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Collective and interpretive openings: perforated Gbe ritual ceramics at local, regional and Diasporic spheres of interpretation

2011; Routledge; Volume: 46; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/0067270x.2011.609663

1945-5534

Neil Norman,

Colonialism, slavery, and trade

Abstract Archaeologists use hand-built, low-fired, earthenware ceramics to build analogies connecting Africa to diasporic locales. Yet, the degree of specificity with which the individualising technologies, formal characteristics and decoration of excavated diasporic ceramics relate to particular African cultural groups, regions or sites is a matter of debate. This paper uses one class of perforated ceramics recovered from sites in coastal Bénin, West Africa, to explore the local and regional scales at which this class of ceramics holds cultural saliency in religious life. In so doing, it argues that archaeologists of Atlantic Africa must more thoroughly address regional trends in materiality and, in turn, proceed cautiously when using material culture to make point-to-point analogies that span the Atlantic. Les archéologues utilisent des céramiques en terre cuite et fabriquées à la main pour construire des analogies reliant l'Afrique aux collectivités diasporiques. Pourtant, le degré de spécificité avec laquelle les technologies précis, les caractéristiques formelles et la décoration de la céramique de la diaspora africaine se rapportent à certains groupes culturels africains, ou à certaines régions ou certains sites est sujet à contestation. Ce document utilise une classe de la céramique perforée récupéré dans les sites du Bénin côtier, Afrique de l'Ouest, pour explorer les échelles locales et régionales au cours de laquelle cette classe de céramiques détient la pertinence culturelle dans la vie religieuse. Ce faisant, il soutient que les archéologues de l'Afrique Atlantique doivent traiter plus complètement des tendances régionales de matérialité et, à son tour, doivent procéder avec prudence lors de l'utilisation de la culture matérielle de faire des analogies de point à point qui s'étendent sur l'Atlantique. Keywords: Huedaritualearthenwaresanalogydiaspora Acknowledgements The author wishes to thank Adria LaViolette, Kenneth Kelly, Cameron Monroe, Jeffrey Hantman, Jerome Handler and Joseph Miller for comments on earlier versions of this paper and/or the dissertation project from which it is drawn. I am indebted to Liza Gijanto, Akin Ogundiran, Ann Stahl and Mark Hauser who offered detailed suggestions. Alexis Adandé served as the local co-ordinator of my project and offered his considerable knowledge of the archaeology of southern Bénin. Joseph Adandé, Obaré Bagodo, Souayibou Varissou, Bienvenue Olory, Didier N'dah and Elisée Soumoni deserve special thanks for their kind encouragement and local logistical assistance. Early field efforts in 2003–2004 were supported by The Explorers Club Washington Group, the Graduate School of Arts and Science, University of Virginia, the Department of Anthropology, University of Virginia and the Center for Academic Excellence, University of Virginia. The longer field campaign in 2005–2006 was funded by a National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant (#0432893), a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship (#P022A0500) and a special grant by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Republic of Bénin.