Gender and the Reorganization of Historic Zuni Craft Production: Implications for Archaeological Interpretation

Abstract

Over the past century, there has been a dramatic reorganization of craft production at Zuni Pueblo, including a change from a gender-specific economic system to one in which gender is less of an organizational principle. Concurrently changes in learning contexts, resource acquisition, labor scheduling, production scale, product demand, and, ultimately, the finished products have occurred. The interrelationships among these variables are discussed, and the reorganization of production is placed within the context of broader changes in Zuni ecology and political economy. Archaeological implications drawn from the historic Zuni case study include: (1) the diversity of products and production scales that may co-occur within a gender-specific economic system; (2) the material correlates of changes in gendered systems of production; and (3) the interrelationships of changes in nonsubsistence and subsistence production.