Are occupations ‘processes too complicated to explain'? What we can learn by trying

The life history of a pot is used as a device to demonstrate how pottery making incorporates not only those who make the pots and their actions, but also materials, social systems, history, aesthetics, and much more. I suggest that the life history rubric provides a structure to compare across systems of production and cultures, or to expand analysis at any stage. Finally, Dewey's transactional perspective is proposed as a theoretical perspective that supports study of occupations in their complexity.

Key Words:

• Occupation
• Transaction
• Pottery making