Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Learning from Each Other: a Communities of Practice Approach to Decorative Traditions of Northern Iroquoian Communities in the Late Woodland

  • Published:
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this paper, we employ a communities of practice approach to investigate precontact childhood social learning and pottery production in the Lower Great Lakes. Until recently, there has been an implicit assumption that childhood learning involved primarily parent-child interactions. Building on current research that has begun to improve understanding of Indigenous socialization strategies, we apply a multi-scalar decorative analysis to investigate traditions of learning among potting communities in Southern Ontario and upstate New York, from ca. 900–1650 CE. Through a series of statistical analyses, we demonstrate a remarkable continuity in motif practices by child potters that is not evident among skilled potters, who were more impacted by social, demographic, and economic changes in their communities. The multi-generational tradition spanning at least 750 years leads us to suggest that child potters learned primarily in child groups through peer-to-peer learning. Although peer-to-peer learning has been observed ethnographically, this practice has often been overlooked in archaeology and warrants further inquiry.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adamson, J., & Davis, M. (Eds.). (2016). Humanities for the environment: integrating knowledge, forging new constellations of practice. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, K. M. (1992). Iroquois ceramic production: A case of household-level organization. In G. J. Bey III and C. A. Pool (Eds.), Ceramic production and distribution: An integrated approach, (pp. 133–154). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

  • Andrieux, M., & Proteau, L. (2013). Observation |learning of a motor task: who and when? Experimental Brain Research, 229(1), 125–137.

    Google Scholar 

  • Archaeological Services Inc. (ASI) (2006). The stage 4 salvage excavation of the baker site (AkGu-15), Lot 11, concession 2 (WYS) Block 10, O.P.A 400, former township of Vaughan, City of Vaughan, regional municipality of york, Ontario. Toronto: Report on file at the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport.

  • Archaeological Services Inc. (ASI) (2008). Report on the stage 3-4 salvage excavation of the Alexandra Site (AkGt-53), draft plan of subdivision SC-T20000001 (55T-00601), Geographic Township of Scarborough Now in the City of Toronto, Ontario. Toronto: Report on file at the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport.

  • Archaeological Services Inc. (ASI) (2009). The archaeology of the Holly Site (BcGw-58), stage 4 salvage excavation of the Holly Site, Dykstra Subdivision, Holly Secondary planning Area (43T-92026), part of the Northeast Half of Lot 2, Concession 12, City of Barrie, Simcoe County, Ontario. Toronto: Report on file at the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport.

  • Archaeological Services Inc. (ASI) (2010). Report on the salvage excavation of the Antrex Site (AjGv-38), City of Mississauga, Regional Municipality of Peel, Ontario. Toronto: Report on file at the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport.

  • Archaeological Services Inc. (ASI) (2012). The archaeology of the mantle site (AIGt-334), Report on the Stage 3-4 Mitigative Excavation of the mantle Site (AIGt-334), Part of Lot 22, Concession 9, Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville, Regional Municipality of York, Ontario. Toronto: Report on file at the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport.

  • Archaeological Services Inc. (ASI) (2005). The archaeology of the Wellington site (BcGw-55), Stage 4 Salvage excavations of the Wellington site, Holly secondary planning area (43T-(2023), part of the East Half of Lot 3, Concession 12, City of Barrie, Simcoe County. Ontario. Toronto: Report on file at the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport.

  • Archaeological Services Inc. (ASI) (2012). The archaeology of the McNair site (AlGu-8), A report on the stage 3-4 mitigative excavation of the McNair site (AlGu-8), Block 12, OPA 400 draft plan of subdivision 19T-89124 (Major Bob Farms Inc.) and draft plan of subdivision 19T-99V-08 (Andridge Homes Limited Lands) part of lots 24 and 25, Concession 2 in the City of Vaughan Regional Municipality of York, Ontario. Toronto: Report on file at the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport.

