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Metals in society: Iron production and its position in Iron Age communities of southern Africa

Chirikure, Shadreck·2007·Journal of Social Archaeology
DOI 10.1177/1469605307073164
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Abstract

Indigenous iron working has received considerable attention from Africanist archaeologists but its contribution to the evolution of political process has never attracted serious interest in southern Africa. In this article, comparative historical and archaeological data presented suggest that specialist iron working was linked with the configuration and reconfiguration of political and economic systems. This is because iron was produced within a worldview and the ideological and symbolic meanings attached to its production and use sometimes fashioned opportunities through which power was created, negotiated and institutionalized. A number of examples from southern Africa are discussed and serve to illustrate these points.

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  • Metal production at Great Zimbabwe and on the wider cultural landscape was relatively small-scale and limited.

    “The relatively small-scale nature of metal production at Great Zimbabwe is matched by the limited nature of metal fabrication on the wider cultural landscape (Bandama et al. 2016(Bandama et al. , 2017;;Chirikure 2007Chirikure , 2015;;Mtetwa 2017).”

    From New Perspectives on the Political Economy of Great Zimbabwe (2020) · cites this paper as Chirikure 2007

  • No one area of Great Zimbabwe itself and the wider state produced commodities such as metal for others, effectively ruling out any clearly defined product specialization and division of labor.

    “That each household was associated with evidence of craft production suggests that no one area of Great Zimbabwe itself and the wider state produced commodities such as metal for others, effectively ruling out any clearly defined product specialization and division of labor (Bandama et al. 2017;Chirikure 2007;Huffman 1972).”

    From New Perspectives on the Political Economy of Great Zimbabwe (2020) · cites this paper as Chirikure 2007

  • An ideology that gave ownership of land and other resources to rulers underwrote their ability to access a share of production, which was not necessarily viewed as surplus.

    “An ideology that gave ownership of land and other resources to the rulers also underwrote their ability to access a share of the production, which was not necessarily viewed as surplus (Chirikure 2007).”

    From New Perspectives on the Political Economy of Great Zimbabwe (2020) · cites this paper as Chirikure 2007

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Metadata

Authors
Chirikure, S.
Venue
Journal of Social Archaeology
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2007-02
Volume
7
Issue
1
Pages
72-100
ISSN
  • 1469-6053
  • 1741-2951
DOI
10.1177/1469605307073164
Cited by
52
References
0
Language
en
Licence
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)

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