APRENDIZAGEM E TRANSMISSÃO DE ESTILOS CERÂMICOS: A HISTÓRIA DE VIDA DAS MULHERES E AS COMUNIDADES DA PRÁTICA NA AMAZÔNIA EQUATORIANA.

How and why people construct, maintain, and transform the material styles associated with cultural boundaries is a central issue in understanding continuity and change in the archaeological record. Questions about transmission of domestic pottery style from mother to daughter in matrilocal societies were a fundamental impetus for the development of many archaeologists' interests in learning and cultural transmission. In such contexts, archaeologists initially expected strong intergenerational continuity in pottery style and well-delineated social boundaries. However, continuity in material culture is not simply the result of unconscious transmission of ideas from generation to generation, a form of native conservatism, or a propensity to do things in the same way as the previous generation, according to the manner in which one is taught. As shown in ethnoarchaeological research conducted in the Zapara Territory of the Ecuadorian Amazon, similarities and differences in women's pottery style can be associated with women's active strategies of signifying and building political alliances through their lives, even though kinship, the early learning context, and status also are important contributing factors. These political strategies of signification may change through women's lives, consistent with different stages of life history and the developmental cycle of their communities of practice. Patterned variation in pottery style may be understood in these terms, across time and space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]