  • Barber, C. B., Dobkin, D. P., & Huhdanpaa, H. (1996). The Quickhull algorithm for convex hulls. ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software (TOMS), 22(4), 469–483.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baxter, J. E. (2008). The archaeology of childhood. Annual Review of Anthropology, 37(1), 159–175.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baxter, J. E. (2015). The devil’s advocate or our worst case scenario: the archaeology of childhood without any children. In G. Coşkunsu (Ed.), The archaeology of childhood: Interdisciplinary perspectives on an archaeological enigma (pp. 19–36). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baxter, J. E., Vey, S., McGuire, E. H., Conway, C., & Blom, D. E. (2017). Reflections on interdisciplinarity in the study of childhood in the past. Childhood in the Past: An International Journal, 10(1), 57–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birch, J. (2010). Coalescence and conflict in Iroquoian Ontario. Archaeological Review from Cambridge, 25(1), 27–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birch, J. (2012). Coalescent communities: settlement aggregation and social integration in Iroquoian Ontario. American Antiquity, 77(4), 646–670.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birch, J. (2015). Current research on the historical development of northern Iroquoian societies. Journal of Archaeological Research, 23(3), 263–323.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birch, J., & Hart, J. P. (2018). Social networks and northern Iroquoian confederacy dynamics. American Antiquity, 83(1), 13–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birch, J., & Williamson, R. F. (2013). The mantle site: an archaeological history of an Ancestral Wendat Community. Lanham, MD: AltaMira,

  • Birch, J., Wojtowicz, R. B., Pradzynski, A., & Pihl, R. H. (2017). Multi-scalar perspectives on Iroquoian ceramics. In E. Jones & J. Creese (Eds.), Process and meaning in spatial archaeology (pp. 111–144). Boulder: University Press of Colorado.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bird, D. W., Bird, R., & B. (2000). The ethnoarchaeology of juvenile foraging: shellfishing strategies among Meriam children. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 19(4), 461–476.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blair, E. H. (2016). Glass beads and constellations of practice. In A. Stahl & A. Roddick (Eds.), Knowledge in motion: constellations of learning across time and space (pp. 97–125). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blaževičius, P. (2019). Child labour based on dermatoglyphic research of ceramic objects. Childhood in the Past: An International Journal, 12(1), 6–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bogin, B. (2015). Human growth and development. In P. Meuhlenbein (Ed.), Basics in human evolution (pp. 285–293). London, U.K.: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowker, G. C., Timmermans, S., Clarke, A. E., & Balka, E. (Eds.). (2015). Boundary objects and beyond: working with Leigh Star. Cambridge: MIT Press.

  • Bowser, B. J., & Patton, J. Q. (2008). Learning and transmission of pottery style: women’s life histories and communities of practice in the Ecuadorian Amazon. In M. T. Stark, B. J. Bowser, & L. Horne (Eds.), Cultural transmission and material culture: Breaking down boundaries (pp. 105–129). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyette, A. H., & Hewlett, B. S. (2018). Teaching in hunter-gatherers. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 9(4), 771–797.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braun, G.V., 2010. Technological choices: ceramic manufacture and u

  • Braun, G. V. (2012). Petrography as a technique for investigating Iroquoian ceramic production and smoking rituals. Journal of Archaeological Science, 39(1), 1–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braun, G. V. (2015). Ritual, materiality, and memory in an Iroquoian Village (unpublished dissertation), University of Toronto.

  • Briggs, J. L. (1991). Expecting the unexpected: Canadian Inuit training for an experimental lifestyle. Ethos, 19(3), 259–287.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brumbach, H. J. (2011). The history of the collared rim in the Finger Lakes, New York. In C. B. Rieth & J. P. Hart (Eds.), Current research in New York archaeology: AD 700–1300 (pp. 83–94). Albany: New York State Education Department.

    Google Scholar 

  • Budden, S. (2008). Skill amongst the sherds: understanding the role of skill in the Early to Late Middle Bronze Age in Hungary. In I. Berg (Ed.), Breaking the Mould: Challenging the past through pottery (pp. 1–17). Oxford: BAR International Series.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chrisholm, J. S. (1996). Learning “respect for everything”: Navajo images of development. In P. Hwang, I. Sigel, & M. Lamb (Eds.), Images of childhood (pp. 167–183). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Creese, J. L. (2011). Deyughnyonkwarakda–“At the Wood’s Edge”: the development of the Iroquoian Village in Southern Ontario, AD 900–1500 (unpublished dissertation), University of Toronto.

