Philip de Barros | Palomar College (original) (raw)
B.A. (history), M.A. (education) from Stanford
PhD (Anthropology/Archaeology) from UCLA
Peace Corps Volunteer and Administrator 7 years, Togo, West Africa
Director of Cultural Resources, Chambers Group, Orange County, CA 1985-1994, consultant 2004-05
Professor of Anthropology, Palomar College, 1994-2017
Coordinator, A.A. Degree Program, Palomar College, 1996-2016
Peer reviewed articles and book chapters, 1982-2023. Book 2021. Available on request.
Career focused on Bassar ironworking region, northern Togo, 1981-present.
Currently working on 2-volume work in French on the Bassar Early Iron Age (Vol 1, July 2021), Later Iron Age (Vol 2, 2026).
Founding Chair, African Chronometric Dating Fund (ACDF), service committee of the Society for Africanist Archaeologists, 2022-present
March 2021) and Later Iron Age (2026).
Supervisors: UCLA JimHill, TimEarle, MPosnansky, DwightRead
Phone: 17608079489
Address: 13730 Via Cima Bella, San Diego, CA 92129, USA
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Papers by Philip de Barros
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology, Feb 22, 2023
This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthro... more This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Please check back later for the full article. One of the major debates in African Iron Age research has focused on the origins of iron production (what, where, when, and how), including evolving technological strategies from bellows-driven to natural draft furnaces and associated production levels, and whether ironworking technology in sub-Saharan Africa was borrowed or had independent origins. While the debate continues, research has revealed a stunning diversity of furnace construction, the use of natural draft furnaces since perhaps as early as the first millennium B.C.E, clear evidence of ore selectivity, and improved technological processes via trial and error. The importance of West (and sub-Saharan) African iron production can best be understood within its various cultural contexts, rather than from a strictly Western technological perspective. What were the various impacts of iron production and technology on West African societies? These include demographics (population growth, settlement system dynamics, and sedentism); economics (increased food production, wealth accumulation (especially in cattle) and trade; environmental (deforestation, mining, and watersheds); social ramifications (changes in the social organization of production, including specialization; changes in social status, including castes) and in the rise of social hierarchies or heterarchies; political organization (links to political power and the rise of political centralization ); and, finally, its links to magic, religion, and societal ontologies (including birth, life or existence, sexuality and renewal, other liminal experiences, truth, and death), especially the tightly woven nexus of technology and ritual in smelting and to a lesser degree in smithing. In terms of theoretical issues and associated research goals, how were the materials and processes of ironworking integrated into societal belief systems, and to what extent were these systems reinforced, modified, or expanded as a result of the rise of ironworking technology? How does this process in the context of different cultural beliefs and practices lead to different technological styles? How does the colonial and postcolonial history of Africa impact what researchers decide to study and how they interpret results? How did the rise of ironworking affect material culture beyond ironworking technology itself? For example, there appears to be a correlation with the rise of ironworking technology and changes in ceramic vessel forms and associated decorative motifs. In terms of methods, what practically oriented strategies for resolving specific research questions are currently available? They include intensive regional sample surveys; extensive surveys linked to opportunistic sampling and a focus on local oral traditions; ethnoarchaeological approaches combining oral traditions and selective excavations to yield information on ceramics and chronology, smelting and smithing technologies, iron-production levels, dietary information and mortuary practices, all with the goal of understanding African cultural matrices of which ironworking became an integral part. The study of the trade in smelted iron and iron tools requires a multidisciplinary study of historical and colonial archives, oral traditions, and the identification of the chemical signatures of various ore sources that can be tied to iron ore and tools over local and regional spaces. In addition, the study of ironworking technologies requires funding and access to expensive recording and investigative technologies, which limits its accessibility and often requires the development of joint research programs.
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Mar 5, 2012
African Archaeological Review, Dec 1, 1988
The Journal of African History, Jul 1, 1993
offers something to upset everyone: I was somewhat shocked by Smith's cavalier rejection of a... more offers something to upset everyone: I was somewhat shocked by Smith's cavalier rejection of an early Southern Cushitic pastoral expansion, and later bemused by the sudden use of the Himba as a 'test' of Moore's ideas concerning space and gender (p. 189), which were briefly introduced here for the first time. The final two chapters discuss the challenges faced by pastoral societies in the modern world. In particular, Smith discusses development and the problems and prospects of aid interventions. He rightly points to the need to give pastoralists more than a token say in their own future and for aid workers to acknowledge the skills and experience that pastoralists possess. Both governments and development specialists tend to be portrayed somewhat simplistically as villains. It is a pity that Smith does not discuss Somalia when he claims that pastoralists have usually had little representation in central government. However, what I found most disturbing was that despite claiming that 'the image of unchanging traditional African societies has been shown to be a myth', Smith promulgates this very myth by contrasting the present state of African pastoral societies with a 'traditional' past. For example, he attempts 'a reconstruction of the traditional adaptive strategies' (p. 184), claims that 'the traditional pastoral economy was not precarious' (p. 206) and remarks that 'today's pressures require the traditional pastoralist to adapt now' (p. 255). Notwithstanding its good intentions, this book is a disappointment. It lacks structure, is poorly edited and has inadequate maps.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology
This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthro... more This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Please check back later for the full article. One of the major debates in African Iron Age research has focused on the origins of iron production (what, where, when, and how), including evolving technological strategies from bellows-driven to natural draft furnaces and associated production levels, and whether ironworking technology in sub-Saharan Africa was borrowed or had independent origins. While the debate continues, research has revealed a stunning diversity of furnace construction, the use of natural draft furnaces since perhaps as early as the first millennium B.C.E, clear evidence of ore selectivity, and improved technological processes via trial and error. The importance of West (and sub-Saharan) African iron production can best be understood within its various cultural contexts, rather than from a strictly Western technological perspective. What were the various impact...
