Traditional Pottery-making: an endangered indigenous technology in the Gimbi region of Ethiopia

This project documented the chaîne opératoire of Gimbi Oromo pottery-making in Ethiopia, from the learning network to the production and utilization of pottery objects. Pottery technology constitutes an integral part of the region’s indigenous knowledge systems, and sociocultural factors frame the learning of the pottery maker’s art. The potters’ engagement with their wares at each stage of production reflects the active inclusion of social relationships. Clay is perceived as having agency, and potters must perform certain rituals before collecting it. Despite its traditional socio-economic position, pottery-making is rapidly declining across the region, and the techniques and technology involved may disappear over the coming years. Several developments threaten the tradition, most notably the Ethiopian land policy, which restricts potters’ freedom to collect clay, the influx of metal and plastics imports affecting demand for traditional pottery vessels, and improved economic prospects becoming available to younger generations in Ethiopia. The project has created audiovisual, documentary, and photographic records relating to this declining technological tradition to preserve it as a heritage resource for future generations. By documenting artisans’ technological choices at each stage of pottery production, the project contributes to the debate on whether the technical choices potters make in pottery production are primarily guided by social factors learned as members of a social community of artisans and consumers. The research also broadens our understanding of globalization's influences and national and local policies on indigenous technology. What we can agree on is that a displacement that threatens one of the traditional practices of Ethiopia’s indigenous people has occurred, which is not reversible, and we have what amounts to a final opportunity to produce a permanent record of their traditional practices before the tradition dies out. This project has achieved this by generating visual, audiovisual, and text data sets and represents the first study of its kind in southern Ethiopia.