What does artisan mean?
worker in an art based industury… An artisan, also called a craftsman, is a skilled manual worker who uses tools and machinery in a particular craft. Artisans were the dominant producers of goods before the Industrial Revolution. In Europe during the Middle Ages artisans usually organised into guilds. Guilds were associations of master artisans that were granted charters by the local sovereign authority. The guilds controlled all aspects of production and distribution to ensure quality and to prevent competition from outside markets. Along with merchants, artisans occupied the middle tier of the European and Indian social hierarchy, below the landowning aristocrats and above the agricultural workers. In contrast, Japan’s Edo period artisan class was ranked below the samurai and the agricultural workers, and above the merchants. To become an artisan in the guilds, a person worked under a master artisan as an unpaid apprentice at a young age. If the apprentice completed the training, t