  • Crown, P. (2001). Learning to make pottery in the Prehispanic American Southwest. Journal of Anthropological Research, 57(4), 451–469.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crown, P. (2007a). Learning about learning. In J. Skibo, M. Graves, & M. Stark (Eds.), Archaeological anthropology: perspectives on method and theory (pp. 198–217). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crown, P. (2007b). Life histories of pots and potters: situating the individual in archaeology. American Antiquity, 72(4), 677–690.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crown, P. (2010). Learning in and from the past. In D. Lancy, J. Bock, & S. Gaskins (Eds.), The anthropology of learning in childhood (pp. 397–418). Walnut Creek: Altamira Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crown, P. (2014). The archaeology of crafts learning: becoming a potter in the Puebloan southwest. Annual Review of Anthropology, 43(1), 71–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cybulski, J. S. (1994). Culture change, demographic history, and health and disease on the northwest coast. In C. L. Larsen & G. Milner (Eds.), The wake of contact: Biological responses to conquest (pp. 75–85). New York: Wiley-Liss.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeLaoche, J., & Gottlieb, A. (Eds.). (2000). A world of babies: imagined childcare guides for seven societies. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dermarkar, S. (2019). Identify formation at the Keffer Iroquoian Village: a relational network approach to communities of practice (unpublished dissertation). University of Toronto.

  • d'Errico, F., & Banks, W. E. (2015). The archaeology of teaching: a conceptual framework. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 25(4), 859–866.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dodd, C. F., Poulton, D., Lennox, P. A., Smith, D. G., & Warrick, G. (1990). The Middle Ontario Iroquoian stage. In C. J. Ellis & N. Ferris (Eds.), The Archaeology of Southern Ontario to A.D. 1650 (pp. 321-359). London, ON: Occasional Publications of the London Chapter, Ontario Archaeological Society.

  • Dorland, S. G. H. (2018a). Maintaining traditions: A study of Southern Ontario late woodland ceramics through a communities-of-practice approach. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 25(3), 892–910.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorland, S. G. H. (2018b). The touch of a child: an analysis of fingernail impressions on late woodland pottery to identify childhood material interactions. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 21, 298–304.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorland, S. G. H. (2019). Childhood Learning Landscapes of Late Woodland Villages in the 15th Century (unpublished dissertation), University of Toronto.

  • Dunteman, G. (1989). Principal component analysis (pp. 07–69). Thousand Oaks: Sage University Paper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dupras, T. L. (2003). The Moatfield infant and juvenile skeletal remains. In R. F. Williamson & S. Pfeiffer (Eds.), Bones of the Ancestors: The Archaeology and Osteobiography of the Moatfield Ossuary (pp.295-308). Gatineau, QB: Canadian Museum of Civilization, Mercury Series, Archaeology Paper No. 163.

  • Emerson, J. N. (1954). The archaeology of the Ontario Iroquois. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Emerson, J. N. (1966). The Payne site: an Iroquoian manifestation in Prince Edward County. Ontario. National Museum of Canada Bulletin No., 206, 126–257.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fassoulas, A., Rossie, J. P., & Procopiou, H. (2020). Children, play, and learning tasks: from North African clay toys to Neolithic figurines. Ethnoarchaeology, 12(1), 36–62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Faulconbridge, J. R. (2010). Global architects: learning and innovation through communities and constellations of practice. Environment and Planning A, 42(12), 2842–2858.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson, J. R. (2008). The when, where, and how of novices in craft production. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 15(1), 51–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgerald, W. R. (1982). A refinement of historic neutral chronologies: evidence from Shaver Hill, Christianson, and Dwyer. Ontario Archaeology, 38, 31–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgerald, W. R., & Ramsden, P. G. (1988). Copper based metal testing as an aid to understanding early European-Amerindian interaction: scratching the surface. Canadian Journal of Archaeology, 12, 153–161.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgerald, W. R. (1990). Chronology to culture process: Lower great lakes archaeology, 1500-1650 (unpublished dissertation), McGill University, Montreal.

  • Forrest, C. L. (2010). Iroquoian Infant Mortality and Juvenile Growth 1250 to 1700 AD (unpublished dissertation), University of Toronto.

