The Artisanal Model and Social Hierarchy

Abstract

AbstractThe central focus in this chapter is on the relationship among social roles, and the implications of these relationships for the individuals who stand under them. The chapter shows how the artisanal model helps to explain the oppressive and hierarchical structure of some social positions and roles including contemporary gendered or racialized social roles. Second, it argues that oppressive and hierarchical relations are not a necessary feature of the artisanal model and that the model also suggests the possibility of nonhierarchical and nonoppressive relations among social roles. Using the artisanal model, we can imagine a social world with techniques for being human that are not enmeshed in oppressive, hierarchical relations.