Material histories of African beads: the role of personal ornaments in cultural change (original) (raw)

2021, Personal Adornment and the Construction of Identity: A Global Perspective

Abstract

Africa is the continent that provides the longest track record of personal ornaments, back to the earliest use by our hominid predecessors. Beads made of marine shell, ostrich eggshell, stones, and later glass appear consistently in Africa's archaeological record from the Middle Stone Age onward, and have long been linked with indexing ethnic and interpersonal identity (Bednarik 2001, 2008; McBrearty & Brooks 2000; Sciama and Eicher 2015). As one of the most enduring artifacts in human history, beads have served in cultural, cognitive, and communicative systems of language, art, and symbolism. Beads have played a central role in ethnographic studies, which have explored the range of cultural signals and meaning among various groups (Klumpp and Kranz 1992; Leach and Leach 1983; Malinowski 1922; Trubitt 2003). Yet, their role in social change is less explored. This chapter is framed around two African contexts: first, in northwest Kenya, where the first pastoralists buried their loved ones and community members with brilliantly-coloured stone beads underneath megalithic monuments 5,000 years ago; and second at the edge of the Kalahari in Botswana, where 1,000 years ago and 1,000 km inland, societies used glass beads coming from India and the Middle East to index increasing inequality. In both situations, beads played a role in the ways these past African societies understood their lives at key moments of transformation: here, animal domestication and early monuments, and proto-global trade and stratification. Importantly, these societies—and their use of beads as personal ornaments—should not be conflated. The goal of focusing on two case studies is to demonstrate the breadth of the uses of beads in various historical processes, while providing enough depth within each example to examine the varying roles these material objects played. ***Please contact for chapter off-prints***

Key takeaways

sparkles

AI

  1. Beads have played a crucial role in indexing identity and signaling cultural change throughout African history.
  2. The chapter highlights two distinct contexts: Turkana's megalithic burial practices and Bosutswe's trade-linked glass beads.
  3. Over 100,000 ostrich eggshell beads were estimated at Turkana sites, indicating their significant cultural value.
  4. Bosutswe's 429 glass bead collection reveals deep connections to Indian Ocean trade networks and local dynamics.
  5. The analysis emphasizes the intertwined nature of material culture and social processes in understanding human history.

Loading...

Loading Preview

Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.

References (79)