  • Funk, R. E., & Kuhn, R. D. (Eds.). (2003). Three sixteenth-century Mohawk Iroquois Village sites the University of the State of New York. Albany, NY: New York State Museum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gosselain, O. P. (2016). The world is like a beanstalk: historicizing potting practice and social relations in the Niger River area. In A. P. Roddick & A. B. Stahl (Eds.), Knowledge in motion: constellations of learning across time and place (pp. 36–66). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graves, M. W. (1985). Ceramic design variation within a Kalinga Village: temporal and spatial processes. In B. Nelson (Ed.), Decoding prehistoric ceramics (pp. 5–34). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guemple, D. L. (1979). Inuit socialization: a study of children as social actors in an Eskimo community. In I. Karigoudar (Ed.), Childhood and adolescence in Canada (pp. 39–71). Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hart, J. P., Brumbach, H. J., & Lusteck, R. (2007). Extending the phytolith evidence for early maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) and squash (Cucurbita sp.) in Central New York. American Antiquity 72(3):563–583.

  • Hart, J. P., & Engelbrecht, W. (2012). Northern Iroquoian ethnic evolution: a social network analysis. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 19(2), 322–349.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hart, J. P., Shafie, T., Birch, J., Dermarkar, S., & Williamson, R. F. (2016). Nation building and social signaling in southern Ontario: AD 1350–1650. PLoS One, 11(5), e0156178.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hart, J. P., Winchell-Sweeney, S., & Birch, J. (2019). An analysis of network brokerage and geographic location in fifteenth-century AD Northern Iroquoia. PLoS One, 14(1), e0209689.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkins, A. L. (2004). Recreating home? A consideration of refugees, microstyles and frilled pottery in Huronia. Ontario Archaeology, 77(78), 62–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkins, A. L., Malleau, K., & Elliott, D. (2018). A consideration of participants in Huron-Wendat subsistence strategies across the pre-contact and early colonization periods. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 20(August), 873–880.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hewlett, B. S., Fouts, H. N., Boyette, A. H., & Hewlett, B. L. (2011). Social learning among Congo Basin hunter-gatherers. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B: Biological Sciences, 366(1567), 1168–1178.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ionico, D. A. (2019). The products of turbulent times: continuities and change of 17th century neutral Iroquoian Ceramic Technology (Unpublished master’s Thesis), McMaster University.

  • Jackes, M. (1988). The osteology of the Grimsby site. Edmonton: University of Alberta.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaffe, Y., & Cao, B. (2018). Communities of mortuary practice: a renewed study of the Tianma-Qucun Western Zhou cemetery. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 28(1), 23–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kamp, K. A. (2001a). Prehistoric children working and playing: a southwestern case study in learning ceramics. Journal of Anthropological Research, 57(4), 427–450.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kamp, K. A. (2001b). Where have all the children gone?: The archaeology of childhood. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 8(1), 1–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kamp, K. A., Timmerman, N., Lind, G., Graybill, J., & Natowsky, I. (1999). Discovering childhood: using fingerprints to find children in the archaeological record. American Antiquity, 64(2), 309–315.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kenyon, W. (1968). The miller site. Toronto, On: Royal Ontario Museum, Art and Archaeology Division, Occasional Paper No. 14.

  • Králík, M., Urbanová, P., & Hložek, M. (2008). Finger, hand and foot imprints: the evidence of children on archaeological artefacts. In L. H. Dommasnes & M. Wrigglesworth (Eds.), Children, identity and the past (pp. 1–15). Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kramer, K. L., & Veile, A. (2018). Infant allocare in traditional societies. Physiology & Behavior, 193(Pt A), 117–126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Labelle, K. (2008). History repeats itself: huron childrearing attitudes, eurocentricity, and the importance of indigenous world view. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 31(2), 4–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lancy, D. F. (2015). The anthropology of childhood: cherubs, chattel, changelings. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lancy, D. F. (2016). Playing with knives: the socialization of self-initiated learners. Child Development, 87(3), 654–665.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lancy, D. F., & Grove, M. A. (2010). Learning guided by others. In D. F. Lancy, S. Gaskins, & J. Bock (Eds.), The anthropology of learning in childhood (pp. 145–179). Lanham: Alta-Mira Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lancy, D. F., Gaskins, S., & Bock, J. (2010). Putting learning into context. In D. F. Lancy, S. Gaskins, & J. Bock (Eds.), The anthropology of learning in childhood (pp. 3–10). Lanham: Alta-Mira Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leigh Star, S. (2010). This is not a boundary object: reflections on the origin of a concept. Science, Technology & Human Values, 35(5), 601–617.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leigh Star, S., & Griesemer, J. R. (1989). Institutional ecology, ‘translations’ and boundary objects: amateurs and professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-1938. Social Studies of Science, 19(3), 387–420.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lennox, P. A. (1981). The Hamilton site: a late historic neutral town (p. 103). Ottawa: National Museum of Man Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper No.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lennox, P. A. (2000). The Molson site: an early seventeenth century, first nations settlement, Simcoe County, Ontario. London, ON: London Museum of Archaeology, Research Bulletin No., 18.

