5 Metalworking and Ritualization: Negotiating Change through Improvisational Practice in Banda, Ghana

Abstract

Villagers of the 15th through mid-16th centuries C.E. in the Banda area of west central Ghana were living in times of change. The Saharan exchange networks that for several centuries had shaped the lives of earlier villagers were to give way by the late 17th century to Atlantic ones. Both offered opportunities (of access to desired goods) and perils (of enslavement). This paper focuses on a metallurgical workshop and the varied ritual practice associated with metalworking as gleaned from residues of stratified depositional practice. A variety of ritualized contexts and object configurations created a scaffolding "meshwork" that animated metallurgical practice, one that was improvised in relation to the broader context of opportunities and perils within which skilled artisans worked. These ritualized configurations were central to how craftsmen calibrated their practice in relation to the shifting global connections and moral terrains of their times. [metalworking, ritualization, improvisation, depositional practice, Ghana, Atlantic trade, Saharan trade]

Back to the Grindstone? The Archaeological Potential of Grinding-Stone Studies in Africa with Reference to Contemporary Grinding Practices in Marakwet, Northwest Kenya

“…Fendin has argued that many of the same transformative and reproductive aspects associated with early metallurgy can be related to grinding (Fendin 2006). In Eastern Tigray, Ethiopia, Lyons (2014, p. 169) has explored how male blacksmiths, through grinding and other practices that transgress normative gender roles, disassociate with binary male/female categorizations and take on Bthe dangerous capacity to consume fertility, landscape, and people.^Grinding-stones commonly feature in the technical repertoire of iron production in Africa, for example, in the breaking up and mechanical fining of iron blooms on the Sukur plateau, Nigeria (David 1998), or encountered amongst the remains of a fifteenth-to sixteenth-century metallurgical workshop in Banda, Ghana (Stahl 2015). However, the symbolism of grinding has yet to be examined to the same extent as other aspects of smelting and smithing in Africa.…”

When ceramic sociology meets material science: Sociological and technological aspects of crucibles and pottery from Mapungubwe, southern Africa

“…Because nodules of furnace copper and malachite were recovered at Mapungubwe, together with a possible furnace hollow, furnace bottom slag, vitrified tuyeres, and ingots, but no evidence of furnace superstructures, the comparative evidence from Zambia (Bisson, 2000) suggests that the smelters may have improvised and smelted copper in both bowl furnaces and crucibles at the site. This improvisation should not be surprising at all because pre-colonial African metalworkers were innovating all the time (for examples, see Bisson, 2000;Stahl, 2014;Chirikure, 2015). After careful consideration of evidence exposed by early and later researchers Calabrese (2000: 105) believed that ''it seems likely that both copper and iron were smelted on the summit of Mapungubwe Hill''.…”

“…These are examples of situations where human beings improvise within symbolism-laden contexts to achieve context-specific results (Bourdieu, 1977). It is apparent that symbolism was neither a barrier to improvisation nor was it a barrier to innovation (Stahl, 2014). Here, the archaeology is providing a great deal of nuance, which emphasises contextual variation over sweeping generalisations.…”

Spiritual Pawning: “Mad Slaves” and Mental Healing in Atlantic-Era West Africa

“…Stahl notes that these ritualized focal points are actualized through embodied practices (singing, dancing, praying) and the use of ephemeral substances (herbs, liquids, animal parts, and manufactured goods). 42 In the Atlantic era, shrines were centers of political asylum for runaway slaves and debtors, oath-vehicles for binding people to their word and regulating decorum, and spaces of ritual ambivalence offering healing and harming services for dreadful ailments, including chronic mental distress. European travelers to the region referred to Ga shrines, and their patron spirits (wↄn) as "fetishes" and their prophets/ mediums (wulomei/ wↄntsemei/ woyei) as "fetish priests."…”