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology, Feb 22, 2023
This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthro... more This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Please check back later for the full article. One of the major debates in African Iron Age research has focused on the origins of iron production (what, where, when, and how), including evolving technological strategies from bellows-driven to natural draft furnaces and associated production levels, and whether ironworking technology in sub-Saharan Africa was borrowed or had independent origins. While the debate continues, research has revealed a stunning diversity of furnace construction, the use of natural draft furnaces since perhaps as early as the first millennium B.C.E, clear evidence of ore selectivity, and improved technological processes via trial and error. The importance of West (and sub-Saharan) African iron production can best be understood within its various cultural contexts, rather than from a strictly Western technological perspective. What were the various impacts of iron production and technology on West African societies? These include demographics (population growth, settlement system dynamics, and sedentism); economics (increased food production, wealth accumulation (especially in cattle) and trade; environmental (deforestation, mining, and watersheds); social ramifications (changes in the social organization of production, including specialization; changes in social status, including castes) and in the rise of social hierarchies or heterarchies; political organization (links to political power and the rise of political centralization ); and, finally, its links to magic, religion, and societal ontologies (including birth, life or existence, sexuality and renewal, other liminal experiences, truth, and death), especially the tightly woven nexus of technology and ritual in smelting and to a lesser degree in smithing. In terms of theoretical issues and associated research goals, how were the materials and processes of ironworking integrated into societal belief systems, and to what extent were these systems reinforced, modified, or expanded as a result of the rise of ironworking technology? How does this process in the context of different cultural beliefs and practices lead to different technological styles? How does the colonial and postcolonial history of Africa impact what researchers decide to study and how they interpret results? How did the rise of ironworking affect material culture beyond ironworking technology itself? For example, there appears to be a correlation with the rise of ironworking technology and changes in ceramic vessel forms and associated decorative motifs. In terms of methods, what practically oriented strategies for resolving specific research questions are currently available? They include intensive regional sample surveys; extensive surveys linked to opportunistic sampling and a focus on local oral traditions; ethnoarchaeological approaches combining oral traditions and selective excavations to yield information on ceramics and chronology, smelting and smithing technologies, iron-production levels, dietary information and mortuary practices, all with the goal of understanding African cultural matrices of which ironworking became an integral part. The study of the trade in smelted iron and iron tools requires a multidisciplinary study of historical and colonial archives, oral traditions, and the identification of the chemical signatures of various ore sources that can be tied to iron ore and tools over local and regional spaces. In addition, the study of ironworking technologies requires funding and access to expensive recording and investigative technologies, which limits its accessibility and often requires the development of joint research programs.
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Mar 5, 2012
African Archaeological Review, Dec 1, 1988
The Journal of African History, Jul 1, 1993
offers something to upset everyone: I was somewhat shocked by Smith's cavalier rejection of a... more offers something to upset everyone: I was somewhat shocked by Smith's cavalier rejection of an early Southern Cushitic pastoral expansion, and later bemused by the sudden use of the Himba as a 'test' of Moore's ideas concerning space and gender (p. 189), which were briefly introduced here for the first time. The final two chapters discuss the challenges faced by pastoral societies in the modern world. In particular, Smith discusses development and the problems and prospects of aid interventions. He rightly points to the need to give pastoralists more than a token say in their own future and for aid workers to acknowledge the skills and experience that pastoralists possess. Both governments and development specialists tend to be portrayed somewhat simplistically as villains. It is a pity that Smith does not discuss Somalia when he claims that pastoralists have usually had little representation in central government. However, what I found most disturbing was that despite claiming that 'the image of unchanging traditional African societies has been shown to be a myth', Smith promulgates this very myth by contrasting the present state of African pastoral societies with a 'traditional' past. For example, he attempts 'a reconstruction of the traditional adaptive strategies' (p. 184), claims that 'the traditional pastoral economy was not precarious' (p. 206) and remarks that 'today's pressures require the traditional pastoralist to adapt now' (p. 255). Notwithstanding its good intentions, this book is a disappointment. It lacks structure, is poorly edited and has inadequate maps.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology
This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthro... more This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Please check back later for the full article. One of the major debates in African Iron Age research has focused on the origins of iron production (what, where, when, and how), including evolving technological strategies from bellows-driven to natural draft furnaces and associated production levels, and whether ironworking technology in sub-Saharan Africa was borrowed or had independent origins. While the debate continues, research has revealed a stunning diversity of furnace construction, the use of natural draft furnaces since perhaps as early as the first millennium B.C.E, clear evidence of ore selectivity, and improved technological processes via trial and error. The importance of West (and sub-Saharan) African iron production can best be understood within its various cultural contexts, rather than from a strictly Western technological perspective. What were the various impact...