  • Lillehammer, G. (2015). 25 years with the ‘child’ and the archaeology of childhood. Childhood in the Past: An International Journal, 8(2), 78–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacDonald, R. I., & Williamson, R. F. (2001). Sweat lodges and solidarity: the archaeology of the Hubbert site. Ontario Archaeology, 71, 29–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martelle, H. (2002). Huron Potters and Archaeological Constructs: Researching Ceramic Micro-stylistics (unpublished dissertation), University of Toronto.

  • Martelle, H. (2004). Some thoughts on the impact of epidemic disease and European contact on ceramic production in seventeenth century Huronia. Ontario Archaeology, 77(78), 22–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayer, Poulton and Associates Inc. (1989). Archaeological resource mitigation; union gas pipeline from Kirkwall valve site to Hamilton gas station number 3, regional municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth, phase 3, Union gas limited, Chatham, Ontario. Culture and Sport, Toronto: Report on file at the Ontario Ministry of Tourism.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCarty, T. L., Wallace, S., Lynch, R. H., & Benally, A. (1991). Classroom inquiry and Navajo learning styles: a call for reassessment. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 22(1), 42–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michelaki, K. (2007). More than meets the eye: reconsidering variability in Iroquoian ceramics. Canadian Journal of Archaeology/Journal Canadien d'Archéologie, 31, 143–170.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mills, B. J. (2018). Intermarriage, technological diffusion, and boundary objects in the US southwest. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 25(4), 1051–1086.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mueller, N. G. (2017). Seeds as artifacts of communities of practice: the domestication of erect knotweed in Eastern North America (unpublished dissertation). Louis: Washington University St.

    Google Scholar 

  • Noble, W. C. (1973). Van Besien (AfHd-2): a study in Glen Meyer development. Ontario Archaeology, 24, 3–95.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ohmagari, K., & Berkes, F. (1997). Transmission of indigenous knowledge and bush skills among the Western James Bay Cree women of subarctic Canada. Journal of Human Ecology, 25(2), 197–222.

    Google Scholar 

  • Park, R. W. (1998). Size counts: the miniature archaeology of childhood in Inuit societies. Antiquity, 72(276), 269–281.

    Google Scholar 

  • Park, R. W. (2005). Growing up north: exploring the archaeology of childhood in the Thule and Dorset cultures of Arctic Canada. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 15(1), 53–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearce, R. J. (1978a). A description of the juvenile ceramics recovered during the 1975 field season at the draper site. London, Ontario: Museum of Indian Archaeology at the University of Western Ontario, Research Report No. 3.

  • Pearce, R. J. (1978b). A preliminary report on the Draper Site Rim Sherds. London, ON: Museum of Indian Archaeology at the University of Western Ontario, research report no. 1.

  • Pendergast, J. F. (1974). The Sugarbush site. Toronto, ON: The Ontario Archaeological Society, Research Report No., 23.

  • Poell, R. F., Van der Krogt, F. J., & Wildemeersch, D. (1999). Strategies in organizing work-related learning projects. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 10(1), 43–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, D. A., Monckton, S. G., & Williamson, R. F. (1995). The Wiacek site revisited: the results of the 1990 excavations. Ontario Archaeology, 60, 40–91.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roddick, A. P. (2016). Scalar relations: a juxtaposition of craft learning in the Lake Titicaca Basin. In A. P. Roddick & A. B. Stahl (Eds.), Knowledge in motion: making communities and constellations of practice across time and place (pp. 126–154). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roddick, A. P., & Stahl, A. B. (2016). Knowledge in motion: making communities and constellations of practice across time and place. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rohbanfard, H., & Proteau, L. (2011). Learning through observation: a combination of expert and novice models favors learning. Experimental Brain Research, 215(3/4), 183–197.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rozel, R. J. (1979). The Gunby Site and Late Pickering Interactions (unpublished master’s thesis). McMaster University.

