Gender in ceramic artifacts: masculinities and femininities

Abstract

This is a gender study on the artistic production of ceramic in some communities of Jequitinhonha Valley, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Traditionally only women, who were called ‘potters’, produced this kind of craft in that region and it used to be taught from mothers to daughters. As ceramic artifacts became an alternative source of income, men decided to produce them. The entrance of men in the craft caused some re-elaboration of gender relations in those communities, and allowed us to detect gender not as a set of fixed corporifications, but as something under constant construction. A very important point here is that, although transmitted by women and a result of feminine activity, the production of ceramic incorporated male values. When men gained access to a traditionally defined feminine activity, they were able to draw from the craft symbolic resources for the representation of masculinity.