  1. Alberti, B., Fowles, S., Holbraad, M., Marshall, Y. and Whitmore, C. (2011) 'Worlds otherwise': archaeology, anthropology, and ontological difference. Current Anthropology 52, 896-912.
  2. Appadurai, A. (ed.) (1986) The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  3. Babalola, A. (2018) Chemical analysis of glass beads from Igbo Olokun, Ile-Ife (SW Nigeria): new light on raw materials, production, and interregional interaction. Journal of Archaeological Science 90, 92-105.
  4. Bednarik, R. (2001) Beads and pendants of the Pleistocene. Anthropos 96, 545-555.
  5. Bednarik, R. (2008) Early beads. In H. Selin (ed.) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in non-Western Cultures. Part 2, 395-399. Dordrecht, Kluwer.
  6. Bennett, J. (2010) Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham, Duke University Press.
  7. Calabrese, J. (2005) Metals, Ideology and Power: The Manufacture and Control of Materialised Ideology in the Area of the Limpopo-Shashe Confluence, c. CE 900 to 1300. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Witwatersrand.
  8. Chesson, M. (2001) Social memory, identity and death: an introduction. In M. Chesson (ed.) Social Memory, Identity and Death: Ethnographic and Archaeological Perspectives on Mortuary Rituals, 1-11. Archaeological Publications of the American Anthropological Association Publication Series, Vol. 10. Arlington, American Anthropological Association.
  9. Chirikure, S., Bandama, F., House, M., Moffett, A., Mukwende, T. and Pollard, M. (2016) Decisive evidence for multidirectional evolution of sociopolitical complexity in southern Africa. African Archaeological Review 55, 1-21.
  10. Cunningham, J. and MacEachern, S. (2016) Ethnoarchaeology as slow science. World Archaeology 48, 628-641.
  11. Denbow, J. (1990) Congo to Kalahari: data and hypotheses about the political economy of the western stream of the Early Iron Age. African Archaeological Review 8, 139-175.
  12. Denbow, J. (1999) Material culture and the dialectics of identity in the Kalahari: CE 700-1700. In S. McIntosh (ed.) Beyond Chiefdoms: Pathways to Complexity in Africa, 110-123. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  13. Denbow, J. and Miller, D. (2007) Metal working at Bosutswe, Botswana. Journal of African Archaeology 5, 271-313.
  14. Denbow, J., Klehm, C. and Dussubieux, L. (2015) The glass beads of Kaitshàa and early Indian Ocean trade. Antiquity 89, 361-377.
  15. Denbow, J., Smith, J., Ndobochani, N., Atwood, K. and Miller, D. (2008) Archaeological excavations at Bosutswe, Botswana: Cultural chronology, paleo-ecology and economy. Journal of Archaeological Science 35, 459-480.
  16. Dubroc, B. (2010) The Beads of Bosutswe. Unpublished MA thesis, University of Texas at Austin.
  17. Ekholm, K. (1972) Power and Prestige: The Rise and Fall of the Kongo Kingdom. Uppsala, Scriv Service. 8. Material histories of African beads
  18. Fowles, S. (2016) The perfect subject (postcolonial object studies). Journal of Material Culture 21, 9-27.
  19. Gero, J. and Conkey, M. (eds) (1991) Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory. Oxford, Wiley- Blackwell.
  20. Geschiere, P. (2001) Historical anthropology. Questions of time, method and scale. Interventions 3, 31-39.
  21. Gosden, C. (1994) Social Being and Time: An Archaeological Perspective. Oxford, Blackwell. Graves-Brown, P. (2000) Matter, Materiality, and Modern Culture. London, Routledge.
  22. Grillo, K. and Hildebrand, E. (2013) The context of early megalithic architecture in eastern Africa: the Turkana Basin c. 5000-4000 BP. Azania 48, 193-217.
  23. Guyer, J. (1995) Wealth in people, wealth in things-introduction. Journal of African History 36, 83-90.
  24. Guyer, J. and Belinga, S. (1995) Wealth in people as wealth in knowledge: accumulation and composition in equatorial Africa. Journal of African History 36, 91-120.
  25. Hayden, B. (1998) Practical and prestige technologies: the evolution of material systems. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 5, 1-55.
  26. Hicks, D. and Beaudry, M. (2010) Introduction: material culture studies: a reactionary view. In D. Hicks and M. Beaudry (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Material Culture Studies, 1-19. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
  27. Hildebrand, E. (2013) Is monumentality in the eye of the beholder? Lessons from constructed spaces in Africa. Azania 48, 155-172.
  28. Hildebrand, E. and Grillo, K. (2012) Early herders and monumental sites in Eastern Africa: dating and interpretation. Antiquity 36, 338-352.
  29. Hildebrand, E., Shea, J. and Grillo, K. (2011) Four Middle Holocene pillar sites in the West Turkana, Kenya. Journal of Field Archaeology 36, 181-200.
  30. Hildebrand, E., Grillo, K., Sawchuk, E., Pfieffer, S., Conyers, L., Goldstein, S., Hill, A., Janzen, A., Klehm, C., Helper, M., Kiura, P., Ndiema, E., Ngugi, C., Shea, J. and Wang, H. (2018) A monumental cemetery built by Eastern Africa's earliest herders near Lake Turkana, Kenya. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences 115, 8942-8947.
  31. Hodder I. (2006) Thing theory: towards an integrated archaeological perspective. Scottish Archaeological Journal 28, v-vi.
  32. Huffman, T. (2007) Handbook to the Iron Age: The Archaeology of Pre-Colonial Farming Societies in Southern Africa. Scottsville, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
  33. Huffman, T. (2009) Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe: the origin and spread of social complexity in southern Africa. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 28, 37-54.
  34. Ingold, T. (2000) The Perception of the Environment. London: Routledge.
  35. Ingold, T. (2014) Is there life amidst the ruins? Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 1, 231-235.
  36. Klehm, C. (2013) Regional Dynamics and Local Dialectics in Iron Age Botswana: Case Studies from the Hinterland. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Texas at Austin.
  37. Klehm, C. (2014) Trade tales and tiny trails. The Appendix Journal of History. http://theappendix.net/ issues/2014/1/trade-tales-and-tiny-trails-glass-beads-in-the-kalahari-desert. January 8, 2014.
  38. Klehm, C. (2017) Local dynamics and the emergence of social inequality in Iron Age Botswana. Current Anthropology 58, 604-633.
  39. Klehm, C. and Ernenwein, E. (2016) Electromagnetic induction survey and test excavations at Mmadipudi Hill, Botswana. African Archaeological Review 33, 45-59.
