Open main menu
Woodworking being done in a workshop

A craft or trade is a pastime or a profession that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small-scale production of goods, or their maintenance, for example by tinkers. The traditional term craftsman is nowadays often replaced by artisan and rarely by craftsperson (craftspeople).

Historically, the more specialized crafts with high value products tended to concentrate in urban centers and formed guilds. The skill required by their professions and the need to be permanently involved in the exchange of goods often demanded a generally higher level of education, and craftsmen were usually in a more privileged position than the peasantry in societal hierarchy. The households of craftsmen were not as self-sufficient as those of people engaged in agricultural work and therefore had to rely on the exchange of goods. Some crafts, especially in areas such as pottery, woodworking, and the various stages of textile production, could be practiced on a part-time basis by those also working in agriculture, and often formed part of village life.




There are three aspects to human creativity - Art, Crafts, and Science. Roughly determined, art relies upon intuitive sensing, vision and expression, crafts upon sophisticated technique and science upon knowledge.




The beginning of crafts in areas like the Ottoman Empire involved the governing bodies requiring members of the city who were skilled at creating goods to open shops in the center of town. These people slowly stopped acting as subsistence farmers (who created goods in their own homes to trade with neighbors) and began to represent what we think of a "craftsman" today.[1]

In recent years, crafts and craftspeople have slowly been gaining momentum as a subject of academic study. Stephanie Bunn was an artist before she became an anthropologist, and she went on to develop an academic interest on the process of craft - arguing that what happens to an object before it becomes a 'product' is an area worthy of study. [2]

Mexican craft.

The Arts and Crafts MovementEdit

Japanese potter at his wheel (1914)


Studio craftsEdit


Craft fairsEdit



A tradesperson is a skilled manual worker in a particular trade or craft. Economically and socially, a tradesperson's status is considered between a laborer and a professional, with a high degree of both practical and theoretical knowledge of their trade. In cultures where professional careers are highly prized, there can be a shortage of skilled manual workers, leading to lucrative niche markets in the trades.

See alsoEdit


  1. ^ Suraiya., Faroqhi, (2014-01-01). Artisans of Empire : Crafts and Craftspeople Under the Ottomans. I.B. Tauris. p. 119. ISBN 9780857710628. OCLC 956646181.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  2. ^ Ingold, Tim (2011). Redrawing Anthropology: Materials, Movements, Lines. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Limited. pp. 21–22.

External linksEdit

  Media related to Crafts at Wikimedia Commons