DIVIDING KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS IN HUMAN HISTORY: A PERSPECTIVE FROM AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY ON THE FOLK SOCIETY

This paper illustrates an ethnographic study that covers the practice of non/premodern craftsmanship in folk society, comprehending the mechanism of knowledge and skills which are difficult to visualize and verbalize. This study argues, the technical practice of craft production within folk social society encompasses the materialisation of the invisible/non-verbal implicit knowledge and embodied skills. Moreover, such knowledge and skills are not necessarily limited to non/pre-modern societies, but in contemporary societies after the Industrial Revolution. Finally, it shall be shown that, in Human history, forcing the separation of knowledge and skills, technology had become manualized and verbalized, which lead to an overwhelming majority of society becoming substitutable labourers, eradicating skilled professionals.