or material) or a salable pottery style or form, it
would be accepted and produced or used first by the HPU of
the inventor, then spread through the extended family for the
first generation or two. A 1990s example of this phase was the
distinctive polished incised Redware produced only by HPUs
of the children of the innovator. Eventually, a successful
innovation would diffuse through the town, as happened with
the applique technique. Interestingly, in the mid-1990s, the
ways in which innovations were diffused and adopted were
undergoing transition. With the growing production of
Artesamas and the increased communication between potters
that was occurring in the Mercado de Artesamas, the use of
slips, colored glazes, enamel, and tempera paint seemed to be
spreading with rapidity and little feeling of ownership.

Fig. 7.1. Forming miniature animals.

Hendry (1992, pp. 117, 119) and Stolmaker (1996, p. 29)
described the development of the miniature vessels and animal
forms by members of the Aguilar and Olivera families during
the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Each family claimed
that its ancestor had invented miniature vessels or “toys” and
small green-glazed animals. The Aguilars told Hendry that the
forms were invented by one of their immediate ancestors and
that bad feeling about this persisted between the two families
about this, but after repeated questioning, she decided that
Felipe Aguilar Sr. had been the first to make the miniature
vessels and Joaquin Olivera the animals (Fig. 7.1). Stolmaker
arrived at a slightly different conclusion, attributing the
innovation of the freehand technique for making miniatures
to Lorenzo Aguilar, who was taught the technique in the late
1800s by a cousin, a priest who had learned it in seminary.
This innovation was economically successful, enabling the
Aguilar descendants to acquire land and become more
prosperous. In the 1950s, miniatures were made by 11
households, six of whom were direct descendants of Felipe
Aguilar Sr., the other three related by marriage. Two of the
latter were Oliveras, an alliance that had allowed the Aguilars
to acquire the right to make animal miniatures.

Creativity

In the 1950s, Hendry (1992, p. 120) reported that the level
of creativity was low and that originality was not valued
because, she felt, of working conditions. Pottery making was
mandatory for women, and the pressure and repetitive nature

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

of the work did not encourage innovation. During the 1990s,
however, greater latitude for experimentation, encouragement
of creativity, and innovation for potters of every age could be
seen. One factor in this change could have been the
recognition and economic success of artisans such as Teodora
Blanco. Villagers were aware of her success and national and
international reputation. Although in some HPUs pressure for
rapid production did not permit or encourage the spending of
time to experiment or innovate, except perhaps for children
who were not yet productive, in others creative innovation
was permitted and even encouraged, especially when it was
demonstrated that there was a market and a potential for
more sales and higher prices for such ware. This, along with
the decreased market for both traditional Domestic ware and
Greenware and the increased demand and cost-effectiveness
of Artesankis production, was a likely factor in the change.
Artesania making had become a recognized category of
Atzompa pottery. It filled a need and a market niche, and I
noted a marked increase in willingness and interest in trying
new techniques and forms in several HPUs during the course
of my study. More than once, a member of an HPU proudly
showed me attempts at applique or new Greenware forms,
sometimes made by one of the younger members, or perhaps a
first or early effort at Artesamas by a member who had
hitherto made only Domestic ware. In one HPU, a
particularly talented and creative member was given time
and freedom to work slowly. At nearly every visit, she had
something new to show me; when asked where she had
learned it, she would tell me that she had seen one and
thought she would try it or that she simply thought it up and
tried it. A factor in the increased willingness to permit more
latitude for experimentation and creativity may have been
additional sources of income that made Atzompa households
less dependent on sales of pottery.

Since individuals vary in their creativity as well as in
technical skills, it can be interesting to track creativity and
innovation into subsequent generations of an extended family.
We have looked at how a new style, technique, or oficio
developed in one generation was transmitted to subsequent
generations. HPUs of both the Blanco and Aguilar extended
families continued to produce pottery in the styles and
techniques of their creative and innovative forebears. In some
of these HPUs, production became routinized with little
creativity. They reproduced replicas of their creative ancestors’
styles with fidelity but little originality. Others continued to
innovate, building on the creativity of their forebears and
trying new techniques or forms. Notable were the figures of
Berta Blanco and Irma Garcia Blanco, the miniature animals
of Casildo Reyes Aguilar, and the Monte Alban replicas of his
cousin Sergio Enriques Aguilar that he modeled from the
drawings in Caso et al. (1967).

The adoption of an invention is an active social process. In
Atzompa, while some innovations were adopted, others were
not. These included some with external origins and others of
local invention. Bargatzky (1989, p. 17) suggested that
innovators are sometimes those who have been away for
some time and have adopted something from a “foreign”
culture. Such was the case when the Olivera brothers returned
to Atzompa and introduced the kick wheel in the 1940s.
Although she never left the community, Teodora Blanco had a
less restricted childhood than most of her contemporaries; her
mother was not a native of the town, and when she was young,
she visited the Oaxaca archaeological museum and after seeing

figures there came home and tried to make them (Hendry,
1992, pp. 118, 121). However, as with the kick wheel, although
her innovations gradually received acceptance and implemen¬
tation in a few HPUs by the early 1990s, the style began to be
more generally adopted only when there was a need for a new
approach during 1990s.

Torrence and van der Leeuw (1989, pp. 9-10) suggest that
innovation is both a process and a choice and is related to the
group’s ability to deal with the problems the innovation might
cause. As a process, it is going on continuously and, in some
instances, will take off. In the case of the kick wheel, the
division of labor in the 1950s and 1960s precluded its general
adoption. With the option to purchase both clay and glaze and
the shift in gender roles in kick wheel-using HPUs making it
no longer necessary for men to always do these chores, the
kick wheel innovation saw increased acceptance and adoption
as a technology in the Atzompa palette of choices.

Continuity and Change

In the last half of the 20th century, there were innovations in
materials and techniques, and in forms and styles of pottery.
There was also an increase in the willingness to encourage and
accept innovation. Materials and practices from outside the
community were utilized or adapted when they were seen to be
useful and fit the requirements for acceptance. Trucks brought
clay and firewood to the town and took pottery from it,
freeing men for other tasks. Plastics proved useful for some
tasks, as did ball-bearing turntables. In the mid-1990s, new
surface treatments appeared — glazes in colors other than
green, enamel paint, and slips — and there were a few
borrowings from other ceramic traditions, such as forms and
firing techniques from San Bartolo Coyotepec, mostly
ephemeral. Some innovations for firing were developed, such
as the use of gasoline and rubber tires, but these did not
become widely accepted. However, use of the kick wheel
increased, and there was the creative addition of colored earth
to clay as the San Felipe clay source played out, but the most
important innovations occurred around the growth of
Artesamas ware. Although already under way in the early
1990s, its florescence and creativity was stimulated by the
concerns about lead glaze.

Atzompa potters show a pragmatic adaptability and
willingness to try out new materials and techniques and styles.
Some of these prove successful and are adopted into the
repertoire of particular HPUs and/or the community as a
whole. Others, such as the kick wheel and Artesanias, might
remain in memory to be tried again as circumstances changed.
Still others are discarded. The nature of pottery production in
an environment with changeable and unpredictable weather
requires flexibility in the production process. During the rainy
season, the production schedule must be continually readjust¬
ed, from trips to mines, to drying and beating clay, to drying
of pottery and firing. Although scheduling can be more
predictable in the dry season, strong winds can necessitate
rescheduling of firing times. It is possible that the flexibility
that HPUs must develop to cope with these conditions is
carried over, for some, into a willingness to innovate, to try
new materials, techniques, forms, and styles. Economic
conditions in the 1990s rewarded experimentation, innovation,
and willingness to change. This is shown dramatically in the
changes that occurred in Atzompa ceramic production.

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOEOGY

CHAPTER 8: CHOICE, CONTINUITY, AND
CHANGE

Choice

Household production units make choices related to their
composition, tradition, available materials, new options, and
expected outcomes. A choice by definition implies the
existence of possibilities or alternatives that must be com¬
pared, an assessment made, and a determination of what the
material and social consequences might be (Lemonnier, 1993,
p. 7). Atzompa potters have a variety of options available for
choices (Table 8.1). The structure and composition of the
HPU and the age, gender, inclinations, and abilities of its
members play a strong role in the options it selects. An HPU
adjusts or alters its course of action when circumstances or the
structure of the situation changes or when alternative options
offer preferred, improved, or positive outcomes. Ortiz (1967,
pp. 192-197, 219-225) looked at ways in which the results of
choices can be viewed. Prospects may be sure or may be
expectations, and choices may involve the evaluation of the
most likely outcomes. The preferences may involve a sequence
of linked outcomes, and choices are made not only on
maximum return but also on minimum cost or uncertainty.
Not all factors require decisions, and a producer will continue
to choose traditional means until the structure of a situation
changes. This last point is particularly relevant to Atzompa
pottery production in the mid-1990s, when HPUs who were
trying new techniques or adding new forms or classes to their
repertoires continued to practice their former oficios or use
their former methods.

In making their choices, HPUs and individual potters assess
the alternatives, examine which elements can be considered
changeable, and what risks, problems, and consequences
should be considered (van der Leeuw, 1993, pp. 241-243).
As Arnold (2008, pp. 230-231) noted, while potters’ choices
may be based on technological options, they are ultimately
socially embedded. Some decisions are made before a task is
organized (e.g., methodology, materials, and the class of
pottery to be made). Other decisions are made “on the spot.”
These might include variations in decoration, weather-
dependent decisions (e.g., when to fire or dig clay), and
marketing decisions (e.g., whether to accept an offered price
from a buyer or defer selling in hope of a better price). These
immediate decisions would be evaluated in terms of need (for
further discussion of types of decision making, see Ortiz, 1967,
pp. 220-221). Some of the decisions made in advance are
susceptible to modification (e.g., those that are weather
dependent and where and when to sell). The potential market
for pottery affects choices at each stage of the production
process, and pottery methodology, materials, volume, and
selling decisions are all “marketing strategies.” However,
other factors, including social and family circumstances and
events, are also involved in decision making.

Figure 8.1 presents the interrelationships of choices in
graphic form. Pottery methodology is placed at the center,
indicating its relationship to the other factors. The relation¬
ships are complex, and some are briefly summarized below.

Family dynamics refers to the size and the composition of
the household: whether it is a nuclear family with small
children too young to participate, participant older children or
teens, or an extended family with elder members still involved
or not in production. Members’ skills, both their learned

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THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Family Dynamics

Other income

Learned oficios

Members’ skills

Family size
and composition

Materials

Clay

Surface Coating

Fuel

Pottery Methodology

Pottery classes
Method of production
Surface decoration

Firing

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Market Strategies

Pricing

Volume per week

Market location

Choice of buyer

Other Factors

Transportation

Weather

The larger economy

Government regulations

Fig. 8.1. Interrelationships of potters’ choices.

oficios and their interest and ability to learn and try something
new, affect the choices potters make, particularly in the mid-
1990s. Also a factor is whether the household relies primarily
on pottery production or has other sources of income.

Materials, an important area of choice, refers to the use and
availability of the various clays, fuel for firing, and surface
coatings. See Tables 3.2, 3.4, 3.5, and 3.6.

