Olivier Gosselain

Materializing Identities: An African Perspective

Archaeological approaches to social boundaries are currently emphasizing the dynamic nature of processes thought which individuals construct, maintain, and negotiate their identity. Although the integration of such concepts has led to a more accurate reconstruction of past social boundaries, it has also revealed a need for more sophisticated ways of interpreting material culture. This paper is a step in that direction. Focusing on pottery chaînes opératoires and addressing questions about the salience and scale of particular behaviors, I seek to develop general propositions regarding the relationships between technological styles and aspects of social identity. To that end, I compare African pottery techniques at a subcontinental level and see whether there are recurrent patterns in their distribution and whether these can be related to specific social boundaries or historical processes of group formation.

Fine if I Do, Fine if I Don’t. Dynamics of Technical Knowledge in Sub-Saharan Africa

In our “global village,” things and practices are currently diffused over such large areas that few, if any, relationships seem to exist anymore between their spatial distribution and salient cultural boundaries. Global products, such as powder milk, canned fish, or digital watches, are found everywhere, from the fringes of Greenland to the heart of the rainforest, as are cities congested with Japanese cars, boys impersonating the football star of the day, or adults greeting each other with a handshake. These elements have given rise to a form of “world cultural landscape,” so pervasive in our daily experience that we do not pay attention to it anymore.

Pourquoi le décorer? Quelques observations sur le décor céramique en Afrique

Since the publication of ‘Why pots are decorated’ (David et al. 1988), pottery decoration has tended to become a secondary concern for Africanist archaeologists, who now favour other topics such as manufacturing techniques or consumption processes. At the time, the paper spelt the end of an endless debate about style that centred on the question of the marking of social boundaries. By illustrating the religious dimension of ornamental practices, David et al. (1988) not only opened new interpretation avenues: they also brought decoration back among other elements of the chaîne opératoire, the symbolic dimensions of which were then put forward by a growing number of anthropologists. Today, this theory seems as problematic as the one that it sought to replace. Clearly, the time has come to put décor on the spot again, but favouring a broader perspective than in the past in order to eschew previous pitfalls. This is the aim of this paper, built on ethnographic observations made across the continent. First, some classical aspects of décor analysis are considered, with a view to illustrating the complexity of ornamental practices as well as the dangers of univocal interpretations. Second, new means of interpretation are illustrated that relate to the spatialisation and dynamics of social worlds in the making.