Landscape Transformations and the Archaeology of Impact: Social Disruption and State Formation in Southern Africa / Edition 1

by Warren R. Perry, E. Kofi Agorsah

Overview

An attempt to use archaeological materials to investigate the colonization of southeastern Africa during the period 1500 to 1900. Perry demonstrates the usefulness of archaeology in bypassing the biases of the ethnohistorical and documentary record and generating a more comprehensive understanding of history. Special attention is paid to the period of state formation in Swaziland and a critique of the ‘Settler Model', which the author finds to be invalid.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306459559
Publisher:	Springer US
Publication date:	11/30/1999
Series:	Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology
Edition description:	2002
Pages:	180
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.24(d)

Table of Contents

Southern Africa and the Archaeology of Impact.- The Mfecane/Difaqane Problem from the Documentary Record.- Archaeological Correlates of the Settler Model.- Previous Archaeological Research.- Using Archaeology to Study the Processes of the Mfecane/Difaqane.- Toward an Archaeology of Impact.

Editorial Reviews

In 1984, Perry went to Swaziland, in southern Africa, to do archaeological fieldwork on the emergence of the Swazi state. He concentrated on the unsanctioned realms of the recent history, the Mfecane/Difaqane period, and soon discovered that no archaeology had been undertaken and that the official records were incomplete. He suspected political and ideological reasons for hiding the involvement of whites in international trade, especially the slave trade. Here are his findings, revised from his 1996 doctoral dissertation for the University of New York, Archaeology of the Mfecane/Difaqane. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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