In the past two decades, ethnoarchaeological methods have grown in importance because of their unique ability to shed direct light on relationships between material culture patterns and social behavior. Ethnoarchaeological research in extant societies allows archaeologists to observe specific examples of how material culture reflects social behavior. The present study demonstrates the value of economic data to ethnoarchaeological analyses. Data collected in 1987-1988 in the Kalinga village of Dangtalan are analyzed from an economic perspective at the household level. Relative household wealth totals are computed for a sample of 56 Dangtalan households. Correlations are explored between wealth and several pottery variables, and between wealth and architectural variables. Results indicate that pottery and architecture in Dangtalan possess certain patterns which correlate in varying degrees with household wealth. Possible implications for archaeology, and potential problems of application are explored.

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This ethnoarchaeological study explores the economics of pottery production and distribution in the Kalinga village of Dalupa in the northern Philippines. For individual Dalupa potters, pottery production is a part-time craft specialization that fits around an intensive cultivation schedule. For the regional economic system in which Dalupa participates, pottery production is a community-based specialization that provides numerous settlements with much-needed goods. This model of community-based specialization, in which households and communities pursue multiple types of productive specialization, is common among traditional societies that anthropologists study. Yet surprisingly little is known about conditions under which village-based specialization develops. Still less is known about the factors that encourage a part-time production system to evolve into a full-time system, since ethnographic examples indicate that productive intensification characterizes a wide range of societies. Historical and social contexts of Dalupa ceramic production are explored as they affect the nature of its production system. Resource access and production parameters that archaeologists employ (e.g., scale, intensity) are influenced by capitalist penetration into the area, social relations, and the level of tribal warfare. Household pottery production scale is affected by the availability of alternative income-generating activities, which fluctuate in response to externally-imposed pressures toward development in the Cordillera highlands. Examination of Dalupa production scale (i.e., levels of inputs and outputs) over an annual cycle reveals that variability within the producer work force is related to differential economic pressures. Analyses of Dalupa production intensity (or the relative level of inputs per production entity) concentrate on dimensional variability of cooking pots. Comparisons at the inter-community and intra-community level evaluate widely-held assumptions regarding the relationship between production intensity and product standardization. This ethnoarchaeological case study provides detailed information on the relationship between production scale and distributional range in small-scale systems. Economic personalism operates in all aspects of the Dalupa pottery exchange network. Dalupa ceramics circulate within a multi-centric economy. These two processes affect the formal variation in the material record of pottery distribution. Investigating both production and distribution processes within a single economic system illuminates our understanding of prehistoric pottery economics.

Archaeologists rely heavily on pottery data to make inferences about the past. Although a critical component of such inferences is knowing how the pots were used, archaeologists at present cannot reconstruct accurately pottery function. This research provides the means whereby actual pottery use can be determined from traces that remain on pots. The study focuses on an analysis of nearly 200 vessels collected in the Kalinga village of Guina-ang. Traces, in the form of organic residues, attrition, and carbon deposits, are linked to pottery use activities observed in Kalinga households. The analysis of organic residue focuses on fatty acids absorbed into the vessel wall; samples are taken from Kalinga cooking pots and several types of food. It is found that rice cooking pots can be discriminated from vegetable/meat cooking pots, though individual plant species cannot be distinguished in the latter. In several cases, however, there is conclusive evidence for meat cooking. An analysis of Kalinga "archaeological" sherds was also performed to look at fatty acid preservation. A pottery attrition analysis, similar to the study of lithic use-wear, is also performed on Kalinga pottery. The objective is to understand the general principles in the formation of an attritional trace. Nine areas on Kalinga cooking vessels are found to have attritional patches. The two forms of Kalinga cooking vessels could be discriminated based on attrition. Carbon deposits reflect what was cooked, how it was heated, and some general activities of cooking. Interior carbon deposits result from the charring of food and is governed by the source of heat, intensity of heat, and the presence of moisture. The processes that govern the different types of exterior soot are difficult to identify and several experiments are performed. It is found that soot deposition is controlled by wood type, temperature of the ceramic surface, and the presence of moisture. This research demonstrates that archaeologists can begin looking at organic residues, attrition and carbon deposits to infer how their vessels were used in the past.