Philip de Barros

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Please check back later for the full article. One of the major debates in African Iron Age research has focused on the origins of iron production (what, where, when, and how), including evolving technological strategies from bellows-driven to natural draft furnaces and associated production levels, and whether ironworking technology in sub-Saharan Africa was borrowed or had independent origins. While the debate continues, research has revealed a stunning diversity of furnace construction, the use of natural draft furnaces since perhaps as early as the first millennium B.C.E, clear evidence of ore selectivity, and improved technological processes via trial and error. The importance of West (and sub-Saharan) African iron production can best be understood within its various cultural contexts, rather than from a strictly Western technological perspective. What were the various impacts of iron production and technology on West African societies? These include demographics (population growth, settlement system dynamics, and sedentism); economics (increased food production, wealth accumulation (especially in cattle) and trade; environmental (deforestation, mining, and watersheds); social ramifications (changes in the social organization of production, including specialization; changes in social status, including castes) and in the rise of social hierarchies or heterarchies; political organization (links to political power and the rise of political centralization ); and, finally, its links to magic, religion, and societal ontologies (including birth, life or existence, sexuality and renewal, other liminal experiences, truth, and death), especially the tightly woven nexus of technology and ritual in smelting and to a lesser degree in smithing. In terms of theoretical issues and associated research goals, how were the materials and processes of ironworking integrated into societal belief systems, and to what extent were these systems reinforced, modified, or expanded as a result of the rise of ironworking technology? How does this process in the context of different cultural beliefs and practices lead to different technological styles? How does the colonial and postcolonial history of Africa impact what researchers decide to study and how they interpret results? How did the rise of ironworking affect material culture beyond ironworking technology itself? For example, there appears to be a correlation with the rise of ironworking technology and changes in ceramic vessel forms and associated decorative motifs. In terms of methods, what practically oriented strategies for resolving specific research questions are currently available? They include intensive regional sample surveys; extensive surveys linked to opportunistic sampling and a focus on local oral traditions; ethnoarchaeological approaches combining oral traditions and selective excavations to yield information on ceramics and chronology, smelting and smithing technologies, iron-production levels, dietary information and mortuary practices, all with the goal of understanding African cultural matrices of which ironworking became an integral part. The study of the trade in smelted iron and iron tools requires a multidisciplinary study of historical and colonial archives, oral traditions, and the identification of the chemical signatures of various ore sources that can be tied to iron ore and tools over local and regional spaces. In addition, the study of ironworking technologies requires funding and access to expensive recording and investigative technologies, which limits its accessibility and often requires the development of joint research programs.

offers something to upset everyone: I was somewhat shocked by Smith's cavalier rejection of an early Southern Cushitic pastoral expansion, and later bemused by the sudden use of the Himba as a 'test' of Moore's ideas concerning space and gender (p. 189), which were briefly introduced here for the first time. The final two chapters discuss the challenges faced by pastoral societies in the modern world. In particular, Smith discusses development and the problems and prospects of aid interventions. He rightly points to the need to give pastoralists more than a token say in their own future and for aid workers to acknowledge the skills and experience that pastoralists possess. Both governments and development specialists tend to be portrayed somewhat simplistically as villains. It is a pity that Smith does not discuss Somalia when he claims that pastoralists have usually had little representation in central government. However, what I found most disturbing was that despite claiming that 'the image of unchanging traditional African societies has been shown to be a myth', Smith promulgates this very myth by contrasting the present state of African pastoral societies with a 'traditional' past. For example, he attempts 'a reconstruction of the traditional adaptive strategies' (p. 184), claims that 'the traditional pastoral economy was not precarious' (p. 206) and remarks that 'today's pressures require the traditional pastoralist to adapt now' (p. 255). Notwithstanding its good intentions, this book is a disappointment. It lacks structure, is poorly edited and has inadequate maps.

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Please check back later for the full article. One of the major debates in African Iron Age research has focused on the origins of iron production (what, where, when, and how), including evolving technological strategies from bellows-driven to natural draft furnaces and associated production levels, and whether ironworking technology in sub-Saharan Africa was borrowed or had independent origins. While the debate continues, research has revealed a stunning diversity of furnace construction, the use of natural draft furnaces since perhaps as early as the first millennium B.C.E, clear evidence of ore selectivity, and improved technological processes via trial and error. The importance of West (and sub-Saharan) African iron production can best be understood within its various cultural contexts, rather than from a strictly Western technological perspective. What were the various impact...

