Shifting balances in a ‘craft community’

Abstract

This article seeks to critically examine conceptualisations of community through the study of a ‘traditional craft industry’ in the Tamil town of Pattamadai. Arguing through detailed ethnographic analysis that both the substantialist and constructivist models of community ignore individual agency as well as tension within a group characterised as a ‘craft community’, this article attempts to present a nuanced portrait of a group of people bound together by locality, kinship and shared occupation, yet pursuing their own individual goals, especially in response to development interventions. The article focuses on three interconnected issues: (i) the way in which community is conceptualised in the context of ‘traditional craft groups’; (ii) the lived experience of one particular group of craft producers; and (iii) the role of individuals in the interface between ideology and practice.