  • Ruthsatz, J., Ruthsatz, K., & Stephens, K. R. (2014). Putting practice into perspective: child prodigies as evidence of innate talent. Intelligence, 45, 60–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rye, O. (1981). Pottery technology: principles and reconstruction. Washington: Taraxacum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sánchez Romero, M., García, E, Alarcon, & Jimenez, G., Aranda. (2015). Children, childhood and space: multidisciplinary approaches to identity. In M. Sánchez Romero, E. Alarcon García, & G. Aranda Jimenez (Eds.), Children, spaces and identity, (pp. 2–9). Oxford: Oxbow Books.

  • Sassaman, K. E. (2016). A constellation of practice in the experience of sea-level rise. In A. P. Roddick & B. A. (Eds.), Knowledge in motion: constellations of learning across time and place (pp. 271–298). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sassaman, K. E., & Rudolphi, W. (2001). Communities of practice in the early pottery traditions of the American Southeast. Journal of Anthropological Research, 57(4), 407–425.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saunders, S. R. (1986). The Mackenzie site human skeletal material. Ontario Archaeology, 45, 9–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schumacher, J. (2013). Exploring technological style and use in the Ontario Early Late Woodland: the Van Besien Site (unpublished master’s thesis), McMaster University.

  • Skibo, J. M. (2013). Understanding pottery function. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, D. G. (1991). Keffer site (AkGv-14): pottery and ceramic smoking pipes. London, ON: London Museum of Archaeology, Research Report No., 23.

  • Smith, D. G. (1997). Archaeological systematics and the analysis of Iroquoian ceramics: a case study from the Crawford Lake area, Ontario. London, ON: London Museum of Archaeology, Research Bulletin No., 15.

  • Smith, P. E. (1998). When small pots speak the stories they tell: the role of children in ceramic innovation in prehistoric Huron Society as seen through the analysis of juvenile pots (unpublished master’s thesis), McMaster University.

  • Smith, P. E. (2005). Children and ceramic innovation: a study in the archaeology of children. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 15(1), 65–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, D. G. (2014). Singing pots: symmetry as cultural expression in ancestral Wendat ceramics from South-Central Ontario. In Paper presented at the 79th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Austin: TX.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sprott, J. E. (2002). Raising young children in an Alaskan Iñupiaq Village: the family, cultural, and village environment of rearing. Westport: Bergin & Garvey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Striker, S. (2018). The social dynamics of coalescence: ancestral Wendat communities 1400-1550 CE (unpublished dissertation), Arizona State University.

  • Striker, S., Howie, L., & Williamson, R. F. (2017). Forming pots and community: pottery production and potter interaction in an ancestral Wendat Village. In S. L. L. Varela (Ed.), Innovative approaches and explorations in ceramic studies (pp. 53–69). Oxford: Archaeopress.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manning, S. T., Birch, J., Conger, M. A., Dee, M. W., Griggs, C., Hadden, C. S., Hogg, A. G., Ramsey, C. B., Sanft, S., Steier, P., & Wild, E. M. (2018). Radiocarbon re-dating of contact-era Iroquoian history in northeastern North America. Science Advances, 4(12):eaav0280.

  • Suko, A. (2017). Practice molds place: communities of pottery production and situated identities at location 3 (AgHk-54). Canadian Journal of Archaeology, 3, 238–268.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutton, R. E. (1999). The Barrie site: a pioneering Iroquoian Village located in Simcoe County, Ontario. Ontario Archaeology, 67, 40–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Takada, A. (2016). Education and learning during social situations among the Central Kalahari San. In H. Terashima & B. Hewlett (Eds.), Social learning and innovation in contemporary hunter-gatherers (pp. 97–112). Tokyo: Springer Japan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thwaites, R. G. (1896–1901). The Jesuit relations and allied documents: travels and explorations of the Jesuit missionaries in New France, 1610-1791 (Vol. 73). Cleveland: Burrows Brothers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Timmins, P. A. (1997). The Calvert site: an interpretive framework for the Early Iroquoian Village. Hull, QC: Canadian Museum of Civilization.

  • Trias, M. C., Rosselló, J. G., Molina, D. J., & Santacreu, D. A. (2015). Playing with mud? An ethnoarchaeological approach to children’s learning in Kusasi ceramic production. In M. S. Romero, E. A. García, & G. A. Jimenez (Eds.), Children, Spaces and Identity (pp. 88–104). Oxford: Oxbow Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Keuren, S. (2006). Decorating glaze-painted pottery in East-Central Arizona. In J. A. Habicht-Mauche, D. L. Huntley, & S. L. Eckert (Eds.), The social life of pots: Glaze wares and cultural dynamics in the southwest, AD 1250–1680 (pp. 86–104). Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Varley, C. (1991). Variations on a theme: the Carson Site (unpublished master’s thesis). McMaster University.

  • Wallaert, H. (2001). Learning how to make the right pots: apprenticeship strategies and material culture, a case study in handmade pottery from Cameroon. Journal of Anthropological Research, 57(4), 471–493.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallaert, H. (2008). The way of the Potter’s mother: apprenticeship strategies among dii potters from Cameroon, West Africa. In M. Stark, B., Bowser, & L. Horne (Eds.), Cultural transmission and material culture: Breaking down boundaries (pp.178–198). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

  • Wallaert, H. (2012). Apprenticeship and the confirmation of social boundaries. In W. Wendrich (Ed.), Archaeology and apprenticeship: body knowledge, identity, and communities of practice (pp. 20–42). Tucson: AZ: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warrick, G. (1984). Reconstructing Ontario Iroquois Village Organization (p. 124). Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization Mercury Series, Archaeological Paper No.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warrick, G. A. (2008). A population history of the Huron-Petun, AD 500-1650. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  • Watts, C. M. (2008). Pot/potter entanglements and networks of agency in Late Woodland Period (c. AD 900–1300) Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Oxford: BAR International Series.

  • Weisner, T. S., Gallimore, R., Bacon, M. K., Barry III, H., Bell, C., Novaes, S. C., Edwards, C. P., Goswami, B. B., Minturn, L., Nerlove, S. B., & Koel, A. (1977). My brother’s keeper: child and sibling caretaking [and comments and reply]. Current Anthropology, 18(2), 169–190.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wendrich, W. (2012). Archaeology and apprenticeship: body knowledge, identity, and communities of practice. In Archaeology and apprenticeship: body knowledge, identity, and communities of practice (pp. 1–19). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). A guide to managing knowledge: cultivating communities of practice. Harvard Business School Press.

  • Williamson, R. F. (2014). The archaeological history of the Wendat to AD 1651: an overview. Ontario Archaeology, 94, 3–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, J. V. (1966). The Ontario Iroquois tradition (p. 210). Ottawa: National Museum of Canada, Research Bulletin No.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, J. V. (1972). The Dougall site. Ontario Archaeology, 17(1), 3–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, Milton J. (1981). The Walker Site. Ottawa: National Museum of Man Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper 103.

Download references

Acknowledgments

First, we acknowledge the land on which this research was completed. For thousands of years, Wendat, Mississauga of the Credit, Haudenosaunee, and other Indigenous Nations in southern Ontario and upstate New York have acted as keepers of land and continue to do so. We recognize the privilege and opportunity associated with the study of their ancestral artifacts. We are also grateful to the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto Mississauga and St. George campuses, the New York State Museum, and Sustainable Archaeology, especially Kathryn David, Ralph Rataul, Scott Martin, and Heather Hatch, for their resources and assisting us in accessing the various collections. Some of the site reports were not available online, and so we express thanks to Archaeological Services Inc. for providing copies. Lastly, we would like to thank the reviewers for their time and their valuable comments. The authors alone are responsible for all errors or omissions in this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Toronto, Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

    Steven G. H. Dorland

  2. Lab for Interdisciplinary Research on Archaeology Ceramics (LIRAC), McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    Daniel Ionico

Authors
  1. Steven G. H. Dorland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Daniel Ionico
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steven G. H. Dorland.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Dorland, S.G.H., Ionico, D. Learning from Each Other: a Communities of Practice Approach to Decorative Traditions of Northern Iroquoian Communities in the Late Woodland. J Archaeol Method Theory 28, 671–703 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-020-09487-2

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-020-09487-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation