Towards an Ethnography of Pagdihon: The Art and Language of Pottery Making in Antique Province, the Philippines

Abstract

Pottery is a creation of ornamentals, cookware, or material storage devices. Yet, while economic gain is often considered when producing these materials, the artistic and linguistic aspects have been ignored. This study discusses factors influencing the culture, process and language of pottery making, in Bari, Antique, in the Philippines. The study documents the community of pottery makers in the region, and begins to record and expose the efficacy of the language intertwining with the pottery making culture. The ethnography included video and audio recording. The study reveals that environmental factors influence the culture of pottery making in the barangay, and as such, eight main processes emerge during the making of the pottery. Together the other processes, the language used in pottery making is an archaic form of Kinaray-a, the language of the province., suggesting a specialized pottery making.