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Forming and Shaping Pottery Boundaries in Contemporary South-Eastern Botswana
- Source :
- African Archaeological Review. 34:75-92
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2016.
-
Abstract
- In southern African archaeology, the equation of pottery styles with archaeological ‘cultures’ and their attribution to the antecedents of contemporary ethnic groups has been a common practice for a long time. Ethnoarchaeological studies from other parts of Africa and beyond have shown that the matter is complex and that stylistic and technological boundaries in ceramic distributions can reflect different kinds of social boundaries under different circumstances. To expand on these findings and make them locally relevant, a large-scale ethnoarchaeological study of 41 potters in south-eastern Botswana aims for a better understanding of ceramic technological style and boundary relations. Here, we present and explain only the results concerning the boundaries in the forming and shaping stage of ceramic vessel manufacture. We conclude that learning networks explain the visible boundaries in the technological style of forming and shaping pots in south-eastern Botswana today; language and ethnic affiliation do not. Boundaries in the other stages in the operational sequence of pottery manufacture, such as clay sourcing and preparation, vessel surface treatment and decoration, firing and finishing, will be presented in a series of further publications.
- Subjects :
- Archeology
Ethnoarchaeology
History
060102 archaeology
05 social sciences
0507 social and economic geography
Ethnic group
06 humanities and the arts
050701 cultural studies
Archaeology
Personal boundaries
African archaeology
Style (visual arts)
0601 history and archaeology
Pottery
South eastern
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15729842 and 02630338
- Volume :
- 34
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- African Archaeological Review
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........6c3f4ef58c8c53947386b55d14a7d583