Download or read book The Culture and Technology of African Iron Production written by Peter Ridgway Schmidt and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archaeological and ethnographic investigations in western Tanzania in the 1970s revealed remarkable evidence for a complex and highly advanced iron technology that existed there several thousand years ago. Still, Western scientific and historical practice continues to obscure the history of iron technology and its accomplishments in Africa. Weaving together myth, ritual, history, and science, this work describes the systems of smithing and iron smelting, some of which arose 2,000 to 2,500 years ago. Revealing the world of African technological achievement, the contributors to this work demonstrate that iron production there is a socially constructed activity and that its cultural and technological domains cannot be understood separately.

Download or read book The Origins of Iron Metallurgy in Africa written by Hamady Bocoum and published by Unesco. This book was released on 2004 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The work of specialists archaeologists, historians, ethnologists, metallographs and sociologists gathered in this volume show the vitality of research being carried out on iron processing in Africa since as early as the third millennium B.C.

Download or read book Iron Gender and Power written by Eugenia W. Herbert and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1994-01-22 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[Herbert] has constructed a model of power relationships structured upon gender and age, and derived from male transformative processes, and in so doing has written a notable, and most enjoyable, book." -- African History "Herbert examines with great care and thoroughness the relationships between gender and power and the rationales that give them social form.... [Her] analytical ability is outstanding." -- Patrick McNaughton "This book is a well-written and essential study of the place of belief in African material culture." -- International Journal of African Historical Studies Herbert relates the beliefs and practices associated with iron working in African cultures to other transformative activities -- chiefly investiture, hunting, and pottery making -- to propose a gender/age-based theory of power.

Download or read book African Iron Working Ancient and Traditional written by Randi Haaland and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Iron working has a long and rich history in Africa--it was decisive for the development of many African cultures and states, and its study is now yielding results of great significance. This book, a collection of articles by archaeologists and enthnographers from the USA, Africa, and Europe, explores the development of the iron working processes, the reasons for local variation, the role of iron workers in ancient and modern societies, and the way in which iron production changed society.

Download or read book Africa the Cradle of Human Diversity written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-11-22 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores important chapters of past and recent African history from a multidisciplinary perspective. It covers an extensive time range from the evolution of early humans to the complex cultural and genetic diversity of modern-day populations in Africa. Through a comprehensive list of chapters, the book focuses on different time-periods, geographic regions and cultural and biological aspects of human diversity across the continent. Each chapter summarises current knowledge with perspectives from a varied set of international researchers from diverse areas of expertise. The book provides a valuable resource for scholars interested in evolutionary history and human diversity in Africa. Contributors are Shaun Aron, Ananyo Choudhury, Bernard Clist, Cesar Fortes-Lima, Rosa Fregel, Jackson S. Kimambo, Faye Lander , Marlize Lombard, Fidelis T. Masao, Ezekia Mtetwa, Gilbert Pwiti, Michèle Ramsay, Thembi Russell, Carina Schlebusch, Dhriti Sengupta, Plan Shenjere-Nyabezi, Mário Vicente.

Download or read book African Material Culture written by Mary Jo Arnoldi and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1996-04-22 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This volume has much to recommend it -- providing fascinating and stimulating insights into many arenas of material culture, many of which still remain only superficially explored in the archaeological literature." -- Archaeological Review "... a vivid introduction to the topic.... A glimpse into the unique and changing identities in an ever-changing world." -- Come-All-Ye Fourteen interdisciplinary essays open new perspectives for understanding African societies and cultures through the contextualized study of objects, treating everything from the production of material objects to the meaning of sticks, masquerades, household tools, clothing, and the television set in the contemporary repertoire of African material culture.

Download or read book Iron Technology in East Africa written by Peter Ridgway Schmidt and published by James Currey Publishers. This book was released on 1997-06-22 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: " . . . one of the best books yet written on preindustrial African ironworking." —Geoarchaeology "Peter Schmidt has written an important synthesis of two decades' work on the iron technology of the Haya people of Tanzania." —African Studies Review " . . . essential reading for archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians of East Africa . . . " —International Journal of African Historical Studies "In Schmidt's skillful and sensitive hands . . . the topic comes alive as a vital sociology of knowledge in ways that will interest a great many readers, both in and outside of archaeology and African Studies." —Choice Peter R. Schmidt distills more than 20 years of research on the technological, historical, and cultural dimensions of African iron production from ancient times to the recent past. His investigation of the rich symbolism surrounding traditional methods of iron production sheds light on the history of iron technology and reveals its central cultural role.