Market strategies affect and are affected by the class and
type of ware being produced. Volume is related to method of
production and pricing to class of ware and decoration, most
particularly for Artesanias. Decisions regarding where to sell
are also related to class of ware (see Table 5.3). In addition,
market decisions are affected by family dynamics and the
composition of the HPU. Decisions as to where and to whom
to sell can depend on availability of an HPU member to go to
the Abcistos market or elsewhere and funds to rent a stall.
Pricing may be affected by the need for ready cash.

Other factors can and do play important roles. As a result of
changes in transportation in the 20th century, potters chose to
travel less to outlying markets. Pottery production has a
seasonal element, and weather is an important factor during
the rainy season, from procurement of clay through the firing
process. At times, there is flooding on the routes to the clay
mines or in them. Rain can slow the processing of the gritty
clay; it can also slow the drying of the pottery, requiring it to
be handled and moved more times than usual. Weather can
also result in either precipitous firing with poor results or
delayed firing causing producers to miss a market day. During
the dry season, high winds can make firing dangerous and
cause a wise HPU to delay a planned firing. Particularly
important in the 1990s were the effects of government
regulation and the larger economy on the lead-glazed pottery
and its production and sale by Atzompa potters.

Change

Probably the most important factors causing change during
the 1990s were the events surrounding the lead glaze. In June
1991, the issue of enforcement of a federal regulation
prohibiting the use of lead glazes in low-temperature firing
was raised by the Mexican government and discussed in the
national and local press. Articles appeared in Oaxacan
newspapers about the danger of lead glaze, with photographs
of Atzompa pottery.

The Lead Glaze Issue and the Response of the Potters —
In Atzompa, people read the articles and discussed the issue.
Reactions included denial, joking, rumors, announcements
over the loudspeaker system, and meetings at local and
national levels. There was denial that there was lead in the
glaze and denial that it caused health problems for the makers
(“Our grandparents and great grandparents made and used
the pottery”) and denial that it caused health problems for the
users. In the household where I lived, they said, “We have a
gringa living in our house, and she has not died,” and people
joked that if they gave me pottery, I would die. There were
rumors that the sale of glaze would be stopped, and people
considered buying as much as they could and stockpiling it.
The predicted date reported was 18 September. Some said it
was “all political.”

Since it was a national issue, a representative from the town,
together with representatives of other pottery-producing towns,
went to Mexico City to meet with government officials.
Meetings were also held in the town, preceded by several
announcements over the loudspeaker. At one, attended by
about 15 people, a Oaxaca city potter spoke of the health
problems caused by lead and said that the president of Mexico
would not change his mind. As a potter, he sought to identify

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

with Atzompa potters. He discussed firing practices and said
that he had funding from the state economic development office
for experimental kilns and glazes. The representatives of
Atzompa who had gone to Mexico City suggested that he
come back the next day to talk to the whole community.
However, although there was an announcement the next day
over the loudspeaker, no meeting was held that week. Some
people began to talk a little about health history in their
families, convulsions, infant deaths, and numbness (neurolog¬
ical symptoms) (Hernandez-Serato et ah, 2003). There were also
some reports of higher-than-normal incidence of retardation in
the local schools. People who had laughed or shaken their heads
at my efforts to measure firing temperatures became interested
in my results and in the methods and equipment.

When I returned to Atzompa in June 1992, everything
seemed to have returned to the pre-crisis status. When
questioned, informants shook their heads and made comments
such as “Nothing happened. It was all political.” Production
had not changed appreciably. However, in July 1993, an
informant reported that a university graduate {licenciado) had
come to the town and gotten permission from the mayor to go
house to house to talk to people about the lead problem.
People did not want to listen, however, and continued to assert
that their grandparents had used the glaze. Someone else came
and wanted to set up gas kilns in the center of town, costing
$1000 MXN. Each firing would cost $2.6 MXN. People would
have to bring their pottery, take it home to glaze, and bring it
back again for the second firing. Furthermore, the kiln would
not hold as much pottery as the wood-burning kilns. People
did not want to do this and would not sign up for it.

That year, however, there was a noticeable increase in the
proportion of unglazed ware being produced and concern
expressed about decreasing sales of cookware. Production of
Artesanias continued to grow. In 1995, it was reported to me
by several potters that North Americans were not buying in
the Abastos market. More HPUs were producing Artesanias,
either unglazed or with decorative elements painted with red
or white slip, different-colored glazes, and enamel or tempera
paints. As mentioned above, an olla maker who had produced
high-quality ollas for a trader in the regional markets in the
early 1990s was selling ollas unfired to an artisan to ornament
in 1994 and in 1995 making smaller ones, ornamenting them
with applique and leaving them unglazed. This HPU was also
making crosses formed in molds and had built a new, smaller
kiln to better accommodate this pottery.

The events surrounding the development of the Mercado de
Artesanias described in Chapter 5 coincided with these
concerns. Opening first in 1991 and reopening in 1993, it
provided an outlet initially for Artesanias but by 1994 sold all
types of ware. It also changed the information flow and the
dynamics between the potters. Interactions between members
were not always congenial (Perez, 1997, p. Ill), but there was
more contact between potters than there had been previously,
and they saw each other’s ware. Techniques and styles spread
more rapidly than they had previously and seemed less
confined to extended families.

Van der Leeuw (1993, pp. 241-243), in examining the
choices made by the potters in Los Pueblos, looked at the
relationship between technical and social change, noting that
changes in technique can provide insight into social change
because of the symbiosis between the two (see also Arnold,
2008, pp. 230-231). In Atzompa, it is clear that technological
choices are enmeshed in social context. While the technology

Table 8.2. Change in pottery classes, 1992-1995.

Class

1992

1995

Domestic

Greenware

Artesanias

Redware

HPUs making more than one class

and methodology for making Artesanias had been available
for some time, its use grew rapidly during the mid-1990s as a
result of concerns about the lead glaze and the declining
market for green-glazed pottery. Thus, economic forces were
also a factor in change. Moreover, the creation the Mercado de
Artesanias changed the social context of interaction between
potters in the town inasmuch as people who had previously
had little contact were talking to each other, viewing each
other’s pottery, and sometimes emulating it.

My data indicate that HPUs’ choices of materials, end
products, and market outlets changed more than once for
most HPUs in my sample during the period of my study. This
emphasizes the flexibility, adaptability, and resilience of
Atzompa pottery production. There was an increase in the
number of HPUs in my sample who were producing multiple
types of ware and Artesanias. Ten HPUs were making
Artesanias in 1991. By the end of 1995, this number had
increased to 17, but most of the new Artesania makers
continued to make either Domestic ware or Greenware as well
(Table 8.2). Five HPUs who had made only Domestic ware
began to make either Greenware or Artesanias between 1992
and December 1995; two HPUs had ceased production by
1995 because of death or retirement. However, not all of the
makers of Domestic ware had begun to try other oficios by
December 1996; griddle makers continued to produce this
unglazed ware, having kept their traditional markets. Thus,
legislation and publicity about the dangers of lead toxicity had
resulted in ongoing discussion and a gradual decrease in the
use of the green glaze and an increase in the use of other
surface treatments. Although most people in Atzompa at first
had denied that the greta was lead (“no es plomo, es greta'") or
asserted that use of the glaze was not dangerous since it had,
after all, been used for generations, potters were increasingly
responding to market forces.

Standardization — The relationship between standardization
and competition has been discussed by several scholars and is
relevant to the changes that occurred in Atzompa. Foster
(1965, p. 55) states that the absence of competition acts as a
negative force to maintain traditional forms; that is, under
those circumstances, there is no particular stimulus to push
potters to come up with new or better products. Feinman
(1982a, p. 182) believes that pottery produced in a context of
reduced competition and increased concentration would
probably show greater standardization and smaller energy
input per vessel, as does van der Leeuw (1976, p. 402), who
adds that along with reduced competition, less expenditure of
energy would result from increased scale of production.
Alternatively, increased competition frequently results in
production of a wide variety of vessels, something that often
requires a greater expenditure of energy to produce (Feinman
1982a, p. 182). Birmingham (1975, pp. 381-382), writing of
potters in the Katmandu Valley, noted that as the dominant
factor for the potters was the need to sell in a competitive
situation, they made every type rather than specializing since

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

in that way they could sell more. Balfet (1965, p. 11),
discussing village potters in the Maghreb, notes that to attract
and hold a clientele in a competitive market, novelties are
introduced.

Production and sale of both Domestic ware and Greenware,
as Hendry (1992, p. 93) described for the 1950s and I observed
from 1989 to 1992, conforms very much to the first scenario.
The market was not highly competitive. HPUs were generally
able to sell their full production, although with some seasonal
fluctuation. There was little variation in sizes, and forms were
consistent and standardized. This was true not only for the
Domestic ware but also for much Greenware at that time since
by the late 1980s these vessel forms had also become fairly
standardized. Innovation and creativity were not encouraged,
and although this was less true for makers of Artesanias
during that period, some simply continued to replicate the
forms and styles introduced by Teodora Blanco.

By the mid-1990s, however, the environment in which
potters were working had changed. The more competitive
situation encouraged and rewarded creativity and innovation,
and it became worthwhile for a potter to devote more time,
attention, and energy to each piece. Many HPUs had
expanded their repertoires, and in the Mercado de Artesanias
this was apparent in the increasing variation in types and
styles on sale.

Stolmaker (1996, p. 121) remarked that the experience of
making choices among alternatives might facilitate the
acceptance of new ways. Hendry (1992) describes the
Domestic and Greenware forms and the choices of clays
deemed appropriate, and Stolmaker (Beals, 1975, pp. 309-
310) lists the alternatives in materials available, clays, glaze
and wood. In the 1990s, some of those options were no longer
available (e.g., San Felipe clay), but there were others.
Certainly, Atzompa potters have had a great deal of
experience choosing between the many alternatives in their
palette of choices, perhaps facilitating to a degree the
willingness of many HPUs to incorporate the changes
presented to them in the mid-1990s. However, the choices
people make do not depend only on preferences and expected
outcomes. They also depend on the information available, and
this varied with the individual or HPU.

With the opening of the Mercado de Artesanias, information
about new techniques spread through the town, in both formal
and informal ways, more rapidly than in the past. The pottery
of other HPUs was on display for all to see and emulate, and
there was greater interaction between potters. Some who made
Domestic ware initially sold it to artisans to decorate but
subsequently experimented with ornamentation themselves,
gradually improving their skills. The availability of the option
of making Artesanias provided a choice for HPUs, making the
continuation of pottery production economically feasible in a
changing environment.

CHAPTER 9: CONCLUSIONS

Santa Maria Atzompa is a town in which, in 1990, over 90%
of the households were engaged in pottery production; the
specialized potters produce primarily for an external market
and are thus influenced by social and economic forces external
to the household.

Community Specialization

In examining craft production in an archaeological context,
Costin (1991) developed parameters that she expanded in
2001. She defined specialization as economic interdependence
between producers and consumers in a regularized permanent
production system in which producers depend on extra¬
household exchange relationships and consumers depend on
the producers for goods that they do not themselves produce
(Costin, 1991, p. 4). Specialization requires the development
of specific skills and intensity (i.e., time spent on a craft) and
compensation (Costin, 2001, pp. 279-282). Such was the case
for Atzompa potters in the 20th century and probably for
much longer. Pottery production in the town conforms to the
specialized household-scale production model discussed by
Feinman (1999, p. 85), in which specialized household-scale
production yields high volumes of craft goods at least partly
for exchange. It is also what Costin (1991, p. 8) calls
“community specialization,” in which autonomous individual
or household-based units are aggregated within a single
community, producing for regional consumption. These
potters are independent producers existing in a context of
high demand with unequal resource distribution, a situation
that has existed in Oaxaca since pre-Hispanic times.

