Need for the formalization of artisanal design for intervention in indigenous production in Mexico

Abstract

Artisanal production in Mexico continues to be an essential economic activity for the social development of its most vulnerable populations. From this perspective, the government's policy to promote artisan production has been the intervention of professional design in the Mexican indigenous populations. Therefore, the main objective of this research was to establish the scope of professional design practice to address the challenges faced by indigenous artisan producers in Mexico. For this, the authors carried out documentary research and field research with a qualitative approach on two indigenous peoples: the Purépechas and the Náhuatl. Afterward, four situations that trigger artisan production were identified: intuitive design, diffuse design, design on demand, and integrated design. It was then established that the scope of the design practice in Mexican indigenous artisan production is to contribute to artisan products reaching markets geographically and culturally distant from their production context, and to counteract the misappropriation of indigenous cultural production; through the training of design professionals with a transdisciplinary profile. It is concluded that formalizing artisan design as an emerging area of the design discipline is necessary for the epistemological construction of useful tools to solve the problems of artisanal production.