MEETINGS 2013-2014

Tuesday 2 Dec 2014.

A talk by Isabelle C. Druc

The Talk:
In conclusion, in societies where the work of an artisan or artist is not signed, or the workshop not specified, identification of the region of production relies on paste analysis and the comparison to compositions of known provenance. Style is usually not enough nor reliable to identify provenance as it can be imitated. Identification of provenance, determination of what is local, and technology of production are starting to be addressed regularly in South America and maps of technological traditions across space and time are slowly taking shape. However, unless we reach regional perspectives built upon detailed local studies, such interpretations are difficult. More ethnoarchaeological and archaeometric studies are changing our understanding of ancient Andean ceramic production and distribution. However, as elsewhere, due to the many changes and challenges faced by traditional production, these studies are more important than ever and traditional knowledge and know-how have still many lessons to teach us.
The Speaker:       
Dr. Isabelle Druc is a ceramologist, specialized in Andean ceramics, ethnoarchaeology and ceramic petrography. She did her Ph.D. in Archaeology at the University of Montreal (Quebec, Canada), after finishing her initial studies in Switzerland. She conducted post-doctoral studies at Yale University in the United States, and has been a visiting scholar at the CNRS in France and at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. She has received two excellence awards from the University of Montreal in Canada and won the 1989 Plantamour-Prévost science prize in Switzerland for her master at the University of Geneva. She has been at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 2000, holding positions of lecturer, honorary fellow, and associate researcher in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER). She was co-Director and Media-Director of the Deep Approach to Turkish Teaching and Learning project, a Title VI educational project funded by the U.S.
Department of Education. She has been involved in many archaeological and ethnographic projects in South America, the Middle East, USA, Europe, and more recently Southeast Asia. She has written more than 30 articles, published 9 books (as author, co-author or editor) and has produced some 200 film documentaries and video interviews related to culture, language, ceramics, traditional arts and handicrafts. She frequently gives
lectures and seminars in Europe, the USA and Latin America.

Want to read more? ....click "HERE" (PDF File for downloading or reading on line - 10 pages).