Session: #621

Theme & Session Format

Theme:
1. Artefacts, Buildings & Ecofacts
Session format:
Session with keynote presentation and discussion

Title & Content

Title:
’Specialisation, Standardisation and Diversity’: Re-examining the Role of Mass Production in Archaeology
Content:
Mass production allows for a set of behaviours viewed as distinctly modern, relating to the mass consumption and mass discard of material goods. Mass production has been considered as a force disrupting traditional modes of production and an agent of globalization marking the age of supermodernity (González-Ruibal 2014, 1). Despite its modern connotations, archaeologists have also utilised the term ‘mass produced’ in specific pre-modern cases to describe classes of abundant material goods.

In this session, we create a platform for debating characterisations of mass production across archaeological contexts and discussing its impact on past social practices and behaviours. A common assumption relating to mass production is that it corresponds to processes of standardisation and labour specialisation. However, studies into early forms of mass produced ceramics show that production frequency does not always lead to higher levels of standardisation (e.g. Fragnoli 2021). Furthermore, although current capitalist economics assumes a causal relationship between consumer demand and production intensity, the link between the abundance and availability of objects and their frequency of use remains underexplored in archaeology.

We welcome diverse approaches to the study of material culture interpreted as mass produced from across archaeological contexts as well as more general discussion papers on the topic of mass production in archaeology. Topics of interest include the relation between standardisation, labour specialisation and production intensification and the relation between changing consumption patterns and mass-production. With this, we aim to develop a critical understanding of the concept of mass production and its utility for describing past material phenomena.

González-Ruibal, A. 2014, Archaeology of the Contemporary Past, in Claire Smith (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, New York: Springer, 1683-1694

Fragnoli, P. 2021, Re-assessing the notion(s) of craft standardization through diversity statistics: A pilot study on Late Chalcolithic pottery from Arslantepe in Eastern Anatolia, Plos One 16(1).
Keywords:
Mass production, Standardisation, Specialisation, Consumption, Demand
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:

Organisers

Main organiser:
Beatrijs de Groot (United Kingdom) 1
Co-organisers:
Roberta Mentesana (Spain) 2
Affiliations:
1. School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh
2. GRACPE-ARQUB, Dept. d'Història i Arqueologia, Facultat de Geografia i Història, Universitat de Barcelona