This regional scale project seeks to produce photographic, audio, video, and descriptive record of the material knowledge of the potters of the Southern Ecuadorian Andes (SEA) and the Northern Peruvian Andes (NPA), two regions geographically adjacent but rarely studied together. This project will break with this traditional political and academic border to study the production of domestic pottery in two countries. To record the material knowledge of these potters this project will use the operational sequences approach (chaînes opératoires) to present and compare the manufacturing, distribution, and use of pottery in the SEA and NPA.
The project will use the voices of the potters themselves through the application of a detailed questionnaire in a systematic but open-ended fashion. The questionnaire is designed to prompt potters’ testimonies about the relations between their craft, culture, and landscape. The project will work with two or three villages with potters from each country; interviewing, filming, and making photographic sequences of the activities of at least five potters and their families in each of the villages. Using a similar methodology to record material knowledge in different villages will provide unique binational comparative information. This photographic, audio, video, and written documentation will be vital for preserving and sharing material knowledge about Andean pottery.
PI:
Dr Gabriel Ramón, Professor, Department of Humanities, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru
Collaborators:
Dr Catherine Lara, Researcher, Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos
Dr Martha Bell, Professor, Department of Humanities, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru
Location of Research:
Cuzcudén, San Pablo, Cajamarca (Perú)
El Imperial, Olmos, Lambayeque (Perú)
San Bartolomé de los Olleros, Ayabaca, Piura (Perú)
Sondorillo, Huancabamba (Perú)
Taquil, Loja (Ecuador)
San Miguel de Porotos, Azogues (Ecuador)
Yacuviña, Atahualpa, El Oro (Ecuador)
Piñas, El Oro (Ecuador)
Host Institution:
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú