Knowing and Doing: Text and Labor in Asian Handwork

Our Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society project concerns Asian cultures and how the knowledge of those who perform labor and produce goods is formed and transmitted among them. We use the concept of text as “patterns and conventions that fix the processes by which work is accomplished” to explore how their knowledge is communicated in sensual, gestural, visual, verbal, and written forms. This presentation will explore the example of Chinese agriculture in antiquity and in modern times.