Ceramic production, consumption and exchange in the Banda area, Ghana: Insights from compositional analyses

Stahl, Ann B.; Cruz, Maria das Dores; Neff, Héctor; Glascock, Michael D.; Speakman, Robert J.; Giles, Bretton T.; Smith, Leith

doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2008.04.001

Cited by 43 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Tacking involves comparing similarities and differences in material evidence observed in the present, with the evidence found in the ethnographic and historic past as well as in the archaeological record. This builds up a dynamic picture of material culture practices within their historic contexts (Stahl et al 2008) and helps eliminate potential bias due to reflexivity.…”

Section: The Southern African Iron Age Ethnohistory and Ethnographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Ceramics, Ethnohistory, and Ethnography: Locating Meaning in Southern African Iron Age Ceramic Assemblages

Pikirayi

Lindahl

2013

Afr Archaeol Rev

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For ceramics to be relevant in the Southern African Iron Age, archaeologists must broaden their theoretical base to include social and other contexts when interpreting material culture items such as pottery. Pottery remains critical in understanding cultural dynamics in the region for the past two millennia, but current usage is narrow in scope. Using ethnohistorical data and archaeological examples from South Africa and Zimbabwe, we argue that pottery provides valuable information on the region's Iron Age, if archaeologists address the social meaning of ceramic assemblages. Ceramic production among rural communities provides the basis on which a wide range of social issues are discussed and used to critique pottery recovered from archaeology. Ethnography suggests that ceramic assemblages are context specific, and archaeologists are cautioned against making generic statements on the basis of similarities of vessel shape and decoration motif.Résumé Pour faire en sorte que la céramique contribue aux études de l'Âge du Fer en Afrique australe, l'interprétation archéologique doit prendre meileure mesure des différents contextes dans lesquels évolue la poterie. La poterie joue un rôle critique dans la compréhension des dynamiques culturelles de la région au cours des deux derniers millénaires, mais elle demeure limitée dans son usage. Sur la base de données ethnohistoriques et d'exemples archéologiques tirés d'Afrique du Sud et du Zimbabwe, nous soutenons que la poterie peut fournir des informations précieuses sur l'Âge de Fer régional si les archéologues s'attachent à examiner la signification sociale des assemblages céramiques. La production potière dans les communautés rurales nous permet de traiter un large éventail de questions sociales et de formuler une critique de la poterie issue de I. Pikirayi (*) Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0038, South Africa e-mail: innocent.pikirayi@up.ac.za A. Lindahl Laboratory for Ceramic Research, Department of Geology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden e-mail: Anders.Lindahl@geol.lu.se 1 l'archéologie. Nos données ethnographiques suggèrent que les assemblages céramiques doivent être traités dans leur contexte propre, et mettent les archéologues en garde contre les explications générales sur la base de similarités morphologiques et décoratives.

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Section: The Southern African Iron Age Ethnohistory and Ethnographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Ceramics, Ethnohistory, and Ethnography: Locating Meaning in Southern African Iron Age Ceramic Assemblages

Pikirayi

Lindahl

2013

Afr Archaeol Rev

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“…An alternative framework, incorporating heterarchy, brought out these two characteristics that can be further tested to see if they contributed to the distinctive regionality of sociopolitical development in prehistoric Thailand. More research is needed to study transitions from pre-Metal Age to Metal Age societies and to further clarify the relations between diversified subsistence economy, exchange networks, and development of power relations among groups (Burke 2006;Stahl et al 2008 A two-stage survey, a reconnaissance survey followed by a 58 km 2 intensive survey, was conducted in order to locate sites across di¤erent landscapes, to identify subregional ceramic variation and possibly geographic shifts in ceramic subregions over time, and to determine evidence for economic specialization among sites of varying sizes. The 25 sites dating between 2000 b.c.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Variation and Dynamics in Metal Age and Protohistoric Central Thailand: A Regional Perspective

Eyre¹

2010

asi

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Southeast Asia is one major region where applications of sociopolitical frameworks emphasizing progressive development and increasing degrees of social hierarchy have been argued as inadequate for understanding past societies. Settlement systems in Thailand that existed throughout the period of technological change incorporating the bronze and iron ages have not yet been investigated from a heterarchical viewpoint. While reconnaissance and systematic surveys conducted over the past few decades in Thailand have discovered hundreds of prehistoric sites, a recent survey stressing intensive methodologies to test heterarchical and hierarchical frameworks for best fit with settlement patterns in the region of Kok Samrong-Takhli Undulating Terrain (KSTUT) in the eastern side of the Upper Chao Phraya River Valley has revealed unexpected patterns of land use and settlement systems. This article discusses the methodology and results of the KSTUT Survey in central Thailand. A two-stage survey, a reconnaissance survey followed by a 58 km 2 intensive survey, was conducted in order to locate sites across different landscapes, to identify subregional ceramic variation and possibly geographic shifts in ceramic subregions over time, and to determine evidence for economic specialization among sites of varying sizes. The 25 sites dating between 2000 b.c. and a.d. 1000 provide evidence for a prehistoric settlement system emphasizing long-lived, often large, but heterarchically related occupations. Sharp changes including the appearance of site hierarchy occurred rapidly just prior to the protohistoric period c. a.d. 400, about 1000 years later than previously thought.

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“…In West Africa, research in this vein has tended to focus on the circulation of objects deployed in practices of destruction and social distinction-weapons, slaves, textiles, jewelry, alcohol, and so forth (Ogundiran 2002;Richard 2010;Stahl 2002)-whereas the intermingling and diffusion of locally made goods like food, pottery, and iron has long been a focus in eastern and southern Africa (e.g., Kusimba and Kusimba 2003;LaViolette and Fleisher 2005;see Stahl 2001;Stahl et al 2008 for West African examples). The exchange of goods, and associated practical knowledge, is often critical to understanding how people within local communities experienced processes of contact and entanglement according to gender, age, kinship, and status (e.g., Lightfoot et al 1998;Silliman 2001).…”

Section: Theme 4: Political Economymentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing Craft and Culinary Practice in Africa: Themes and Perspectives

Gokee

Logan

2014

Afr Archaeol Rev

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Ceramic production, consumption and exchange in the Banda area, Ghana: Insights from compositional analyses

Cited by 43 publications

References 45 publications

Ceramics, Ethnohistory, and Ethnography: Locating Meaning in Southern African Iron Age Ceramic Assemblages

Ceramics, Ethnohistory, and Ethnography: Locating Meaning in Southern African Iron Age Ceramic Assemblages

Social Variation and Dynamics in Metal Age and Protohistoric Central Thailand: A Regional Perspective

Comparing Craft and Culinary Practice in Africa: Themes and Perspectives

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