Enora GANDON

Keys words: ethnology, motor behavior, ecological psychology, dual-inheritance theory, wheel-throwing pottery, field experiment, comparative studies, artifact variability, cultural transmission, motor skill.

With a background in social sciences (sociology, ethnology, psychology) and movement sciences (anatomy, biomechanics, physiology, motor control), I have developed an experimental and interdisciplinary approach to traditional motor skills. I study the pottery wheel-throwing and its cultural transmission in different geographic areas. My interest in traditional motor skills comes from participant observations (I was taught wheel-throwing by experts) in pottery workshops in France (during my teenage), Morocco (2002), and Turkey (2003).

In studying the wide-spread skill of pottery wheel-throwing, I have traveled across different countries from Europe to Asia (France, Spain, Morocco, Turkey, Palestinian Territories, Azerbaijan, India, Nepal, and Thailand). During a Ph.D. and a Post-doctorate, I have published several articles in archaeological and generalist journals. Relying on my research experience in ethnology and movement sciences I set up fieldworks where experimental protocols are adapted to the familiar context of the craftsmen. The data collected in such controlled situations are particularly valuable, first for their significance regarding the “real” environment and second, because they allow to statistically test theoretical hypotheses.

Over time, I have faced several analytical issues that I have fixed in finding and importing methods and concepts from different disciplines. Then, my work became progressively characterized by interdisciplinary collaborations: Blandine Bril and Tetsushi Nonaka (experimental psychology), Reinoud Bootsma (movement sciences), James Steele, Valentine Roux and Leore Grosman (archeology), John Endler (biology), Remy Casanova (mechanics), and Thelma Coyle (Matlab engineer).

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