An extensive iron production industry flourished in the Bassar region of northern Togo from as early as the Early Iron Age. However, it was during the Later Iron Age that this witnessed a period of rapid growth, with locally produced iron increasingly feeding into regional trade networks. This paper discusses the archaeology, archaeometallurgy and metallography of the earliest iron production in Bassar through the examination of two sites. The first, BAS-252 (Dekpassanware), is a large ironworking village (in operation throughout the Early and Later Iron Ages) with six zones devoted primarily to smithing. The second, the nearby site of BAS-273, was found to be a smaller smelting site and operated in the Early Iron Age. The paper presents a metallographic analysis of the EIA iron artefacts excavated at BAS-252, in conjunction with an archaeometallurgical analysis of EIA smelting remains from BAS-273. The close association of smithing and smelting sites has provided an unparalleled op...

It is argued here that the effects of variable site occupation span on frequency seriation have not yet been clearly elucidated. The necessary clarification is provided by graphic models used to generate simulated data which are then seriated. After an analysis of the seriation results, it is concluded that site duration variability poses a more serious problem for frequency seriations than was once thought. Possible solutions are then discussed. It is shown that no solution is in the offing for typological seriations, although it is possible to estimate the magnitude of the errors produced. Something approaching a solution does exist, however, for attribute microseriations.

It is argued here that the effects of variable site occupation span on frequency seriation have not yet been clearly elucidated. The necessary clarification is provided by graphic models used to generate simulated data which are then seriated. After an analysis of the seriation results, it is concluded that site duration variability poses a more serious problem for frequency seriations than was once thought. Possible solutions are then discussed. It is shown that no solution is in the offing for typological seriations, although it is possible to estimate the magnitude of the errors produced. Something approaching a solution does exist, however, for attribute microseriations.

The constituents of attractiveness differ across the sexes. Many relevant traits are dimorphic, suggesting that they are the product of intersexual selection. However, direction of causality is generally difficult to determine, as aesthetic criteria can as readily result from, as cause, dimorphism. Women have proportionately smaller feet than men. Prior work on the role of foot size in attractiveness suggests an asymmetry across the sexes, as small feet enhance female appearance, yet average, rather than large, feet are preferred on men. Previous ...

Numerous scholars have outlined what they believed to be the consequences of the advent of iron technology in sub-Saharan Africa: increased food production using more efficient bush clearing tools; increased population densities; larger and more stable communities; increased trade, specialization and social differentiation; and the ‘embryonic rise’ of modern politics. (Davidson 1974.) However, little has been demonstrated in the field.

It is argued here that the effects of variable site occupation span on frequency seriation have not yet been clearly elucidated. The necessary clarification is provided by graphic models used to generate simulated data which are then seriated. After an analysis of the seriation results, it is concluded that site duration variability poses a more serious problem for frequency seriations than was once thought. Possible solutions are then discussed. It is shown that no solution is in the offing for typological seriations, although it is possible to estimate the magnitude of the errors produced. Something approaching a solution does exist, however, for attribute microseriations.

... Page 4. Page 5. Ancient African Metallurgy The Sociocultural Context MICHAEL S. BISSON S. TERRY CHILDS PHILIP DE BARROS AUGUSTIN FC HOLL Edited and with a foreword byJOSEPH O. VOGEL PRESS A Division of ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. ...

Opening ParagraphUntil quite recently little was known about the output of traditional ironworking centres in sub-Saharan Africa. Although some estimates were made for a few centres by colonial administrators and agents, the reliability of many of these figures is doubtful (see Pole, 1983; de Barros, 1985: 270–71) and some of the more interesting data still lie buried in colonial archives. The first serious scholarly attempt at quantification of precolonial African iron production was made by Warnier and Fowler (1979) who investigated iron production in the Iron Belt of the Cameroon grasslands, particularly that associated with the nineteenthcentury Babungo chiefdom. Since then Goucher (1981, 1984) and Pole (1983), and to a lesser extent Haaland (1980), have provided some important quantitative data regarding both large and small iron working centres in West Africa.