The Multiple Identities of Aztec Craft Specialists

Abstract

This paper argues that because Atec specialists worked in a variety of institutional settings and produced a range of goods with different symbolic implications, they shared no single social identity. These factors produced almost a continuous range of variation in the social identities of specialists. For both male and female specialists, the concentration of production was the most important determinant of specialist identity because it determined the ability of specialists to negotiate their own status through collective action and public ritual.