  40. Klehm, C., Barnes, A., Follett, F., Simon, K., Kiahtipes, C. and Mothulatshipi, S. (2019) Toward archaeological predictive modeling in the Bosutswe Region of Botswana: utilizing multispectral satellite imagery to conceptualize ancient landscapes. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 54, 68-83.
  41. Klumpp, D. and Kranz, C. (1993) Aesthetics, expertise, and ethnicity: Okiek and Maasai perspectives on personal ornament. In T. Speak and R. Walker (eds) Being Maasai, 195-221. London, James Currey. Kuper, A. (1982) Wives for Cattle. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul.
  42. Lane, P. (2006) Present to past: ethnoarchaeology. In C. Tilley, W. Keane, S. Kuchler, M. Rowlands and P. Spyer (eds) Handbook of Material Culture, 402-424. London, SAGE Publications.
  43. Latour B. (1993) We Have Never Been Modern. Cambridge, Harvard University Press.
  44. Latour, B. (2004) Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy. Cambridge, Harvard University Press.
  45. Lazzari, M. (2014) Old and new materialisms. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 1, 236-238.
  46. Leach, J. and Leach, E. (eds) (1983) The Kula: New Perspectives on Massim Exchange. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  47. Malinowski, M. (1922) Argonauts of the Western Pacific. London, Routledge and Kegal Paul. Marshall, L. (1976) The !Kung of the Nyae Nyae. Cambridge, Harvard University Press.
  48. Mazel, A. (1989) People making history: the last 10,000 year of hunter-gatherer communities in the Thukela Basin. Natal Museum Journal of Humanities 1, 1-168.
  49. McBrearty, S. and Brooks, A. (2000) The revolution that wasn't: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behaviour. Journal of Human Evolution 39, 453-563.
  50. Meskell, L. (2005) Archaeologies of Materiality. Oxford, Blackwell.
  51. Mitchell, P. (1996) Prehistoric exchange and interaction in southeastern southern Africa: marine shells and ostrich eggshell. African Archaeological Review 13, 35-76.
  52. Mitchell, P. (2005) African Connections: Archaeological Perspectives on Africa and the Wider World. Lanham, Altamira Press.
  53. Moffett, A. and Chirikure, S. (2016) Exotica in context: reconfiguring prestige, power and wealth in the southern African Iron Age. Journal of World Prehistory 29, 337-382.
  54. Nelson, C. (1995) The work of the Koobi Fora Field School at the Jarigole pillar site. Kenya Past and Present 27, 49-63.
  55. Olsen, B., Shanks, M., Webmoor, T. and Witmore, C. (2012) Archaeology: The Discipline of Things. Berkeley, University of California Press.
  56. Pearson, M.P. (2000) The Archaeology of Death and Burial. College Station, Texas A&M Press.
  57. Porter, A. (2002) The dynamics of death: ancestors, pastoralism, and the origins of a third- millennium city in Syria. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 325, 1-36.
  58. Robertshaw, P., Wood, M., Melchiorre, E., Popelka-Filcoff, R. and Glascock, M. (2010) Southern African glass beads: chemistry, glass sources, and patterns of trade. Journal of Archaeological Science 37, 1898-1912.
  59. Sawkchuk, E., Pfieffer, S., Klehm, C., Cameron, M., Hill, A., Janzen, A., Grillo, K. and Hildebrand, E. (2019) The bioarchaeology of mid-Holocene pastoralist cemeteries west of Lake Turkana, Kenya. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11, 6221-6241.
  60. Sciama, L. and Eicher, J. (eds) (2015) Beads and Bead Makers: Gender, Material Culture, and Meaning. London, Bloomsbury.
  61. Stahl, A. (1993) Concepts of time and approaches to analogical reasoning in historical perspective. American Antiquity 58, 235-260.
  62. Stahl, A. (2010) Material histories. In D. Hicks and M. Beaudry (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Material Culture Studies, 148-170. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
  63. Strathern, M. (1988) The Gender of the Gift. Berkeley, University of California Press.
  64. Theal, G.M. (1898) Records of South Eastern Africa: Collected in Various Libraries and Archive Departments in Europe. Vol. 1. London, William Clowks axd sons, limited.
  65. Thomas, J. (1991) Rethinking the Neolithic. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  66. Thomas, J. (2006) Phenomenology and material culture. In C. Tilley, W. Keane, S. Kuchler, M. Rowlands and P. Spyer (eds) Handbook of Material Culture, 43-59. London, Sage.
  67. Thomas, J. (2008) Landscape, archaeology and dwelling. In B. David and J. Thomas (eds) Manual of Landscape Archaeology, 300-6. Walnut Creek, Left Coast Press.
  68. Material histories of African beads
  69. Trubitt, M. (2003) The production and exchange of marine shell prestige goods. Journal of Archaeological Research 11, 243-277.
  70. van Waarden, C. (2011) The origin of Zimbabwe tradition walling. Zimbabwean Prehistory 29, 54-77.
  71. Weedman, K. (2006) Gender and ethnoarchaeology. In S. Nelson (ed.) Handbook of Gender in Archaeology, 247-294. Lanham, Altamira.
  72. Whitmore, C. (2014) Archaeology and the new materialism. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 1, 203-224.
  73. Wiessner, P. (1977) Hxaro: A Regional System of Reciprocity for Reducing Risk among the !Kung San. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Michigan.
  74. Wiessner, P. (1982) Risk, reciprocity, and social influences on !Kung San economics. In E. Leacock and R. Lee (eds) Politics and History in Band Societies, 61-84. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  75. Williams, S. Rakiya, F. and Buikstra, J. (eds) (2005) Interacting with the Dead: Perspectives on Mortuary Archaeology for the New Millennium. Gainsville, University of Florida Press.
  76. Wilmsen, E. (1989) Land Filled with Flies: A Political Economy of the Kalahari. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
  77. Wilmsen, E., Killick, D., Rosenstein, D., Thebe, P. and Denbow, J. (2009) The social geography of pottery in Botswana as reconstructed by optical petrography. Journal of African Archaeology 7, 3-39.
  78. Wood, M. (2011) A glass bead sequence for southern Africa from the 8th to the 16th century AD. Journal of African Archaeology. 9, 7-84.
  79. Wood, M. (2012) Interconnections: Glass Beads and Trade in Southern and Eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean: 7th to 16th Centuries AD. Uppsala, University of Uppsala.