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Cited by 18Archaeology and Rock Art StudiesGlobal Maritime and Colonial HistoriesAfrican Studies and Geopolitics

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 140 of the 142 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Crafting power: New perspectives on the political economy of southern Africa, AD 900–1300

Moffett, Abigail J., Hall, Simon, Chirikure, Shadreck·2020·Journal of Anthropological Archaeology
DOI 10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101180
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Abstract

Archaeological studies of craft production locales provide an important lens through which to evaluate the mechanisms of the political economy at different, intersecting scales. Such multi-scaler perspectives are pertinent to the study of southern Africa in the late first and early second millennium. Dominant models of the political economy of this period derive from research conducted at regional political centers, leaving critical assumptions surrounding resource mobility, access to craft products and other items of value, and control over craft persons largely untested in the wider region. Research conducted at the site of Shankare (AD 900–1300), located near Lolwe, the earliest dated copper mine in southern Africa, revealed the presence of a community of independent specialists. Crafting at Shankare took place in domestic contexts, with copper worked alongside domestic activities such as textile spinning, indicative of multi-crafting. Exchange and consumption patterns from the site indicate that imported items and technologies from the Indian Ocean rim region, such as glass beads and the technology of textile spinning, were spread widely within local networks. This study reveals the variable and heterogeneous ways in which craft, trade and political power articulate, and cautions for more nuanced explorations of power and economy in the region.

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Crossref · 10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101180

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2 of the 142 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 11

  1. Antonites, A., 2012. Political and Economic Interactions in the Hinterland of the Mapungubwe Polity, c. AD 1200-1300, South Africa. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. Yale University.
  2. Bhan, 1994, Harappan technology: theoretical and methodological issues, Man Environ., 19, 141
  3. Bronk Ramsey, C., 2013. OxCal. Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Oxford.
  4. Davison, 1984, Lobedu material culture: a comparative study of the 1930s and the 1970s, Ann. South African Museum, 94, 41
  5. Denbow, J.R., 1984. Cows and kings: A spatial and economic analysis of a hierarchical Early Iron Age settlement system in eastern Botswana. In: Hall,M., Avery, G., Avery, D.M., Wilson, M.L., (Eds.), Frontiers: Southern African archaeology today. BAR International Series, Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology. Archaeopress, Oxford, pp. 24–30.
  6. Evers, 1974, Ancient mining in southern Africa with reference to a copper mine in the Harmony Block, north-eastern Transvaal, J. South African Inst. Mining Metall., 74, 217
  7. Huffman, 1971, Cloth from the Iron Age in Rhodesia, Arnoldia., 14, 1
  8. Kovacevich, 2016, The Problem with “Workshops”: Gender, Craft Specialization and the State
  9. Mills, B.J., 2007. Multicrafting, Migration, and Identity in the Greater Southwest. In: Shimada, I. (Ed.), Rethinking Craft Production: Multicrafting and the Nature of Producers. University of Utah Press Salt Lake City, pp. 25–43.
  10. Renfrew, C., Shennan, S., 1982. Ranking, Resource and Exchange. Aspects of the Archaeology of Early European Society. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
  11. Scully, R.T.K., 1978. Phalaborwa Oral Tradition. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. State University of New York, New York.

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Metadata

Authors
Moffett, A. J., Hall, S., & Chirikure, S.
Affiliations
  • University of East Anglia (GB)
  • University of Cape Town (ZA)
Corresponding author
Moffett, Abigail J.
Venue
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-09
Volume
59
Pages
101180
ISSN
0278-4165 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101180
OpenAlex
W3027640555
Semantic Scholar
6ed8c704d1aad61e4afead868b969bbd87b84f45
Cited by
18
References
142
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 2
FWCI
4.25
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
Locations
  • Journal of Anthropological Archaeology (publishedVersion)
  • UEA Digital Repository (University of East Anglia) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Research Foundation
  • Claude Leon Foundation
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Archeology › Archaeology and Rock Art Studies
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Global Maritime and Colonial Histories
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › African Studies and Geopolitics
Keywords
political economy, craft production, Southern Africa, Middle Ages, textile spinning, glass beads, Indian Ocean trade, resource mobility, political power, multiscale analysis

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