Judged Display: A Consideration of a Craft Show

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Abstract
The judged display is clearly an important category in American expressive culture. Since no satisfactory theory of the judged display exists, there is some justification for an initial treatment of the subject in an exploratory and descriptive way. The present study provides some ethnographic data on a Santa Fe craft show. More importantly, perhaps, it is argued here that, within limits, craft shows may be viewed as games of physical skill and strategy, that the high competitors in this game are neither “traditional” in orientation nor drawn from a wide range of social backgrounds, and that the high competitors appear to value craftsmanship rather than originality in others. It is suggested that the involvements of high competitors in craft shows may be similar to the involvements of the players of games of physical skill and strategy. It is also suggested that the family context may have an important relationship to this pattern of craft show involvement.

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