Suchergebnisse

"This volume applies insights drawn from the theories and methods of landscape archaeology to contribute to our understanding of the nature if West African societies in the Atlantic Era (17th-19th Centuries AD). The authors adopt a briad set of methods and approaches to tackle how the nature and structures of African political and social relations changed across regions in this period. This is only the second volume in a decade to focus on the archeology of this period in West Africa, and the first volume in sub-Saharan Africanist archeology to be focused in the recent past in oue sub-region of the continent from a coherent methodological and theoretical standpoint"--Provided by publisher

Precolonial African polities have emerged in recent years as fertile ground for the comparative archaeological study of social complexity and the state. For much of the twentieth century, precolonial African states were misinterpreted as the product of outside stimuli. Recent archaeological research on such polities, however, has revealed the autochthonous origins of social complexity and the state in Africa, providing valuable new insights for the comparative study of state formation in the past. This review outlines how archaeologists have tackled the precolonial state in Africa, beginning with an outline of colonial-era discourse on the nature of the state and civilization in Africa, followed by a discussion of how archaeological perspectives on power provide insights into political processes across the continent. Key examples are examined within four broadly defined subregions. Throughout this review, I highlight (a) the agency of indigenous political entrepreneurs in driving state formation across the continent, and (b) how alternative modes of power shaped the political contours of these precolonial African states.