The Political Economy of Craft Production

Carla M. Sinopoli is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology of the University of Michigan and Associate curator of Asian Archaeology in the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Pots and Palaces: The Earthenware Ceramics of the Noblemen's Quarter of Vijayanagara (1993), Approaches to Archaeological Ceramics (1991) and co-editor of Empires: Comparative Perspectives from Archaeology and History.

• 1. Introduction; 2. Specialized craft production: archaeological approaches; 3. The South Asian state; 4. Vijayanagara: the historical setting; 5. Vijayanagara: sources of evidence; 6. Craft products and craft producers; 7. Artisans and institutions: artisans and each other; 8. Crafting empire: conclusion.

Review of the hardback: 'One of the most significant publications in the archaeology of South Asia to appear in the last decade … [Sinopoli] demonstrates that careful dialogue with indigenous understandings that are embodied in texts, as well as with the historians who privilege such sources, can contribute significantly to our collective knowledge of the products and producers of craft in India and in complex societies more generally.' South Asian Studies