Costin (1991, pp. 11-15) indicates four parameters for
inclusion in this category, many of which have been discussed
for Atzompa in the preceding chapters. First is context, in
which independent specialists in preindustrial societies are
more likely to produce utilitarian goods for a general market,
such as the Domestic ware that Atzompa potters have long
produced and marketed in the region. Because of the thermal-
resistant quality of the Atzompa clays, there continued to be
demand for this ware at least into the 1990s.

Costin’s concentration is spatial organization and location
of producers, whether evenly distributed in a population or in
specialized communities. The latter is often found in areas
with environmental diversity, such as Oaxaca, and transpor¬
tation plays an important role in distribution, enabling the
transfer of goods from producers to consumers. These
specialized communities are more apt to be concentrated in
regions with strong market systems such as Beals (1975) has
described for Oaxaca.

For Costin, scale, or constitution of the production units or
work groups, includes size, the number of potters per unit, and
how labor is recruited. She states that both large and small
facilities can be profit oriented, and she stresses the
importance of the efficiency of the production unit, a function
of the technology used that includes how specialization within
the workshop affects the lowering of per unit costs. In
Atzompa, although the HPUs are relatively small and labor is
based on kinship, all practice some specialization through
division of labor; no one potter does every task involved in
pottery production. Furthermore, even forming tasks are
often divided between individuals, one doing basic forming
and another adding applique, handles and so on, or, in the
case of figures, one person might form the body on a revolving
platter and another add a mold-made head, hand model the
arms, and add applique decoration.

Costin’s intensity parameter refers to the amount of time
producers spend, with three factors involved: efficiency, risk,
and scheduling. Efficiency refers to the capacity to routinize
production, setting up something on the order of an assembly
line or mass production whereby an individual works at one

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

task or one task at a time. In Atzompa, along with the division
of tasks described under scale, a potter working on a revolving
platter would make several or many bodies of ollas, jugs, or
coffee mugs, then set them aside and later add necks to all,
similarly adding handles or applique decoration. Glazing is
conducted the same way, applying glaze to the inside of all
vessels first, then the outside. Some HPUs did more of this
than others; see Chapter 6, where described is an extended
family producing a large volume of Greenware, with each
individual handling one forming task on many items before
passing them on to another person. These methods yielded
increased output and lowered per unit costs. Arnold (2008,
pp. 90, 323) notes that in the Maya town of Ticul, production
unit size does not need to increase because of the availability
of household labor and that the size of the production unit is
not necessarily related to its composition (i.e., how members
are recruited). Finally, Costin characterizes independent
producers as risk minimizers. Some Atzompa HPUs combined
potting with farming and wage labor, something that they had
done for many years as both Hendry (1992) and Stolmaker
(1996) have described. We have also seen how they managed
risk in the uncertain transitional period of the 1990s when,
while trying new types of ware and exploring new markets,
they continued to produce their previous types for their former
markets. This correlates with Papousek’s (1984, p. 504)
observation that during a transition period people are forced
to look at new methods but adjust existing production rather
than replacing it.

Continuity and Change

Arnold (2008), in his longitudinal study of pottery
production in the Maya town of Ticul, has looked at economic
and social change between 1965 and 1997 as they relate to
pottery production in this community of specialized potters.
These include shifts in demand for some vessel forms and
changes in markets and distribution and change in the
numbers of potters and size of production units. Correspond¬
ing roughly in time to the three studies in Atzompa (Hendry in
1955, Stolmaker in 1969-1970, and Thieme in 1989-1995), one
can see some similarities in the changes that occurred and the
ways in which the potters successfully adapted to change. Both
industries have continued to be household based, although
Ticul began to use some wage labor in some of the larger units
(Arnold, 2008, p. 90). Both communities suffered the decline
in demand for some pottery types, Ticul water vessels, and
Atzompa green glazed pottery, and both developed new types
for new markets. Ticul potters learned new forms and
decorative techniques (Arnold, 2008, pp. 113-118), plant pots,
and wall decorations as well as figures and forms to appeal to
tourists, analogous to Atzompa Artesanias. Both communities
of potters practiced diverse forms of fabrication and
decorative techniques, deriving their raw materials from
multiple sources, some of which changed (Arnold, 2008,
pp. 158-171, 192-193). Changes in procurement occurred in
both communities as potters began to outsource some tasks: to
buy clay and temper from men who dug it for sale rather than
dig it themselves and to buy fuel (Arnold, 2008, pp. 282-284,
312), in Atzompa to buy glaze, and in Ticul to use brokers to
fire and sell their pottery. Firing remained a task of Atzompa
potters, and using brokers or traders to sell the pottery was
not new for Atzompa potters. However, in both communities,
changes in distribution of pottery occurred. Changes in

transportation resulted in less travel by potters in both
communities for different reasons. The lack of railroad
transport to the market for their new types of potters meant
that Ticul potters no longer sold their pottery themselves but
used brokers (Arnold, 2008, pp. 150, 312). For Atzompa
potters, more available transportation meant that traders
could move pottery less expensively, and it was not cost
effective for the potters to travel themselves to villages and
local regional markets as they had in the past. Importantly,
both industries remained household based.

Summary of Changes in Atzompa — Population in Atzompa
doubled between the 1950s and the 1990s, and people moved
into previously uninhabited land on the east and south of the
town. A most telling change was the installation of electric
light in the late 1960s, making it possible for potters to work at
night, extending the workday. Improved bus service to and
from Oaxaca City meant that family members could go to and
from the city for work and school and to shop, including
purchasing glaze. It also meant that more buyers came directly
to the town with trucks, and fewer potters went to the smaller
local and regional markets. Plastic, a by-product of the
Mexican petroleum industry, was used for pails to hold glaze,
for sieves, and for sheets to cover clay and pottery in various
stages of production. There were changes in pottery materials;
one source had become nearly unavailable, and green glaze
could be purchase already prepared.

Plowever, the household model of production was main¬
tained. While there were shifts in the division of labor,
gendered division of labor continued, although with changes
in the allotment of some specific tasks. This was the case in the
kick-wheel HPUs, where men were the pot formers and
women took on clay preparation and finishing tasks, thus
retaining or increasing the efficiency of scale and intensity. In
addition, able to buy both clay and glaze, women could
operate more independently if a man was not present or was
unwilling to participate in pottery production.

Clearly, however, the most important changes were
externally generated. In the years following Hendry’s study,
the output of pottery, particularly Greenware, grew. This was
facilitated in part by the increase in inputs of materials
resulting from the shift to purchasing clay and prepared glaze
and resulted in increased yield for most HPUs during this
period. Congruently, between the 1950s and early 1990s, the
growth in the tourist market for Greenware stimulated the
increased production of this ware, and the production changes
described enabled Atzompa potters to fulfill that demand. As
male labor became available to make Greenware by hand
modeling or on kick wheels, it became possible to produce a
larger volume of this pottery with less labor and thus respond
to the demands of that growing market. By the late 1980s and
early 1990s, the production of both Domestic and Greenware
had greatly increased, probably reaching an all-time high.

In the early 1990s, the lead glaze issue motivated the next
transition, again externally motivated. Loney (2000, p. 648)
points out that inventions and innovations are “constructions
of revamped past technologies” put to new applications. In the
development of Artesanias, many potters took the vessel forms
they had been making for centuries — ollas, jugs, basins,
griddles, and so on — and ornamented them with relief,
applique, slip, colored glazes, and so on in floral and other
designs. Although they sometimes changed the sizes, they
retained the basic forms and motor skills to which they were
accustomed, and they continued to use the same clays and to

THIEME; CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

fire in the same ways and, for most, in the same kilns. They
had rejected the use of gas- or kerosene-fired kilns as not only
dangerous but also not suited to the household production
system to which they were accustomed.

This shift to the production of Artesanias resulted for some
in a reduction in the volume of pottery being produced. This
did not necessarily mean a decrease in total return, however,
since sale prices for individual pieces rose. By the mid-1990s,
as the demand for Artesanias grew, increasing numbers of
HPUs became aware that, with less or equal expenditure for
clay, glaze, and fuel, they could produce pottery that could
bring a greater profit per piece than either Domestic or
Greenware, although more time might be spent per piece in
production. These factors encouraged innovation and creativ¬
ity and a flowering of experimentation in new surface
modification and design elements. Since both HPUs and
individual potters were trying new oficios, there was greater
diversity in both production and marketing strategies, and as
more HPUs began to experiment with the production of
Artesanias, potters became increasingly excited and proud of
their new skills, products, and endeavors.

The social relations and organization of production did not
change drastically, but that of distribution (i.e., marketing)
was transformed. Although HPUs continued to use their
accustomed outlets to sell Domestic and Greenware, as the
1990s progressed, outlets for Artesanias grew and changed;
they included new stores in Oaxaca City and Atzompa and the
Mercado de Artesanias, where sales were to individual tourists
and to dealers from Mexico and abroad. The Mercado de
Artesanias effected changes in social relationships and
increased interaction among potter families, and this in turn
led to increased sharing of information, knowledge, and
techniques. It affected both the ways in which pottery was
marketed and the interaction and interchange of ideas between
HPUs. How this will affect transmission of skills and
relationships between Household Production Units and
between individuals in the future is not clear.

Van der Leeuw (1993, pp. 242-243) points out that both
unchanging and changing aspects and the interplay between
the two are essential, and while some elements of a technique
are essential, others are changeable, and the potter makes
decisions in making choices. The Atzompa potters in the 1990s
chose to continue making pottery in the social context of the
Household Production Unit, choosing rather to change the
style of ornamentation and distribution to appeal to a new
market when external forces (the lead glaze issue) was forcing
them to find one.

The number of choices and options and the capacity of
HPUs to make changes in their methods and ware and to
adapt to changing economic conditions and markets can be
considered a reflection of a long and varied history of ceramic
production using the clay sources still being exploited. The
pre-Hispanic use of these sources is indicated by the presence
of ceramic production sites nearby (see Appendix I). Feldspar
tempered buff (crenui) wares were produced at several of those
sites in the Formative Period. During the Classic Period, when
graywares were made in standardized forms throughout the
Valley of Oaxaca, potters in the Atzompa area were also
making pottery for the demands of Classic Period consumers.
Feldspar-tempered grayware (gris cremosa) may have been
made at a site near San Lorenzo Cacaotepec (site CVOS 14-15;
2-9-25) and at the Atzompa site located on the hill above the
modern town. It seems likely that those potters were using the

same clay sources or ones from geologically comparable
structures and that knowledge of the mines was passed down
to them from earlier potters who had made crema wares at the
sites near those sources (Joyce et ah, 2006). Atzompa is
mentioned in ethnohistorical sources as a dependency of the
Mixtec town of Cuilapan at the time of the Spanish conquest.
It may be that ceramic production occurred in the town during
the Postclassic Period since according to oral tradition in the
town, the forebears of present potters made red-on-cream
before they began to make green glazed ware in the Colonial
Period. Both oral tradition and INAA analysis (Neff &
Glascock, 1995, 2007) indicate production using Atzompa
clays during the Colonial Period. As we have seen, during the
20th century, the structure of the production and pottery styles
changed more than once as previous options ceased to be
available and new ones opened up.

