Artisanship as Just Another Job: An Ethnographic Study on Different Work Paces of a Tseltal Embroiderer

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29340/en.v8n15.394

Keywords:

artisanal work, Chiapas, audiovisual depiction

Abstract

Videos, photographs, and descriptions of crafted textile production in Mexico, often made to promote the products or to document social impact projects, tend to emphasize the craft as an age-old practice or one that empowers women artists on a path to a better future. Both of these focuses, however, overlook the actual form this work takes in these women's day-to-day lives. This short film depicts a day in the life of Antonia, a Tseltal embroiderer from the town of Tenejapa in the Chiapas highlands. It seeks to provide a more faithful depiction of the place that craftsmanship occupies in the daily lives of women artisans.

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Author Biography

  • Rachel Barber, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social

    Rachel Barber is a PhD student in Social Sciences at CIESAS-Occidente. Her dissertation research focuses on the new labor relations and practices of Tsotsil and Tseltal embroiderers and weavers in Los Altos de Chiapas. She has made several short documentaries about the craftswomen of Los Altos that have been shown in international film festivals. She is interested in the topics of material culture, social change and anthropology of work, and incorporates documentary and audiovisual methods in ethnographic study.

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Published

2025-03-20

How to Cite

Artisanship as Just Another Job: An Ethnographic Study on Different Work Paces of a Tseltal Embroiderer. (2025). Encartes, 8(15), 281-292. https://doi.org/10.29340/en.v8n15.394