Studies of craft specialization must first come to grips with what it is. The archaeological literature abounds with references to ‘craft production’ and ‘craft specialization’. These terms are often used interchangeably and in fact they refer to a large degree to the same phenomenon or closely related ones. The term craft production sums up a set of processes involved in making specific kinds of objects, processes that often require training and the development of skills in the manipulation of specific kinds of materials. Ethnographic and archaeological investigations have demonstrated that even the smallest-scale and least socially differentiated of societies engage in craft production of some sort. Nor is it limited to societies that depend on agriculture or which have become sedentary, let alone living in cities.
Its presence may be traced back to the earliest moments of human (and perhaps even prehuman) history, thus calling into question assumptions common to many models that posit the existence of some primary or original state of self-sufficiency among individuals or households in early foraging or farming societies in which every household produces what it needs and nothing more. Whether such a degree of economic isolation was ever possible must remain an open question since the majority of archaeological evidence, the preponderance of comparative material from more fully documented historical or contemporary societies, and even to a certain extent the behavioral information gathered from nonhuman primates strongly suggest that the fundamental sociality of our species led us from the beginnings of our development to find ways to foster connections with those near and far. Thus, the existence of craft production coincides with an interest in exchange, or the movement of goods between groups, often over long distances. Although such goods or materials may be rare or difficult to obtain, they are equally likely to be items that could be produced locally or acquired through one’s own efforts. What the close connection between craft production and exchange demonstrates is the social benefits of being able to enter into peaceful and ongoing relations with neighbors and those further away (even when what one exchanges is pretty much the same as what other people produce).
Recognizing that craft production is present in forager and farming societies and in more and less egalitarian ones has made it harder to differentiate it from specialization. Craft specialization has been defined as production for exchange beyond the household, that is to say beyond one’s co-resident domestic group. This definition, however, runs into problems given the widespread human emphasis on production and exchange just mentioned, that mitigates against the idea of some self-sufficient group at the core of human society. An alternative approach has been to argue that production is specialized when the producers are limited in number and regularly produce more goods than they need, allowing them to acquire the goods and services necessary for their own support, in part or completely. Specialists thus rely on their crafting abilities for all or some of their maintenance in ways that create greater degrees of interdependency within and between societies.
World History
