Gendered Labor in Specialized Economies by Sophia E. Kelly Traci Ardren

Author:Sophia E. Kelly, Traci Ardren [Sophia E. Kelly, Traci Ardren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781607324836
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Published: 2016-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

Evaluating Gendered Labor in Hohokam Pottery Production

The intensity of Hohokam Red-on-buff pottery production during the eleventh century AD may have been substantial enough to require a shift in the organization of labor in these communities. Specifically, the level of specialization during this time period likely exceeded the intensity of pottery production by historic and contemporary descendant communities of the Hohokam living in the southern deserts of Arizona. Mills (2000) has outlined several different pathways to the emergence of specialized production that link increases in production with subsequent shifts in the gendered division of labor. She states that specialized production in the American Southwest is associated with (1) a movement from gendered to non-gendered labor in household production or (2) an enhanced differentiation in the gendered division of tasks in the household. In the former, production is intensified through a gendered division of labor that allows some women to devote more time to pottery production. In the latter, production is intensified through an expansion of the labor pool to include both men and women.

We apply the characterization of Hohokam production intensity to each of Mills’s (2000) proposed pathways to specialized production. More specifically, we use the estimates of pottery manufacture to evaluate each of these scenarios for changes in the gendered division of labor. Although the available data used in this evaluation suggest that both of the two scenarios are possible in the Hohokam case, it appears that neither scenario can account for the changes in the intensity of Hohokam ceramic manufacture. Thus, we present a slight revision to one of Mills’s pathways.

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