Although we cannot presume that there was biological
continuity of the population of potters, it can be suggested that
knowledge and use of clay sources, production methods, and
vessel forms may have been transmitted from earlier periods.
The location of Atzompa in the Valley of Oaxaca, near the
urban center of Monte Alban in pre-Hispanic times and Oaxaca
City in colonial and modern times, provided a sizable market
for pottery, and this is an important factor in the growth,
continuity, and survival of the industry. The number of clay
sources used by Atzompa potters and the variety of forms,
methods of production, and surface treatments create a palette
of possibilities for Household Production Units. They can make
choices of clays, forms, methods, decoration, and marketing
strategies, and they can combine and shift them as circum¬
stances change, both in individual circumstances and in the
greater economy and society. The advent of green glaze in the
Colonial Period may have been such an alternative for the
potters, making it possible for them to produce ware that they
could sell to colonial buyers.

In looking at the ceramic production of this town, one
cannot help but note the number and variety of materials,
forms, and styles that form this complex. Communities with
the greatest diversity of materials, forming techniques, and
types of pottery appear to be the most viable and long lasting
(Arnold, 2008, p. 313). The number and diversity of choices
and the flexibility that HPUs have to adjust these choices as
family, life cycle, individual, and external circumstances
change could be considered elements of risk management in
a rapidly changing environment. They may have been factors
in the perseverance of this industry in Atzompa. The shifts in
pottery production strategies in the 1990s could be viewed as
simply the most recent adaptation to changing social,
economic, and technological conditions in a long continuum
of pottery production in the vicinity. This long and varied
experience of ceramic production has resulted in knowledge
and flexibility to adapt to changes in market demands and a
capacity for innovation.

The complexity of Atzompa pottery production can be
considered to be a reflection of this long tradition. In the last
decade of the 20th century, it was in a state of transition, a
situation that has probably occurred at other times in the long
history of ceramic production in the town and surrounding
area. As Mario Rabey (1989, pp. 176-177) points out, the
technology of simple societies, whether isolated or part of a
larger society, is probably always changing as it adapts to
changing conditions in the environment that surrounds it, and
the members’ technological creativity allows them to integrate

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

within the larger society without losing their identity and
tradition. He calls this “negotiated integration.” Such appears
to have long been the case with these potters. The potters of
Santa Maria Atzompa have demonstrated the capacity to take
advantage of changes in availability of materials and market
demands, modifying their production methods and products
as changes have occurred. With the rapid change taking place
in the Artescmkis market, it is difficult to predict the future.

Predictions — Hendry (1992, p. 128), writing in the late
1950s, commented that while future developments could not
be accurately foreseen, she thought that when the state
industrialized and people’s buying power increased, handmade
pottery utensils would be replaced by factory made ones,
probably metal, and while this would put many potters out of
business, some might turn to making what she called
“specialties,” that is, mainly Greenware. Furthermore, if that
market continued to expand, more men were likely to take up
vessel forming, and this would result in the adoption of more
modern techniques, such as the kick wheel and press molds, at
that time used by only a few. She also predicted that changes
would occur only as they happened in the wider context of the
valley and southern Mexico as a whole and that pottery
making would undergo few fundamental changes in the
immediate future and would remain “one of the central
complexes of the village culture for some years to come.”

Certainly, she was correct in the last statement. In Atzompa,
ceramic production has both remained central to the village
culture and was affected by changes in the wider economy and
society. However, the demand for Domestic ware did not
decline because of replacement by factory ware. Atzompa
cookware continued to be popular throughout Oaxaca into
the early 1990s and has not disappeared. Its reputation for
quality continued to create a demand. The volume sold at the
Abastos and regional markets was large then and showed no
sign of declining in the early 1990s, and many HPUs were
involved its production. However, as we have seen, by the
mid-1990s this had changed not because of competition from
factory-made ware but because of concerns about lead glaze.
Hendry’s predictions of increased male participation in the
forming stage indeed occurred. For the most part, these men
were forming Greenware in the early 1990s, although later
many turned to Artescmias. The number of people using kick
wheels increased and continued to grow and in the later years
included more women. Corresponding to this was an increase
in the participation of women of these HPUs in clay
preparation and finishing tasks.

Stolmaker (1996, p. 130), writing in the early 1970s, also
made some forecasts. Since profitability largely depended on
the decorative ware, for which demand was increasing, she felt
that growth and innovation in this area would be advanta¬
geous. Because of the demand for Greenware, a major
innovation should be a local electric glaze mill, preferably
several, so that the profits could stay in the village. In
addition, she hoped that a firing method could be developed
that would reduce or eliminate the dependence on increasingly
scarce and expensive wood.

As she predicted, there was increased production, innova¬
tion, and creativity in the production of decorative ware. We
have seen the development of the glaze cooperative, although
it did not have an electrified mill and was not totally
successful. Its membership declined, and village support was
variable, but it continued to exist and supply glaze to users. As
to firing methods, wood continued to be used. The options of

gas or kerosene were both dangerous and unsatisfactory for
the individual household and large-volume production, and
these were options the potters declined to choose. As long as
sawmill trimmings continue to be available, there is little
likelihood of change in firing methods. The use of wood-
burning kilns suits the household production structure and has
a long tradition.

It seems likely, however that innovation will continue in the
immediate future. The efforts to produce a usable, economical,
lead-free glaze may prove successful, making it possible for a
stable market and continued production of Domestic ware at
least, but this is unclear. Clay sources may pose a problem in
the future. The volume of production in the last half of the
20th century, particularly of Greenware, may have depleted
the San Lorenzo Cacaotepec source. However, the shift to
Artesanias may slow down the depletion since it increases the
profit per piece and reduces the amount of clay used overall.

The Household Production Units of Atzompa are control¬
ling the direction of change, accepting those suggestions and
innovations that suit them, such as the use of tempera paint
and enamel in Artescmias, but rejecting others that do not fit
with their goals and structures, such as gas or electric kilns.
The making of pottery has a long history in this town, and
although there have been changes recently as well as in the
past, pottery continues to be central to the town’s identity. For
some in Atzompa, the making of green glazed pottery is who
they are, but it may not have always been so and may not
continue to be, certainly not for everyone. Although the
possibility of finding a solution to the lead glaze problem for
cookware should not be ruled out, the town seemed to be
finding a new niche in the Artesanias market. Potters have
recognized a market that they can exploit. This market
includes not only tourists and stores in Oaxaca but national
and international dealers who sell to interior decorators and
museums elsewhere. For a long time, making pottery has been
central to the lives of the people who live in Atzompa, and
although many now commute to Oaxaca City for jobs and
education and may not always consider making pottery to be
what they do, most continued to participate in ceramic
production when present in the town.

Acknowledgments

I thank the following for their assistance, support, and
guidance in this project: Ronald Spores for introducing me to
Atzompa and continuing support; Donald Thieme for support,
assistance in the field, and graphics; Brenda Green, Lynne C.
Koehnemann and Anne Ake also assisted with graphics. I
thank Gary Feinman and Steve Kowalewski for their interest
and encouragement. Hector Neff and Michael Glasscock of
MURR for continuing interest and support of the sourcing
project, and the late Jean Hendry Locke and Charlotte
Stolmaker. Most especially I thank the potters of Atzompa
for their interest and willingness to share their knowledge, too
many to name all. In addition to the late Jacinto Olivera y
Juarez and Juana Olivera Olivera and extended family, I
especially thank Ofelia Aguilar and other members of the
Aguilar extended family — Abel Ruiz Juarez and Gudelia
Olivera Perez and Felipe Torres and Adelina Vasquez — and
members of the Vasquez extended family — Sara Marques
Garcia, Manuela Villanueva, and Joel Velasco Lara.

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

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Appendix I: Archaeological Sites with Evidence of
Ceramic Production

From sites surveyed in the Valley of Oaxaca Settlement
Pattern Project, there is archaeological evidence of ceramic
production in the vicinity of Atzompa and San Lorenzo
Cacaotepec near the clay sources used by present-day
Atzompa potters (Fig. I.l)

Site 2-4-2, CVOS-16, known also as Las Minas, is a Middle
Formative/Rosario or Early I site located N65°W, 2700 m
from Santa Maria Atzompa; it was surveyed by Kowalewski.
Dating for this site is uncertain. “The southern part overlaps
one of the principal sources for the coarse gray clay used by
modern Atzompa potters.” This was probably the gritty clay
used in the 1970s, noted by Charlotte Stolmaker (1967) as La
Casaguatera. A six-to-one proportion of crema sherds was
noted, and the temper or grog appeared to be the same
material as the rock found in the gritty clay mined at the site.
Although no kiln wasters were found, six unformed chunks of
fired clay and two smooth pebble polishing stones might
indicate pottery making (Kowalewski, 1976, pp. 30-31).

Site 2-5-3 (2-4-1), CVOS-6, also called La Nopalera, is a
Formative site surveyed by Kowalewski (1976, pp. 29-30, 45-
46); it is located N32°W, 1650 m from Santa Maria Atzompa
in grid square 1405404, “just west of a source of fine clay used
by the Atzompa potters,” that is, the laguna source. There
were light densities of Guadelupe and Rosario phase sherds
and a possible kiln waster, evidence that it may have been a
ceramic production site in late Rosario/early Monte Alban 1.
Feinman (1980, pp. 63-66, 1982a, p. 188) noted that “the
number of both unpainted crema bowls (6) and non-diagnostic
crema sherds (20) ... was relatively high and it appears that
this settlement may have been a crema ware ceramic
production site in Early 1.”

FIELDIANA; ANTHROPOLOGY

Fig. I.l. Clay sources and archaeological sites.

Site 2-5-14, CVOS-80, another probable Early I production
site, is located S88°E 3700 m from San Felipe Tejalapan in grid
square 1404. Cremci ceramics in a great variety of forms are
overwhelmingly more abundant than graywares. The sherds are
unusually large, suggesting that crema pottery may have been
produced at this site (Kowalewski, 1976, pp. 55-56). The
presence of a dense concentration of a single ware makes this
more probable (Feinman, 1980, p. 66, 1982, p. 390).

Site 1-5-67/1-6-176, a Late Formative (MA I) site located on
the west side of San Lorenzo, shows clear indication of large
scale ceramic productions. Feinman (1986, p. 356) noted that it
was located near a riverbank clay bed mined by contemporary
potters and was littered with Formative crema sherds with white
inclusions, generally decorated with red paint. There were also
numerous fired clay concretions and rounded clay slabs.

Site ET-SLC-SLC5 located near the modern town of San
Lorenzo Cacaotepec and a modern source of riverbed clay was
described as an additional site where Early Monte Alban I
ceramics were produced. Feinman (1980, pp. 76-77) describes
the density of surface pottery as light to moderate in two
areas. He observed clay concretions scattered in collection
area 14503 where the surface pottery was most dense. These
were shaped like rounded clay bricks, made with crema paste
with white inclusions. While almost all period types were
present, the Monte Alban Period I crema types were far more
abundant than gris or cafe types. Feinman (1982b, p. 391) also
suggests that it is probable that production of crema utility
wares may have continued at this site into Late Monte Alban I
and perhaps into Monte Alban II, although he thinks the
latter unlikely.

