To Learn Weaving Below the Rock: Making Zapotec Textiles and Artisans in Teotitlan Del Valle, Mexico

"In the first half of the study, images of indigenous artisans specific to the post-Mexican revolutionary period and specific to an economy most recently geared towards exporting textiles to the Southwestern US are described as constituting the discursive and economic context of Zapotec textile production. I argue that the positions most Teotiteco weavers hold in the relations of production are exploitative, and our images of them and the textiles they make are both perpetuated and rationalized through this framework. In the second half, this ""context"" is framed in terms of Pierre Bourdieu's theory of ""fields of cultural production""--sets of historical relations between positions, anchored in forms of power, all working to define and legitimate competing material and symbolic cultural products. I argue that a joint Bourdieulian/Vygotskian framework lends greater explanatory power to our understanding of the connections between the skills and knowledge of Zapotec weavers and the context of their acquisition. My conclusions support the assertions of interactionist and cultural-historical theories of knowledge and practice which posit that knowledge is created through the historically and culturally-specific daily practices of individual agents."

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Anthropology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Wood, William Warner

Contributors dc:contributor

• Janet Dixon Keller

• Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI9812809

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/85311