Download or read book Ancient African Metallurgy written by Michael S. Bisson and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2000 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gold. Copper. Iron. Metal working in Africa has been the subject of both popular lore and extensive archaeological investigation. In this volume, four leading archaeologists attempt to provide a complete synthesis of current debates and understandings: When, how and where was metal first introduced to the continent? How were iron and copper tools, implements, and objects used in everyday life, in trade, in political and cultural contexts? What role did metals play in the ideological systems of precolonial African peoples? Substantive chapters address the origins of African metal working and analyze the specific uses, technology, and ideology of both copper and iron. An ethnoarchaeological account in the words of a contemporary iron worker enriches the archaeological explanations. The volume will be of great value to scholars and students of archaeology, African history, and the history of technology.

Download or read book Ancient African Metallurgy written by Michael S. Bisson and published by AltaMira Press. This book was released on 2000-08-16 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gold. Copper. Iron. Metal working in Africa has been the subject of both public lore and extensive archaeological investigation. Here, four of the leading contemporary researchers on this topic attempt to provide a complete synthesis of current debates and understandings: Where, how, and when was metal first introduced to the continent? How were iron and copper tools, implements, and objects used in everyday life, in trade, in political and cultural contexts? What role did metal objects play in the ideological systems of precolonial African peoples? Substantive chapters address the origins of metal working and the technology and the various uses and meanings of copper and iron. An ethnoarchaeological account in the words of a contemporary iron worker enriches the archaeological explanations. This book provides a comprehensive, timely summary of our current knowledge.

Download or read book African History A Very Short Introduction written by John Parker and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2007-03-22 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Intended for those interested in the African continent and the diversity of human history, this work looks at Africa's past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented. It illustrates key themes in modern thinking about Africa's history with a range of historical examples.

Download or read book Striking Iron written by Allen F. Roberts and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The collection of scholarly essays 'Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths' accompanies an international traveling exhibition of the same title organized by the Fowler Museum at UCLA. For more than two millennia, ironworking has shaped African cultures in the most fundamental ways. 'Striking Iron' reveals the history of invention and technical sophistication that led African blacksmiths to transform one of Earth's most basic natural resources into objects of life-changing utility, empowerment, prestige, spiritual potency, and astonishing artistry. The contributions of diverse scholars examine how blacksmiths' virtuosic works can harness the powers of the natural and spiritual worlds, effect change and ensure protection, prestige, and status, assist with life's challenges and transitions, and enhance the efficacies of sacred acts such as ancestor veneration, healing, fertility, and prophecy. The publication features full-color photographic reproductions of over 225 artworks from across the African continent, focusing on the region south of the Sahara and covering a time period spanning early archaeological evidence to the present day. These works include blades, currencies, diverse musical instruments, body adornments, ritual accoutrements, tools, weapons, and other important iron objects. Following its presentation at the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles the exhibition 'Striking Iron' travels to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C., and the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris"--Provided by publisher.

Download or read book Metals in Past Societies written by Shadreck Chirikure and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-03-18 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book seeks to communicate to both a global and local audience, the key attributes of pre-industrial African metallurgy such as technological variation across space and time, methods of mining and extractive metallurgy and the fabrication of metal objects. These processes were transformative in a physical and metaphoric sense, which made them total social facts. Because the production and use of metals was an accretion of various categories of practice, a chaine operatoire conceptual and theoretical framework that simultaneously considers the embedded technological and anthropological factors was used. The book focuses on Africa’s different regions as roughly defined by cultural geography. On the one hand there is North Africa, Egypt, the Egyptian Sudan, and the Horn of Africa which share cultural inheritances with the Middle East and on the other is Africa south of the Sahara and the Sudan which despite interacting with the former is remarkably different in terms of technological practice. For example, not only is the timing of metallurgy different but so is the infrastructure for working metals and the associated symbolic and sociological factors. The cultural valuation of metals and the social positions of metal workers were different too although there is evidence of some values transfer and multi-directional technological cross borrowing. The multitude of permutations associated with metals production and use amply demonstrates that metals participated in the production and reproduction of society. Despite huge temporal and spatial differences there are so many common factors between African metallurgy and that of other regions of the world. For example, the role of magic and ritual in metal working is almost universal be it in Bolivia, Nepal, Malawi, Timna, Togo or Zimbabwe. Similarly, techniques of mining were constrained by the underlying geology but this should not in any way suggest that Africa’s metallurgy was derivative or that the continent had no initiative. Rather it demonstrates that when confronted with similar challenges, humanity in different regions of the world responded to identical challenges in predictable ways mediated as mediated by the prevailing cultural context. The success of the use of historical and ethnographic data in understanding variation and improvisation in African metallurgical practices flags the potential utility of these sources in Asia, Latin America and Europe. Some nuance is however needed because it is simply naïve to assume that everything depicted in the history or ethnography has a parallel in the past and vice versa. Rather, the confluence of archaeology, history and ethnography becomes a pedestal for dialogue between different sources, subjects and ideas that is important for broadening our knowledge of global categories of metallurgical practice.

