ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I would like to discuss the socioeconomic aspects of pottery making in Northern Maluku, Indonesia, as a mode of pottery production comparable to those in other areas. In particular, I will examine the system of producing a large amount of standardized handmade pottery, and will discuss how this pottery production is woven into the social system. Recent theories on the “anthropology of technology” rightly emphasize the social embeddedness of technology (Lemonnier 1992), and we now understand that the study of technology, including pottery production, should not be limited to examining the techniques for exploiting materials and shaping pottery in a narrow sense. We need to construct an integrated framework in order to understand the production, distribution, and consumption of pottery. In this chapter, I will propose a framework for that purpose by focusing on the production and exchange of pottery on Mare Island. This analysis will lead to an explication of the material aspects of the coexistence of societies with their specialized products and subsistence means, including pottery, blacksmithing, crops, fishing, and so on.
