ABSTRACT For many years, archaeologists in Southern Africa have equated pottery “style” with archaeological “cultures” and modern ethno-linguistic groups. In order to investigate this association, we undertook an ethnoarchaeological study of 41 contemporary potters in south-eastern Botswana to observe what social groupings of potters correlate with their preferences for a particular style of making and decorating pots. This paper presents and analyses the firing stage of pottery manufacturing in contemporary south-eastern Botswana and looks for social boundaries in the preference for firing techniques. Unlike a study completed half a century ago, we find that firing technique preferences are village based and reflect the common technique used by potters in that locality, regardless of their linguistic affiliation, ethnic group membership, gender, age, religious persuasion or the network in which they learnt their craft.

中文翻译：

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当代博茨瓦纳东南部的烧锅

摘要 多年来，南部非洲的考古学家将陶器“风格”等同于考古“文化”和现代民族语言群体。为了调查这种关联，我们对博茨瓦纳东南部的 41 位当代陶艺家进行了民族考古学研究，以观察陶艺家的哪些社会群体与他们对特定陶器制作和装饰风格的偏好相关。本文介绍并分析了当代博茨瓦纳东南部陶器制造的烧制阶段，并在对烧制技术的偏好中寻找社会界限。与半个世纪前完成的一项研究不同，我们发现烧制技术偏好以村庄为基础，反映了当地陶艺家使用的常用技术，无论他们的语言隶属关系、族群成员、性别、