A mosaic of specialized villages

 "The entire village of Matatlan is dedicated to the distilling of mescal, and this sort of specialization is common; this mosaic of specialized villages, this economic organization, is pre-Columbian in origin. This everyone in Arrazola carves wood; everyone in Teotitlan del Valle is a weaver, and everone in San Bartolo Cocotepec, where we have not arrived, makes the black pottery which Oaxaca is justly famous for."

*

"In Teotitlan del Valle, we visit the house of Don Isaac Vasquez, a master weaver whose carpets and blankets, and use of natural dyes, have become famous outside Mexico. He lives and works with his extended family -- such families are the norm here among the artisans; there is almost a hereditary artisan class. The children will be trained in weaving and dyeing from an early age. They will be surrounded by it, imbibe it, consciously or unconsciously, every minute of their lives. Their skills, their identities, will be shaped from the start, and not just by the whole village, the local tradition, in which they grow up.

Virtually everyone in Teotitlan del Valle has a deep and detailed knowledge of weaving and dyeing, and all that goes with it -- carding, combing the wool, spinning the yarn, raising the insects on their favorite cacti, picking the right indigo plants. A total knowledge is located, embodied in the individuals, the families of this village."

- Oaxaca Journal, Oliver Sacks

(Just a thought tangent. In childhood, range, width, a wide wide range, stars in the sky, big earth, small beings, range of life, beings - perhaps a mix of literature samplers, different poets, different essays, stories of a wide, wide range, bite sized tasting menu. And then a little of how - how to dive deep, through a few practice sets of deep diving in some fields, loosely guided yet allowing the student to find their own personal mnemonics, mind palaces and matrix. This knowing of 'how' to dive deep as a way of being, and a knowing of wide wide wide range of life - just generally... thinking of education. Then one is imbibed aware of life's superabundance, and one knows how to dive deep when needed, and what it takes in terms of effort, and that the effort is the building of the seeing, the mind matrix.)