Pathways to complexity: an African perspective

McIntosh, Susan Keech

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511558238.002

Cited by 125 publications

(83 citation statements)

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“…Besides being chronological markers, glass beads are also important as symbols of status in society (Brumfiel and Earle 1987;McIntosh 1999b;Bvocho 2005;). Evidence from sites such as Mapungubwe has shown that certain burials included glass beads, among other grave goods (Meyer 1998;Huffman 2000).…”

Section: Background To Glass Bead Studies In Southern Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this regard, it is important that scholars re-investigate the relationships among the residents of Khami and avoid the use of arbitrary class distinctions that are based on the presence or absence of walling, with no other material correlates. As suggested by other scholars working in other parts of Africa, there is a need to consider heterarchical organisation and avoid a hierarchical classification of society that has no basis (S K McIntosh 1999a;1999b). This consideration is vitally important, since it allows us to note variability among various communities rather than clustering them all together into one model that frames their development.…”

Section: Conclusion and Direction For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some scholars have argued that the subject of state formation and urbanisation in Africa has not been adequately appreciated, resulting in a deeply ingrained conviction that pre-colonial tropical Africa consisted only of scattered villages of mud or grass huts, with their inhabitants leading a nomadic way of life (Connah 1987;McIntosh 1999b;Monroe 2013;Chirikure et al 2013b). As a result, some scholars who developed frameworks for state formation and urbanisation, such as Moorey (1979) and Cotterell (1983), largely ignored Africa's own experiences.…”

Section: Conclusion and Direction For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Early theorists on Africa's past introduced structural functionalism into their accounts of Africa's past (Fortes and Evans-Pritchard 1940). This situation reduced Africa's past to a static and ahistorical phenomenon, and failed to take advantage of the benefits of applying diachronic formulations, which could have helped in better understanding the dynamics of prehistoric state systems in Africa (McIntosh 1999b).…”

Section: Conclusion and Direction For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a result, complexity is now being conceptualised as the degree of internal differentiation, both horizontally and vertically, and the intricacy of relations within a system (Paynter 1989, McIntosh 1999b. Alternative pathways to understanding complexity have been developed, which, while recognising the concept of hierarchy, also focus on heterarchy as an alternative framework.…”

Section: Conclusion and Direction For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An archaeological study of the Zimbabwe Culture capital of Khami, southwestern Zimbabwe

Mukwende¹

2016

Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

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This study sought to understand the archaeology of the Zimbabwe Culture capital of Khami through synchronic and diachronic analyses of its material culture. The research employed a number of methodological approaches that included a review of historic documents, surveying and mapping, excavations, museum collection analysis, and artefact studies, in order to collect datasets from various sections of the site, including the walled and the nonwalled areas. The main indication is that there is a great deal of similarity in material culture distribution across the whole site. An analysis of objects by stratigraphic sequence exposes continuity and change in local and imported objects. Dry stone-wall architectural data suggests that the site was constructed over a long period, with construction motivated by a number of expansionary factors. The study confirms that Khami began as a fully developed cultural unit, with no developmental trajectory recorded at Mapungubwe or Great Zimbabwe, where earlier ceramic units influenced later ones. Consequently, this study cautiously suggests that Khami represents a continuity with the Woolandale chiefdoms that settled in the south-western parts of the country and in the adjacent areas of Botswana. On the basis of the chronological and material culture evidence, Khami is unlikely to have emerged out of Great Zimbabwe. However, more research is needed to confirm these emergent conclusions, and to better understand the chronological and spatial relationships between not just Woolandale and Khami sites but also Khami and the multiple Khami-type sites scattered across southern Zambezia.ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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Section: Background To Glass Bead Studies In Southern Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conclusion and Direction For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conclusion and Direction For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conclusion and Direction For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conclusion and Direction For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

An archaeological study of the Zimbabwe Culture capital of Khami, southwestern Zimbabwe

Mukwende¹

2016

Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

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Changing Social Relations in the Mediterranean Copper and Bronze Ages

Chapman¹

2005

The Archaeology of Mediterranean Prehistory

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Building Mound A at Poverty Point, Louisiana: Monumental Public Architecture, Ritual Practice, and Implications for Hunter‐Gatherer Complexity

Ortmann

Kidder

2012

Geoarchaeology

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Hunter‐gatherer societies are often characterized by limited complexity and social equality. Therefore, the construction of monumental architecture by hunter‐gatherers is seen as the manifestation of social and political inequality. The massive size and rapid construction of Mound A at Poverty Point (ca. 3261 cal. yr B.P.) in northeast Louisiana challenges these notions. Geoarchaeological investigations of stratigraphy at the macro‐ and micro‐levels shows there are no erosion events, natural episodes of soil formation, or cultural stages. We infer from these results that Mound A was constructed by a large labor force over a short period of time. There is no evidence, however, that the mound was constructed under the aegis of a ranked socio‐political system. We argue instead that the mound was constructed as a ritual feature and that leadership required to mobilize labor and resources was situational and emerged through ritual practice that developed because of the need to integrate a large population.

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Pathways to complexity: an African perspective

Cited by 125 publications

References 0 publications

An archaeological study of the Zimbabwe Culture capital of Khami, southwestern Zimbabwe

An archaeological study of the Zimbabwe Culture capital of Khami, southwestern Zimbabwe

Changing Social Relations in the Mediterranean Copper and Bronze Ages

Building Mound A at Poverty Point, Louisiana: Monumental Public Architecture, Ritual Practice, and Implications for Hunter‐Gatherer Complexity

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