“They Too Can Help”: Hidden Producers and Flexibility in the Organization of Collaborative Labor in Pottery-Making Households in Michoacán, México From the 1940s to 2020

Abstract

ABSTRACT Eight decades of ethnographic research provide a rich dataset for studying the changing organization of labor in households involved in specialized pottery production in the Purépecha region of Michoacán, Mexico. Relevant ethnographies are examined to identify the contributions of household members who might be considered “the potter” and the “hidden producers” who are integral to production. This study finds task differentiation, flexibility in task allocation by age and gender, innovation in response to market demand, and changing household composition, together with persistence of household-level pottery production across eight decades. The task-based division of labor and flexible allocation of tasks to different household members facilitates intensification of production, when necessary, and its persistence through political instability, shifting markets, population increase, state-level intervention in pottery production, and wage labor migration out of the region. This approach provides a dynamic, longitudinal model for understanding the organization of household pottery production in the past.