Specialization and the increased interdependence it helps create may come in several varieties. In other words, the occupational specialization characteristic of modern postindustrial capitalism is not found in all cases as not all societies developed the same sorts of economic institutions or relations. To help systematize the variation, archaeologists have recognized different types of craft specialization. While the terminology and precise definitions vary, the following features emerge as useful in distinguishing among kinds of production: intensity, scale, location (also sometimes referred to as context), and social relations between producer and consumer.
Intensity and Scale
Intensity is often summarized as full - or part-time specialization. Does a person spend all or most of his or her productive energy and time on a particular craft, such as potting, weaving, or blacksmithing? Are they dependent on their labor in this kind of work for the acquisition of all or most of the things needed to sustain life and to fulfill their responsibilities as members of society? If yes, then we can characterize this person as a full-time craft specialist. Part-time specialization would thus be when people engage in productive activities, producing more than they need and satisfying their personal, familial, and larger social obligations in part through the fruits of their labor, but who also regularly apply their labor to other forms of production. Most typically, such would be the case when an individual or a household continues to engage in farming, herding, or foraging to some degree rather than relying entirely on their craft to support themselves. Closely tied to intensity is the concept of scale, of how much is produced and how often. The scale of production relates directly to the socially defined needs that create a demand for certain objects over others. While it is certainly the case the full-time specialization is likely to be capable of a greater scale of production, it is also the case that continual growth in production capacity or in the amount produced is not characteristic of all economies, even those at the state level. Limits on production may serve political ends.
The difference between full-time and part-time specialization is obviously one of degree. It is also somewhat misleading to talk about the craft specialist as the sole producer of some item for exchange and thus provider for his or her family who have no connection to the process. In fact, family or household members are frequently integral to the success of both full - and part-time specialization. This is the case in the sense that the domestic group may take care of other sorts of activities necessary to daily life. But this sort of division of labor between the occupational specialist and the rest of the domestic group, which is usually uncompensated for its efforts, is by no means the norm in nonindustrial or precapitalist economies. Relatives and co-residents often provide crucial assistance in the production process in ways that are patterned and integral to the passing on of the knowledge and abilities central to the productive process. Ethnographic studies of South Asian potters, for example, demonstrate that the male head of household, who is the one identified as the craft specialist, routinely relies on his wife, children, and other people living with him to take care of certain aspects of the process of turning clay into finished pots for sale. A similar interdependency emerges from sixteenth century Spanish descriptions of Aztec feather workers in what is now Mexico. Before the Spanish conquest, they lived in Tenochtitlan, the capital city of the Aztec empire, and made the elaborate capes and other apparel worn by the nobility, priests, and warriors. Although Fray Bernardino de Sahagtin, in his work known as the Florentine Codex, emphasizes the efforts of men in the creation of this high-prestige clothing, identifying them as ‘the feather workers’, his discussion allows us to grasp the important and regular involvement of women in the process. These women, members of the same kin group as the men, were responsible for dyeing the feathers, choosing colors, and manipulating the dyes to produce the appropriate designs.
Location or Context
Also considered to be important is the location of production. Location is often summed up as either household or workshop, that is to say as being the same as where people live and engage in the activities of daily life or in some separate place. These spatial locations imply a number of things about the organization and relations of production. They also connect to the issue of how much time is devoted to the craft. A household-based production system is often also a part-time one and, even if full time, may more easily involve other members of the household, as in the case of the South Asian potter or the Aztec feather worker. The establishment of workshops may indicate a greater intensity of production and the interaction of people not necessarily closely related or bound by the same social ties as those that characterize households or families. Distinct spatial locations may also indicate differences in the scale of production, in terms of the amount produced or the number of people involved. Unlike Aztec weavers who mostly worked at home on a part-time basis, Mesopotamian city-states during the Ur III period established weaving workshops staffed by female slaves or semi-free women who were closely supervised by agents appointed by the government. These women received little compensation for their efforts beyond subsistence and had lost most or all ability to control their labor or its products. The relationships outlined here are by no means invariant but thinking about where production takes place has proved to be fruitful in attempting to understand how the production of the same sort of final product may be organized in quite different ways.
Social Relations between Producer and Consumer
Another way that archaeologists have approached the question of specialization is by considering the nature of the social relations between producer and consumer and between who makes and who controls the objects produced. Two types have been defined: ‘attached’ and ‘independent’ specialists. These categories have proved useful in considering how craft production contributes to social change and the accumulation or reinforcement of political power. Attached specialists work for a patron, usually an individual or social group of high social status and sufficient wealth to provide the support. In many cases, the patron is the governing authority itself. The patron in effect exercises some degree of monopoly over the labor of the specialists and assumes control over the disposition of what the specialists produce. In return, the patron provides the support, which may include the raw materials or even the tools as well as food, housing, or other benefits, allowing the specialists to devote themselves to their productive activity. Independent specialists operate on their own account, as it were, relying on other mechanisms of exchange such as markets to trade what they have produced for other goods and services. Archaeologists working in the Late Intermediate period city of Chan Chan in Peru, seat of the Chavin Empire, have argued for the presence of both kinds of specialists, identifiable in part through differences in spatial location as well as kinds of materials being produced. Attached specialists lived and worked next to large elite residential compounds, whereas independent ones carried out their production in work areas integrated into their houses which were located in parts of the city away from elite compounds.
World History