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Site 2-5-14, located on a hillside with white bedrock soil, was
also reported as a probable Early Monte Alban I production site
with “unusually large sherds and crema ceramics in a great
variety of forms” (Kowalewski, 1976, pp. 55-56).

Site 2-9-20.25, CVOS 14—15, located in grid square 1405 S
3°W, 800 m from San Lorenzo Cacaotepec, was reported to have
been a ceramic production site during the Late Classic Period,
MA IIIB-IV with both gris and gris cremosa sherds abundant in
an unusual variety of forms. It is located “only 250 m southeast
of a clay source for the contemporary potters of Atzompa”
(Kowalewski, 1976, pp. 317-318). The surface ceramic density at
the site varied from light through moderate, with the heaviest
densities noted at the center of the occupation of this small
village. Included were possible kiln wasters and a mold fragment
for a Classic Period funerary urn (Kowalewski, 1976, pp. 318,
1989, p. 256; Leinman, 1980, pp. 108, 111, 1982b: p. 393).

In addition to the sites from the survey, the inah conducted a
salvage excavation at Loma del Trapiche and Loma del Taladro
near San Lorenzo Cacaotepec and identified ceramic produc¬
tion, including two kilns that are described in Appendix IV.

The Atzompa site, located on a hill above the modern town,
approximately 4 km north of Monte Alban, is considered to
have been a suburb of Monte Alban. It had a long
occupational history, but the majority of terraces were
occupied primarily during the Late Classic Period, Monte
Alban IIIB. In addition to evidence of elite occupation, there
was evidence of a distinctive marketing-distribution system
distinct from other parts of the city. There is some indication
of ceramic production from a “relatively high proportion of
kiln wasters” (Blanton, 1978, pp. 88-91).

Leinman (1982a, p. 196) suggests that Classic Period
Atzompa ceramic production may have been massive in scale.
The characteristic crema ollas classified as G1 and T1 120, and
bowls G-35 and T1126 (Caso et ah, 1967, pp. 385-395, 425;
Blanton, 1978, pp. 177-178) occurred in large quantities at
Monte Alban, throughout much of the Central survey area and
in the southern half of the Etla arm of the valley. In addition,
Blanton (1978, pp. 89, 178) noted that unlike other barrios of
Monte Alban, comales with gris cremosa paste (1125) are
“abundant at Atzompa, but rare to absent on other parts of the
(Monte Alban) site.” Leinman (1982b, p. 394) also noted that
the Classic Period grayware from the Etla arm of the valley
south of the modern town was similar to the gris cremosa
pottery from the Atzompa site and could contained feldspathic
material obtained from a mine used by modern Atzompa
potters. Thus, the possibility that it was produced at Atzompa
was worth further investigation (see Joyce et ah, 2006).

Appendix II: Typology of Monte Alban Pastes and

Vessel Forms

Color Classes

In their study of Monte Alban ceramics, Caso et al. (1967,
pp. 18, 479) divided Monte Alban ceramics into four color
classes: G gris (gray), C crema (buff), K cafe (brown), and A
amarillo (yellow). Two other categories for discrimination were
made: first, composition of nonplastic inclusions (temper),
namely, quartz sand and white feldspathic, and, second, size of

Table II. 1. Paste typology.

Color class

Temper

Size of temper

Gris (gray)

quartz sand

Gris cremosa

feldspathic

coarse

Gris

feldspathic

fine

Crema (buff)

feldspathic

coarse

Crema (buff)

feldspathic

fine

Cafe (brown)

quartz sand

Cafe

feldspathic

coarse

Amarillo (yellow)

quartz sand

the temper particles: coarse and fine (Table II. 1). The Caso et al.
classification was further elaborated by Kowalewski et al. (1978,
pp. 167-193) during the Valley of Oaxaca Settlement Pattern
Project. They subdivided the gris and cafe types into two groups,
fine or sand tempered and coarse feldspathic tempered, labeling
the latter gris cremosa', they also added to the typology Early
LoiTnative crema types and Postclassic ones (Kowalewski et al.,
1989, pp. 829-837).

Crema ware was made from a buff-firing clay and cafe and
amarillo from dark and light red-firing ones. The colors of
these categories result from mineralogical components in the
clays when oxidation firing is complete. Graywares are
produced by smudging or reduction firing. In this technique,
the potter seals the kiln with damp earth; this produces smoke,
saturating the pottery with carbon. It also creates a reduction
atmosphere by limiting the amount of oxygen in the kiln; the
gray surface is the result. This technique was widely practiced
throughout Oaxaca, particularly during the Classic Period
(300-800 ce); it is utilized today in San Bartolo Coyotepec
(Appendix VI). Although not immediately visible, the clay
colors of graywares can be discriminated by refiring the sherds
in an oxidizing atmosphere at a temperature of 800°C resulting
in crema, cafe, and amarillo colors (Shepard, 1967, p. 479).

Shepard was struck by the relationship between Caso’s
paste color classes and her temper studies and noted the
correlations between the color classes and those shown by her
tabulations, namely, that when the distinctive color pastes are
segregated, all the cremas have white feldspathic inclusions
and most of the amarillos have sand temper. Graywares are
mainly sand tempered like the amarillo, but there is a small
distinctive group with white inclusions. Linally, the cafe sherds
are mixed (Caso et al, 1967, p. 19). Cafe pottery was less
uniform than the other three classes; a fifth of a sample of 314
had feldspathic inclusions, and one, form K19, a perforated
jar ipichancha), exceeded the number with sand temper. This,
she noted, was the only exception to the association of the buff
paste with the rock temper (Shepard, 1967, p. 479).

While there were some sherds of colors intermediate between
cafe and amarillo, Shepard comments that refiring of crema,
cafe, and amarillo sherds at 800°C in an electric furnace makes
the colors clearer (Shepard, 1967, p. 479; Caso et al., 1967,
p. 18), and she notes that if it is established that some of the cafe
sherds were simply less than well-fired cremas, these will be
merged with the cremas to which they belong. To summarize,
the classifications, including Shepard’s comments (Caso et al.,
1967, pp. 18-19; Shepard, 1967), the pastes are divided in three
ways: color, temper, and size of temper (Table II. 1).

Graywares were produced in all periods. They were,
however, the predominant ware of the Classic Period and
Monte Alban IIIA and IIIB-IV (Table II. 1) and appear to
have been standardized and produced in quantity during that

LIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

period (Feinman, 1982a, p. 196; Kowalewski et al., 1989,
p. 213). Monte Alban gris sherds are mainly sand tempered.
Shepard (1967, p. 479) observed, however, that the rock
temper occurred in six of the less numerous types (G7, 9, 25,
30, 35) in one of which, G30, the division between feldspathic
and sand tempers was nearly equal. The texture of the white
inclusions in these types is fine, and the "''paste oxidizes to buff
on refiring" (italics added). In addition, she comments
referring to types G7 and G30 in a small sample of Monte
Alban Period I graywares in which the two temper types were
roughly equal, that potters using erema pastes might
sometimes have followed the forms and styles characteristic
of graywares and occasionally practiced reduction firing (Caso
et ah, 1967, p. 43). She further comments in a footnote
regarding the temper groups of grayware sherds that when she
first identified the material, she had no idea of its source but it
seemed probable that it could be secured near Monte Alban
and that the two principal paste (i.e., temper) classes represent
different local pottery making centers (Caso et ah, 1967, 19).

In addition to those eremas and graywares with white
inclusions, there are several cafe types with some proportion
of feldspathic tempered sherds, that is, K8, Monte Alban
Period I; K19 from Monte Alban Periods I and II; and Kll
from Monte Alban Periods II and Ilia (Caso et ah, 1967,
p. 20). Further investigation with current analytical techniques
may make it possible to determine the clay sources for these.
In the recent past, modern Atzompa potters utilized the San
Felipe Tejalapan source, which fired to a similar color.

Regarding texture, Shepard (Caso et ah, 1967, p. 43) noted
a “close correlation between texture and wall thickness;
crude thick walled vessels generally have a coarse temper;
thin walled well finished ones a fine texture.” This observation
conforms to what we see in Atzompa ware today, as noted in
Chapter 4.

Vessel Forms

The classification systems developed by both Caso et ah,
(1967) and Kowalewski et al. (1978; Blanton, 1982, pp. 375-
381) group ceramics both by paste and by form and
decoration. It is notable that many of the traditional forms
of Domestic ware vessels being made in Santa Maria Atzompa
in the 1990s are similar to those illustrated for each period by
Caso et al. (1967). These include alias, apaxtles, comales,
pichanchas, cahetes, floreros, and braseros.

Ollas, similar in shape similar to the modern Atzompa
types, were produced in buff {erema) paste from every period
and during the Classic Period in graywares with the white
feldspathic inclusions {gris cremosa) (Caso et ah, 1967, lamina
VIIa,b, p. 219, fig. 185a, p. 220, fig.l86c, p. 337, fig. 280c,
p. 425, fig. 358c).

Basins {apaxtles) were described in buff {erema) pastes in
Monte Alban Periods I and II (Caso et ah, 1967, lamina VIII).
As mentioned, griddles {comales) with white feldspathic
inclusions were abundant at the Atzompa Classic Period site
(Blanton, 1978, p. 88). A perforated jar {pichancha) made
from rock-tempered cafe paste, type K19, is illustrated by
Caso et al. (1967, p. 253, fig. 232). Flower vases very similar in
style to those produced by modern Atzompa potters were
made beginning in Monte Alban Period II in erema paste and
in the Classic Period in gris cremosa (Caso et ah, 1967,
pp. 170, 302, fig. 257a, p. 339, fig. 382). Thus, there are strong

indications that along with continuity in the use of clay and
tempering material, as shown in instrumental neutron
activation analysis sourcing studies (Joyce et ah, 2006), there
is also continuity of form and style of vessels.

Appendix III: Instrumental Neutron Activation

Analysis

Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) has been
described by Neff (Thieme et ah, 2004) as taking advantage of
the property of atomic nuclei to become radioactive when
exposed to neutrons. If the nucleus of an element captures a
neutron during this exposure, it is elevated to a high energy
state and becomes unstable. In order to return to an
energetically stable state, the atom emits some form of particle
or electromagnetic radiation. INAA focuses on the emitted
gamma rays, whose energies are characteristic of the
radioisotope. Measurement of gamma-ray emissions at
different energies yields an accurate and precise “elemental
fingerprint” of the sample.

INAA has been used to study the compositions of many
archaeological materials, including lithics, glass, ceramics,
metals, and even osteological remains. Although several
analytical techniques are available for the elemental charac¬
terization of ceramics, INAA is particularly useful because of
its reproducibility, even under varying analytical conditions,
over long periods of time, and in different labs. Because it is so
robust in the face of variation in instrumentation and
analytical protocols, it is the technique of choice for
generating and maintaining large databases against which
future results can be compared (Glascock, 1992; Neff, 2000;
Thieme et ah, 2004; Joyce et ah, 2006).

INAA of ceramics is well developed because of the efforts of
many researchers, both archaeologists and physical scientists,
and has produced a wealth of data for determining prove¬
nience of pottery from almost every region of the world. The
INAA protocol used to analyze the Oaxaca ceramics is
relatively straightforward and is described in detail by
Glascock (1992). In brief, two irradiations, three gamma-ray
counts, and a standard-comparator approach to calibration
are used to obtain concentrations data for 33 elements.

Figure 3.5 in Chapter 3 shows the major structure in the
data illustrated on the first two principal components (for a
discussion of principal component analysis, see Glascock,
1992; Neff, 1993a, 1994). The Atzompa ceramic materials fall
on a continuum with the gritty clays (temper) at the low end of
component 1 and laguna clays at the high end; laguna pottery,
which incorporates the gritty clays added by the potters, falls
at an intermediate position. San Felipe clays and sherds fall
within the range of chemical variation of the laguna pottery.
Also near the center of the plot but partially distinct from the
laguna ware is the San Lorenzo pottery, prepared pastes, and
clays. These form a single, relatively homogeneous composi¬
tional group; the San Lorenzo clays and sherds to which
potters added gritty clay could not be discriminated reliably
from those to which they had not.

In Figure III.l, the chemical basis of group separation is
illustrated by plotting coordinates for the elements on the first
two components, in effect providing a two-dimensional
representation of the variance-covariance structure of the
data (Neff, 1994). As shown, deviations toward the low end of

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

PC01

Fig. III.l. Plot showing chemical basis of group separation.

component 1 are created largely by high sodium, which in the
case of the tempering materials must come from the feldspar-
containing rock fragments, and by dilution of a number of
elements, most obviously arsenic, thorium, antimony, and
chromium. Laguna clays, in contrast, are enriched in the those
elements and diluted in sodium. Laguna pottery, being a
mixture of laguna clay and tempering material, occupies an
intermediate position on this enrichment-dilution axis. San
Lorenzo clays, which are closer to the tempers on the
enrichment-dilution axis, are not as noticeably affected by
addition of temper, and the clays and pottery thus form a
single group. The colorants and kiln clays are distinguished by
anomalously high hafnium and zirconium, probably reflecting
high proportions of zircon grains in these relatively silty
materials (Neff, 1992).

Figure III. 2 is a bivariate plot of antimony and arsenic
concentrations in pottery from the four pottery towns in the
Valley of Oaxaca sampled in this study. The ellipses represent
90% probability of group membership. In this plot, both
sherds and clays are plotted. Raw temper and raw clay
analyses from San Marcos Tlapazola are also shown to
illustrate that San Marcos Tlapazola pottery expresses
contributions from both clay and temper. Materials from the
other valley pottery towns were clearly distinct and separated

from the various subgroups of Atzompa pottery and pottery
clays.

The analysis data and provenience data for the samples
from this study are included in the University of Missouri
Research Reactor database (www.missouri.edu/~reahn).
Samples of clays and sherds, for the most part corresponding
to those analyzed by the University of Missouri Research
Reactor (MURR), were provided to Gary Feinman for further
analysis in 1992. He has placed them in the Field Museum
Collection.

Appendix IV: Pre-Hispanic Kilns

Two kilns were excavated in a residential zone at Monte
Alban in 1972-1973, dated to Monte Alban IIIB-IV and
described by Winter and Payne (1976). They are similar to
those currently used in Atzompa and described in Chapter 4.
The larger of the two, feature 5, was cylindrical with a
diameter of 1.4 m at the bottom. It was excavated into
bedrock. The upper part, which was partially destroyed,
consisted of a wall formed of stones mixed with clay.

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Fig. III. 2. Bivariate plot of antimony and arsenic concentrations from four pottery towns in the Valley of Oaxaca.

Projecting from modern kilns, the walls could be calculated as
being 40 cm higher than the preserved part. The pottery was
placed on a grill or arch formed from seven adobe rectangles,
arranged in rays around a cube of fired clay in the center of the
kiln. Some of the adobes were wedged against the wall; others
rested against vertical columns of adobe (Fig. IV. 1).

The fire pit below the grill varied from 55 to 70 cm deep,
and there was clear evidence of burning in the center of the
kiln, around the door, in the walls, and on the adobes that
formed the grill. On the east side, at the base of the fire pit,
was a door 55 cm high in the middle, 40 cm wide, made of
large stones and rectangular adobes, topped by four rectan¬
gular adobes that show evidence of burning on the sides facing
into the kiln. Two steps, cut in the bedrock give access to the
door. The floor of the firebox was covered with 10 cm of black
earth, with evidence of firing, carbon, and burned stones.
Above this layer, there was fill of brown earth, stones, and
sherds, probably deposited after the kiln was no longer used.

The smaller of the two kilns, feature 71, was conical in shape
and was excavated approximately 75 cm into the bedrock. The
diameter of the bottom of the kiln was approximately 1.00 to
1.10 m; the top opening, at natural level of the rock, was 80 to
90 cm in diameter. At the northwest side, there was a tunnel
forming the access door connecting the interior with the natural
slope of the bedrock. The grill, formed of adobe rectangles in

horizontal position, was not intact. One horizontal adobe
protruded from the wall and was held by another vertical adobe.
Fragments of a second in horizontal position were found
crushed against the east side of the wall. It appeared that the
floor or grill for pottery could have been formed by three or four
horizontal adobes, like rays, joined at the center of the kiln.
There was evidence of burning on the walls, at the junction of
the tunnel with the firebox, and on the adobes fonuing the grill.
The firebox was covered with 15 cm of soil stained with carbon.
Above the grill, there was a group of large sherds, including
reconstructable vessels, small stones, and sherds. In several
cases, fragments of the same vessels showed distinct colors,
evidence that they could have been used to cover pottery during
firing. Most of the reconstructable vessels were conical bowls,
types G-35, K14 (Caso et al., 1967, pp. 385-395, 400, 425), most
characteristic of Monte Alban Period IIIB-IV; there were also
two ollas, one griddle (comal), and one incense burner
{sahumador). It is probable that these were fired in this kiln
and broke in process or perhaps later. If so, they are examples of
pottery produced at Monte Alban.

The similarity between the construction of these kilns,
particularly the larger, to the modern Atzompa kilns is
striking. The particulars include excavation into bedrock,
adobe and stone construction, and the design of the grills that
hold pottery. Although many modern Atzompa potters

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Fig. IV. 1. Plan and photograph of grill, feature 5.

construct grills in arch or rectangular designs, some use a
spoked-wheel design, including the potters who make large
ollas. The size of the fueling door of the larger kiln and the
depth of the firebox below the grill level are within the same
range as the modern kilns.

The smaller kiln varies from the Atzompa model in its
conical shape and depth of excavation. The presence of a
tunnel and of substantial numbers of G35 reduction-fired ware
suggests that this kiln may have been used for reduction firing.

Two other kilns, also from Monte Alban Period IIIB-IV,
located on hills near San Lorenzo Cacaotepec, were excavated
in 1981 (Winter & Nardin, 1982). Lomas del Trapiche and
Taladro are located in the municipio Guadelupe Hidalgo,
where it conjoins San Lorenzo Cacaotepec. The excavation
was a salvage project conducted in connection with an
irrigation trench. Both kilns were partially destroyed by the
trenching. Feature 1 had an approximate diameter of 2.4 m.
No grill was present, but it was conjectured that a fragment of
burned adobes could have been part of a grill, perhaps
supported by the burned stones. There were also large sherds
that may have been used as kiln coverings. The diameter of
Feature 2, deduced from the curve as about 75 cm, was
excavated into bedrock and had an opening 15 X 30 cm high,
presumably for fueling.

Appendix V: Residues of Ceramic Production

Residues of ceramic production can be useful to archaeol¬
ogists as indications that pottery was made at a site. Deal

(1988), in his discussion of Chantal pottery, describes
archaeological residues of pottery manufacture (Deal, 1988,
pp. 70-77), consumption, and depositional units in the
household (Deal, 1988, pp. 115-123). A similar approach to
residues in Atzompa in the 1990s can be shown. However,
although the household is a production unit, it is not
significantly a consumption unit. Since pottery production is
primarily for sale, very little of the pottery produced in an
HPU was in actual use, inasmuch as increasingly metal and
plastic utensils and vessels were used for cooking and other
households purposes. The depositional material, therefore, is
associated primarily with production (Table V.l).

Although little residue remains from San Lorenzo clays, the
poorer-quality laguna clay must be sieved and the gritty
residue tossed on the ground nearby. The gritty residue from
the beaten clays is substantially greater and is swept up
periodically and heaped in an unused section of the yard.
Residues from forming include upturned ollas embedded in
the dirt floor, wear on the base of an olla and/or sherd
fragment, fragments of revolving platters, and molds. Resi¬
dues from finishing the pottery include scrapers, polishing
stones, cactus spines, nails, and residue of red slip.

Residues from firing include ash and soil modifications.
Middleton (1998, p. 135) took temperature measurements and
collected soil samples from an Atzompa kiln for chemical
analysis. The samples were taken from inside the firing
chamber at the surface of the chamber and 5 cm below the
surface of the chamber. Since the kilns are built aboveground,
and the ash is periodically removed from the firebox, the area
around the kiln also contained chemical elements of ash
residue although in less concentration than in the kiln area
itself (Middleton, 1998, pp. 168, 189-190). Possible also are

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Table V.l. Residues of ceramic production.

Function

Location

Residue

Soaking clay

patio

basin sherds, clay residues

Beating and sieving gritty clay

patio

gritty clay residues

Forming

shed or house

inverted ollas embedded in dirt floor

Forming

shed or house

wear on base of olla or sherd

Forming

shed or house

revolving platter fragments, molds

Finishing

patio, veranda

scrapers, polishing stones,

Finishing

patio, veranda

cactus spines, nails, red slip

Firing

patio

kiln ash, soil

Firing

patio

kiln sections

kiln coverings, sherds of comales (griddles), and those sherds
used as spacers showing evidence of firing that differs from
that of whole vessels.

Appendix VI: Brief Description of Ceramic Methods
in Three Other Valley Towns

In the 1990s, in addition to Santa Maria Atzompa, pottery
was being produced in three other towns in the Valley of
Oaxaca. I visited each several times and collected samples
from the potters for neutron activation analysis at MURR.

San Bartolo Coyotepec is known for the production of
reduction-fired black pottery (fmnh 339218; mst SBC 1, 2).
According to van de Velde and van de Velde (1939), who
studied that ceramic industry in the 1930s, at that time the
potters obtained their clay from a pit about 1 m below the
surface and about 2 km from the town, a deposit extending
about 2 ha that was purchased in 1905, a source that
Malinowski and de la Fuente (1982, p. 112) reported to be
communal town property in the 1950s. The clay was dried and
powdered, then soaked for 24 hours. It was then kneaded with
the feet and shaped in cylinders, wrapped, and allowed to
stand at least until the vegetable matter had rotted out,
perhaps for several months. Rouillion (1952) reported that
men fetched the clay from a source at the base of a nearby
mountain. Poupeny (1974), writing in the 1970s, placed the
source as 1 1 km from the town at that time; it is possible that
the source may have changed over the years. Although Foster
(1955, 22) was told that the potters mixed two clays, the van de
Veldes (1939) and others all reported only one clay being used,
and my informants said the same when I interviewed potters in
the course of collecting samples. The raw clay is gray in color

but fires buff if oxidized, and we were told that it came from
east of the town. Although we were given the small samples
that we needed for INAA, the potters reported that the mayor
ipresidente) would not allow clay to be given or sold, and the
town has not generally been welcoming to anthropologists
who wanted to work there. Forming is done on the revolving
platter as in Atzompa (Foster, 1955, 1959); the pottery is then
scraped and burnished before being fired in subterranean kilns
that are sealed with adobe and mud to create a reducing
atmosphere and “smudge” the pottery (van de Velde & van de
Velde, 1939, pp. 32-34; Foster, 1955, p. 23). By the 1990s,
pottery production in San Bartolo Coyotepec had become
primarily a tourist industry, and the pottery was frequently
rubbed with graphite to create a shiny black surface. As in
Atzompa, pottery production is a family industry with the
men digging the clay, women forming the ware, and children
participating from an early age.

In Ocotlan de Morelos, Josefma Aguilar uses a fine-grained
local clay that is beaten, soaked, and placed on the floor to dry
and then kneaded. She presses out “tortillas,” then forms
small figures, adding pieces for the various appendages. Firing
is done in updraft kilns (mst OC 1-5).

The potters of San Marcos Tlapazola combine two types of
clay, a black {barro negro) and a yellow {barro amarillo). Each
clay is soaked, then sieved and mixed together with sand.
Forming is done on a revolving platter. The finished ware is
slipped with a red clay that comes from the mountains above
the town (fmnh 339221, 339222, 339223, 339224). Payne
(1994, p. 12) described the open firing. First, maguey and
cactus leaves were laid on the ground in the patio area, then
sherds were piled on the leaves, and then the pottery was piled,
and more sherds and more fuel were added. Finally, a ring of
ollas would be placed close around the “kiln” pile, gaps filled,
and the fuel ignited. Fuel was added to keep the heat even. He
recorded a temperature of 700°C in a 53-minute firing.

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Appendix VII: Household Practices of the Sample

No. of

HPU

Clay

Dig/buy

Type of ware

formers

Forming method

Glaze source

Decoration

Firing frequency

C2 T2

dig

green vessels

1 (2)

kick wheel

co-op/Oaxaca

full glaze, incise

8 days

C2 T1

dig

Domestic

revolving platter,

co-op

half glaze

15 days

ollas

ball-bearing disk

Cl T1

buy Cl dig T1

Artesanias

revolving platter,

Oaxaca

slips.

15 days

hand

multicolored

glaze

Cl T1

buy

Greenware

revolving platter,

co-op

applique, incise

irregular with

kick wheel

#21

C2 T1 T3

dig

Domestic

revolving platter

co-op

half glaze

15 days

ollas,

bowls, etc.

C2 T1

dig

Domestic

revolving platter

Oaxaca

half glaze

15/21

ollas

C2 T1 T2

dig

Greenware,

kick wheel.

Oaxaca

full glaze

8 (2 kilns)

Domestic,

casseroles

revolving platter

buy

green

kick wheel

co-op

full glaze, incise

8 (2 kilns)

miniatures

buy

Artesanias

hand, molds

red slip,

irregular

applique

C2 T1 T3

dig

Domestic

revolving platter.

co-op

half, full glaze

8 (2 kilns)

casseroles

C2 T1 T2

dig

green

kick wheel.

co-op

full glaze

8 (2 kilns)

casseroles

evolving platter

C2 T1

dig

Domestic

revolving platter

co-op/Oaxaca

half glaze

irregular

casseroles,

flowerpots

C1C2T1T2

buy

Artesanias,

revolving platter,

co-op

red slip.

irregular (2 kilns)

Domestic

hand, mold

applique

C2 T2

dig

Domestic

revolving platter

20 days

griddles

Cl T1

buy

green vessels

hand

co-op

applique

8 (2 kilns)

Cl C2 T1

dig C2 Tl,

Domestic

revolving platter.

co-op

half, full glaze

8 (2 kilns)

buy Cl

vessels,

miniatures

hand

Cl T1

buy

Domestic

revolving platter

Oaxaca

full glaze

15 days

casseroles

C2 T2

dig

Domestic

1 (2)

revolving platter

(half glaze)

with father

casseroles,

ollas

C2 T1

buy

Domestic

revolving platter

Oaxaca

full glaze

irregular

vessels

buy

Artesanias

hand, molds

red-slipped

15 days

ornament

Cl T1

buy

green ashtrays
etc.

green vessels

hand

co-op (dry)

full glaze

2 kilns with #4

C2 T1

dig

revolving platter

sells unfired

buy

Artesanias,

2 +

kick wheel, mold.

Oaxaca

red-slipped

30 (2 kilns)

miniatures

hand

decoration,
full glaze

C1C2T1 T5

dig

Domestic

revolving platter

Oaxaca

half glaze

15 (2 kilns)

large

basins,

flowerpots

Cl T1

buy

Artesanias

hand, mold

15 (2 kilns)

Cl T1

dig

Greenware

hand

co-op

full

8 (2 kilns)

buy

Greenware

hand

co-op

full

20 days

miniatures

buy

Greenware

kick wheel

co-op

full

8 (2 kilns)

miniatures

Cl T1

buy Cl dig Tl

Artesanias,

revolving platter.

other HPU

red slip.

irregular

flowerpots

hand, mold

applique

C2 T1

dig

Domestic

revolving platter

8 days

griddles

dig

Artesanias,

hand, revolving

co-op

reduction-fired

irregular

figurines,

flowerpots

platter

figurines

C3 T1

buy

Domestic

revolving platter.

co-op

half glaze

15 days

large

basins

ball-bearing disk

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Appendix VII: Continued.

HPU

Clay

Dig/buy

Type of ware

No. of
formers

Forming method

Glaze source

Decoration

Firing frequency

C2 T1

dig

redware

revolving platter.

full red slip.

15 days

ball-bearing disk

incise

dig

Greenware

hand

co-op

full glaze.

8 (with #15)

vessels

applique

C2 T2

dig

Domestic jugs

revolving platter

half glaze

with #1

Cl T1 T2

buy

Artesanias

revolving platter

other glazes

irregular

C2 Tl,2,3

dig

Domestic,

revolving platter

co-op

half glaze

15 days

ollas, jugs.

flowerpots

Cl T1

dig

redware

revolving platter

full red slip.

15 days

incise

Cl T1

buy

Artesanias,

hand

irregular

replicas

Cl T1 T2

buy Cldig Tl,2

Greenware

kick wheel

co-op

full, applique

15 days

Cl T1

buy

Artesanias

revolving platter.

applique, other

irregular (2 kilns)

hand

glaze

C2 T2

dig

Domestic

revolving platter.

co-op

full glaze

8days

casseroles

ball-bearing disk

Cl T2

buy Cl dig T2

Greenware

hand

Oaxaca

full glaze

irregular

buy

Artesanias,

hand

irregular

green

Cl C2 Tl,4

buy Cl, dig C2

Domestic

revolving platter

co-op

half glaze

15, 30 days

Tl,4

large ollas

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Appendix VIII: Field Museum of Natural History Collection

FMNH #

MST #

Type

Clays

Decoration

Surface

Size in inches

Forming method

figure

Cl (Tl)

incised, applique

red slip

9 X 4.75 X 12

hand

figure

Cl (Tl)

applique

glaze

5 X 2.25 X 9.5

hand

figure

applique

red slip

4 X 2.5 X 5

hand

figures (6)

applique

2.5 X 2.5 X 2.5

hand

figures

applique

3.5 X 2 X 4

hand

figures (8)

applique

heights: 2 inches

hand

figures (4)

2.75 X 1.5 X 1.75

figures (4)

green glaze

3 X 1.5 X 3.5

hand

figures (4)

3.5 X 1 X 2.75

339122

figure

Cl (Tl?)

applique

red-slipped detail

5 diam., 12.5 high

molde, hand

pendant (9)

applique

red slip

2.25 X 2.25 X .25

mold, hand

decorated

339123

pendant

incised

3 X 2.25 X .5

mold

339124

pendant

applique

red slip

3.25 X 2.75 X .5

mold, hand

decorated

339125

pendant

applique

red slip

4.25 X 3 X .5

mold, hand

decorated

339126.A,B

box

applique

red slip

3 X 2 X 1.5

hand

339127.A,B

box

applique

red slip

1.5 diam. X 1.75

hand

339128

figure

applique

red slip

4 X 3 X .75

mold, hand

decorated

339129.A,B

box

applique

4 diam. X 2.5

kick wheel, hand

3391230.1,2

pendant (2)

1.5 X 1 X .25

mold

339131. 1-.5

figures (5)

.5 X 1

hand

339132

figure

applique

1.75 X 1 X .75

hand

339133

figure

1.25 diam. X .75

kick wheel, hand

339134.1,2

figures

brown glaze

1 X 2 X .75

hand

339135.1,2

figures

slip

red slip

2 X.75 X .75

hand

339136.1-.3

vessels (3)

ClTl

brown, blue.

1.75 diam. X 1.75

kick wheel

yellow glaze

339137.1,2

figures (3)

1.75 X 2 X 3

hand

339138.1,2

figures (2)

black

1.24 X 1.75 X 2

hand

339139.1-.4

vessels (4)

Cl?

green glaze

1.5 diam. X 1.5 high

hand?

339140

hanging

glaze

4.5 X 1.5 X 2

hand

figure

ClTl

applique

7.5 diam. X 19.5

molde, mold.

hand

339141

candelabra

ClTl

lilies

7 diam. X 3.5

molde, hand

bowl

C2T2?

snakes

5.25 diam. X 2

kick wheel, hand

apaxtle

C1T4

green glaze

8 diam. X 3

molde

interior

339142

wall hanging

ClTl

incised, applique

5X6X2

mold?

339143

olla

CT2

applique flowers

4.5 diam. X 3

kick wheel

339144.1,2

candlesticks

C2T2

incised, Oaxaca

green glaze

2.5 diam. X 3.5

kick wheel

339145

incense

5 diam. X 3

339146

jarro

ClTl

incised

green glaze

5 X 7.5

kick wheel

339147

jarro

C2T2

applique flowers

7X6X7

kick wheel?

339148

wall hanging

C2T1

face incised

5.25 X 3 X 5

hand

339149

bank

ClTl

incised

red slip

2.75 X 1.5 X 1.75

mold?

339150

hanging

ClTl

incised

6 X 1.5 X 5

hand

vase

ClTl

applique

blue glaze-cobalt

2.5 diam. X 5

kick wheel?

339151

vase

ClTl

blue glaze

2.5 X 3 X 4

kick wheel?

339152.1-.3

chia

Cl (T3?)

incised

some green glaze

3 X 1 X 2.5

hand?

339153

chia olla

ClTl?

incised, applique

red slip

8 diam. X 6.25

molde

bowl

ClTl

incised

blue/brown glaze

14 X 5.5

molde

339154.1,2

olla de asa (3)

C2T2

incised, stamped

green glaze

6 diam. X 7.75

kick wheel

jarro

C2T2

marker stamped

green glaze

5 diam. X 7.5

kick wheel

coffee mug

C2T2

incised

green glaze

5.25 X 4 X 4

kick wheel

339156.1-.3

candlesticks (3)

C2T2

stamped, incised

green glaze

5 diam. X 6.5

kick wheel

339157

vase

C2T2

incised

green glaze

3.5 diam. X 5.25

kick wheel

339158

vase

applique, incised

green glaze

3.25 diam. X 6

kick wheel

vase

applique, incised

green glaze

3 diam. X 5.75

kick wheel

vase

applique

green glaze

5.5 diam. X 3

kick wheel?, hand

vase

C21

applique

green glaze

4.5 diam. X 2

hand

339159

coffee mug

Cl (Tl? T2)

applique

green glaze

5 X 4 X 4.5

kick wheel

339160

vase

incised

green glaze

2 diam. X 3

kick wheel

339161.1,2

vase

green glaze

2 diam. X 2.5

kick wheel

339162

jarro

incised

green glaze

2 diam. X 2.5

kick wheel

339163

baskets (2)

green glaze

4 diam. X 3

kick wheel

339164

mug

incised

green glaze

2 X 1.25 X 1.75

kick wheel

339165

cazuela

C2T1

green glaze

8 X 6 X 2.25

molde

339166

cazuela

C2T1

green glaze

8 X 6.25 X 3.25

molde

FIELDIANA; ANTHROPOLOGY

Appendix VIII: Continued.

FMNH #

MST #

Type

Clays

Decoration

Surface

Size in inches

Forming method

339167.1,2

2 cups

Cl (Tl, T2?) applique

green glaze

5 X 4 X 2.5

kick wheel

339168

dish/ashtray

incised

green glaze

5 X 2.5 X 1

hand

339169.A,B

teapot

Cl (Tl, T2?)

applique

green glaze

8 X 6 X 9.5

kick wheel

339170

toothpick holder

incised

green glaze

7.5 X 5.25 X 3

hand, mold

339171

saltcellar

incised

green glaze

3 diam. X 3.75

hand

339172

bowl

applique, incised

green glaze

6 X 4.5 X 3

molde

339173.A,B

licorera

C2T2

applique

green glaze

6 diam. X 9

kick wheel

339174

pitcher

C2T2

applique, incised

green glaze

6.5 X 4 X 7

kick wheel

339175

bowl

C2T2

green glaze

5 diam. X 2.5

kick wheel

339176

molcajetes (2)

C2T2

combed interior

green glaze

7 X 6.5 X 3

kick wheel

339177

vase

C1T2

reduced

3 diam. X 7.25

kick wheel

339178

cantero

C1T2

graphite?

3 diam. X 3.25

kick wheel

339179

cantero

C1T2

3 diam. X 3.25

kick wheel

339180

cazuela

C2T2

5.75 X 4.5 X 2

kick wheel

339181

coffee mug

C2T2

incised

5.25 X 4.25 X 4.25

kick wheel

339182

coffee mug

C2T2

incised

green glaze

3 X 2.25 X 2.25

kick wheel

339183

molcajete

C2T2

green glaze

4.25 X 3.5 X 1.5

kick wheel

339184

salcera

C2T1

green glaze

4 X 3.25 X 2.5

molde

339185

salcera

C2T2

incised

multicolor glaze

4 X 3.5 X 3.5

molde

339186

pitcher

C2T2?

applique

multicolor

5 X 3.5 X 4.5

molde/kick wheel?

339187

cup

C2T2

applique

green glaze

3.25 X 2.5 X 1

kick wheel

339188

cazuela

ClTl

incised, fluted rim

green glaze

6.75 X 5.25 X 2

molde

339189

cazuela

C2T1T2

pinched rim

green glaze

6.75 X 5 X 5 X 2

kick wheel

339190.1-.3

cazuelas (3)

C2T1T3

pinched rims

green glaze

13.5 X 11.5

molde

339191

cazuela

C2T1T3

pinched rim

green glaze

10.5 X 8.5 X 4

molde

339192

cazuela

C2T1T3

9.25 X 8.25 X 3.25

molde

339193

olla

C1C27T1

green glaze

3 diam. X 2.5

molde

339194

olla

C2T1

green glaze

7.5 diam. X 6.5 high

molde

339195

olla

C2T1T3

green glaze

6.5 X 5.25

molde

339196

olla estufa

C2T1T3

7 X 5 X 4.5

molde

339197

olla estufa

C2T1T3

green glaze

10 X 8 X 7

molde

jarro

C2T2

applique

7.5 X 7 X 7

kick wheel

coffee mug

C2T2

applique

multiglaze

5 X 3.5 X 3.75

kick wheel

339198

bowl

C2T1T3

glaze

5 X 2.25

molde?

339199

bowl

? T3

pressed rim

glaze

5.25 diam. X 2.5

molde

339200

100

vase (barelito)

ClTl or T5

incised, cut out

multiglaze

6 diam. X 7

molde

101

barillo

Cl, Tl,or T5

incised

multiglaze

9.5 diam. X 19

molde

339201

102

figure

Cl Tl

green glaze

3.5 X 1.25 X 2.5

hand

339202

103

figure

Cl Tl

blue glaze

2.5 X 2 X 2

hand

104

candelabra

applique

red slip

10.5 X 8 X 10

hand

105

figure

Cl Tl

applique

16 X 14 X 24

molde, mold.

hand

106

dish

ClTl

incised

8 X 4.5 X 1.5

molde

107

ashtray

incised

blue glaze

4 diam. X 1 .25

hand

108

ashtray

incised

blue glaze

3.25 diam. X 1

hand

339203. 1-.4

109

4 miniatures

green glaze

2 diam.

hand

339204. 1-.5

juguetes (5)

green glaze

1 diam. X 2

hand

339205. 1-.7

111

juguetes (7)

green glaze

1.5 X 1.5±

hand

112

barrillo with lid

C2T1

incised flowers

red slip

9.5 diam. X 7

molde

339206.A,B

113

barrillo with lid

C2T1

incised flowers

red slip

10.5 diam. X 13

molde

339207.A,B

114

barrillo with lid

C2T1

incised flowers

red slip

9 diam. X 10.5

molde

339208,

115

vessel (dibore)

ClTl

applique

red slip

1 1 diam. X 19

molde

329209

116

vessel (dibore)

ClTl

applique

red slip

11 X 15

molde

117

vessel (dibore)

ClTl

applique

10.5 diam. X 16

molde

118

olla

C2T1

green glaze

12.5 diam. X 11.5

molde

329210

119

pichancha

C2T1

green glaze

13 X 11

molde

120

box with lid

applique

red slip

2 diam. X 1.5

kick wheel

121

figures (earrings)

applique

1.4 X .5 X 1.75

hand

339211.1,2

122

comal (griddle)

C2T1

14 diam. X .5

molde

123

comal

C2T1

11 X .5

molde

124

pendant

incised

1 diam. X .5

hand

339212

125

whistle

green glaze

1.75 X 1 X 2.5

hand

339213

126

napkin holder

incised

green glaze

3.5 X 2 X 3.5

mold

127

urn

ClTl

applique

red slip

10.5 X 8 X 9

molde

128

vase

ClTl

incised

multiglaze

8 diam. X 1 1.5

molde

129

vase

C2T1

incised, cutwork

multiglaze

8 diam. X 10.5

molde

339214

130

figure

Cl?

incised

.75 X .75 X 2.5

hand

339215

131

flowerpot/olla

C2T1

15 diam. X 14.5

molde

339216.1,2

132

flowerpots (2)

C2T1

fluted

green glaze

9 diam. X 5

molde

133

flowerpot

C2T1

fluted

green glaze

9.5 X 8.5 X 8

molde/hand

(“jardinera”)

THIEME: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

Appendix VIII: Continued.

FMNH #

MST #

Type

Clays

Decoration

Surface

Size in inches

Forming method

134

flowerpot

ClTl

animal figures

red slip

16.5 X 12 X 6.5

molde/hand

FMNH Ed

135

flowerpot

ClTl

animal figures

red slip

12 X 11.5 X 13

molde/hand

Dept.

136

flowerpot

ClTl

incised

multiglaze

11 diam. X 7.75

molde

137

flowerpot

C2T1

incised

multiglaze

6 X 5 X 4.5

molde

339217

138

(“jardinera”)

flowerpot

C2T1

green glaze

6 X 4.5 X 3.25

molde

A I mud

Apaxtle

Arco

Artesanias

Atole

Barrillo

Barro

Barro dspero
Basura

Birefringence

Bordado
Can taro
Cazuela
CMa

Chimolero

Clast

Comal

Compadre

Crema

Deuteric

Grande

Greta

Gringo

Gris

Gris cremosa

Appendix IX: Glossary

Measure of area equaling about 0.0578 ha; also
the amount of corn obtained from that much
land. It is used as both a measure of volume
and a basis of land measurement, that is, the
amount of land that can be sown with an almud
of seed
Pottery basin

Arches separating the firebox in the kiln from

the chamber where the pots are stacked

Decorative ware

Drink made from corn

Tall pottery jar used for storing water

Clay

Gritty clay used as temper

Trash, including grass or weeds, used as fuel in

the kiln

Geologic term: The decomposition of a ray of

light into two rays, characteristic of many

minerals when observed under polarized light

with a petrographic microscope

Appliqued decoration

Globular jar used for carrying water

Pottery casserole dish

Striated pot planted with seeds at Easter

Mortar in shape of a pig for preparing food

Geologic term: fragment from a broken larger

rock

Flat clay griddle for baking tortillas

Man in a system of ritualized friendship, such

as a godparent

Buff colored pottery

Geologic term referring to minerals formed as
water-rich solutions, circulated around magma
at a late stage in cooling history
Large

Term used for lead oxide glaze material
North American, person from the United
States

Gray, grayware

Gray pottery with white feldspathic flecks

Homo

Hornillo

Jardinero

Jarro

Juguete

Kabal

Laguna

Lamina

Levigation

Licenciado

Mercado

Molcajete

Molde

Municipio

Musico

011a

Olla de asa
Olla estufa

Oficio

Pichancha

Plaza

Plomo

Presidente

Posada

Regaton

Torno

Tornillo

Verde

Oven or kiln
Sagger
Flowerpot
Jug

Literally a toy, refers to a miniature vessel

Molde or revolving platter

Literally pond, refers to a clay source in the

Atzompa municipio

Sheet of corrugated metal

Mixing water with clay to allow heavier

particles to settle and leave finer material in

suspension

University graduate

Market

Mortar, bowl with combed based for preparing
food

Revolving platter or circular turntable used as a
base in forming pottery
Municipality, equivalent to a county in the
United States or a township in New England
Figure of an animal playing a musical instru¬
ment

Globular shaped jar with a wide mouth

Globular jar with a handle over the top

Globular jar with a flat bottom designed to set

on a gas or electric stove

Occupation or craft; used in Atzompa to refer

to the type of pottery made by a family or an

individual

Olla with holes, used in the processing of maize
and by potters to hold miniatures during firing
Street market
Lead

Mayor, first in authority in the municipal
council

Christmas event

Merchant or middleman; here used specifically
for merchants who buy pottery for resale
Kick wheel

Ball-bearing disk set on cement pedestal

support a revolving platter

Green; in referring to pottery, glazed green

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

Field Museum of Natural History
1 400 South Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60605-2496
Telephone: (312) 665-7769

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