Download or read book The Archaeology and Ethnography of Central Africa written by James Denbow and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides the first detailed description of the prehistory of the Loango coast of west-central Africa over the course of more than 3000 years.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia written by Geoff Emberling and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 1217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The cultures of Nubia built the earliest cities, states, and empires of inner Africa, but they remain relatively poorly known outside their modern descendants and the community of archaeologists, historians, and art historians researching them. The earliest archaeological work in Nubia was motivated by the region's role as neighbor, trade partner, and enemy of ancient Egypt. Increasingly, however, ancient Nile-based Nubian cultures are recognized in their own right as the earliest complex societies in inner Africa. As agro-pastoral cultures, Nubian settlement, economy, political organization, and religious ideologies were often organized differently from those of the urban, bureaucratic, and predominantly agricultural states of Egypt and the ancient Near East. Nubian societies are thus of great interest in comparative study, and are also recognized for their broader impact on the histories of the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia brings together chapters by an international group of scholars on a wide variety of topics that relate to the history and archaeology of the region. After important introductory chapters on the history of research in Nubia and on its climate and physical environment, the largest part of the volume focuses on the sequence of cultures that lead almost to the present day. Several cross-cutting themes are woven through these chapters, including essays on desert cultures and on Nubians in Egypt. Eleven final chapters synthesize subjects across all historical phases, including gender and the body, economy and trade, landscape archaeology, iron working, and stone quarrying.

Download or read book The Swahili Coast written by Christine Nicholls and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-08-01 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1971, The Swahili Coast deals with a sixty-year period in which Arabs from Oman in Arabia extended their influence over the East African coast from Mogadishu in the north to Cape Delgado in the South. This region had a culture and a way of life quite distinct from that of the interior and had always been an area of great maritime activity. For hundreds of years, Arabs had come down on the monsoon winds to trade there, and for two centuries, the Portuguese had controlled the region. In the course of the period covered by this book the ruler of the Omani Arabs transferred his seat of government from Arabia to Zanzibar. This involved him in delicate relationships with the Western powers who developed strategic and commercial interests in the area, and in conflicts with the local inhabitants of the East African littoral. Based on many original and hitherto unpublished materials, this book illuminates the reasons for this extension of Arab influence in the western part of the Indian Ocean, and shows the growing involvement of Western powers with the politics of the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Attention is also focused on the development of trade on the Swahili coast, as well as the reaction of the local populace to Arab and Western pressures. This study will be particularly useful for advanced students of African history, African Studies and anyone interested in political, social, and economic development of East Africa.

Download or read book UNESCO General History of Africa Vol I Abridged Edition written by Jacqueline Ki-Zerbo and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This volume covers the period from the end of the Neolithic era to the beginning of the seventh century of our era. This lengthy period includes the civilization of Ancient Egypt, the history of Nubia, Ethiopia, North Africa and the Sahara, as well as of the other regions of the continent and its islands."--Publisher's description

Download or read book The Art of Africa written by Christa Clarke and published by Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book was released on 2006 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A CD-ROM and DVD set extracted from the 'The Art of Africa: A Resource for Educators.' The CD-ROM "contains a PDF of 'The Art of Africa: A Resource for Educators, ' which features forty traditional works of African art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It includes a brief overview of the Metropolitan's collection of African art; a short introduction and history of Africa; an explanation of the role of visual expression in the continent; descriptions of the featured works of art and background about the materials and techniques that were used to created them ... The DVD, 'Ci Wara Invocation, ' "presents the highlights of a dozen ci wara performances in Bamana communities in present-day Mali that were recorded by five different observers between 1970-2002. Among the Bamana, oral traditions credit a mythical being named Ci Wara, a divine being half mortal and half antelope, with the introduction of agriculture to the Bamana. The ci wara performances are part of biannual celebrations that either launch or conclude the farming season."--Container