It is often claimed that women were the first potters. While this may or may not be the case, the earliest pottery techniques are still used today in many parts of the world, largely by women. Moira Vincentelli proposes that a women's tradition in ceramics is one in which pottery making is a gendered activity intimately connected with female identity. The knowledge is passed down from one generation to the next, mother to daughter, aunt to niece. In much of Africa, South East Asia, Oceania, and among the indigenous peoples of the Americas this is still the case, but even in Europe and the Middle East there are villages that preserve such traditions. The work is usually handbuilt and fired in a bonfire or a simple kiln, as women's traditions rarely involve wheel throwing. It is mostly functional pottery for cooking, storage, and water but its everyday purpose belies the deep symbolic meanings that it may also carry-from beer pots for celebrations and ritual drinking to broken pots as symbols of death. The book also includes a chapter on figurative ceramics made by women. Vincentelli guides the reader through these traditions continent by continent. Different areas are illustrated with beautiful, detailed maps and fascinating color photographs from around the world. Central to her argument is the proposition that, far from disappearing as is so often claimed, these traditions are adapting and accommodating to new conditions. Often the potters are the bearers of cultural identity in an increasingly globalized world. This book should appeal not only to those interested in ceramics, but also to those with an interest in world art outside the western tradition, in women's studies, material culture, archaeology, and social anthropology.
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