African Iron Production and Iron-Working Technologies: Methods
Louise Iles
Iron production was a particularly important precolonial African technology, with iron becoming a central component of socioeconomic life in many societies across the continent. ...
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Anthropological and Ethnographic Methods and Sources
Constance Smith
For scholars of African history, anthropology offers a number of valuable and invigorating methodological avenues, from engaging directly in ethnographic fieldwork to analyzing ...
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Archaeozoology: Methods
Veerle Linseele
This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. Please check back later for the full article.
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Bodily Ways of Knowing: Anthropological and Historical Approaches to Affect and the Senses
Kathryn Linn Geurts
For centuries, European and Global North observers of non-Western societies have been fascinated by African bodily expressivity and power. Artistic and ritual displays of bodily ways of ...
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Business Records as Sources for African History
Dmitri van den Bersselaar
Business records are documents routinely produced by employees and management of commercial businesses. They may be part of internal processes or produced to communicate with stakeholders ...
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Ceramics, Foodways, and Consumption: Methods
Liza Gijanto
Analysis of ceramics in archaeological contexts has provided a range of information regarding African history. Archaeologists have approached ceramics as a craft as well as an indicator of ...
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Christian History and Historiography
Joel Cabrita
Christian presence in Africa has a long and varied history. African congregations represented some of the world’s earliest churches, with lively Coptic and Orthodox communities in both ...
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Digital Sources for the History of the Horn of Africa
Massimo Zaccaria
The Horn of Africa has an exceptional cultural heritage, starting with its manuscript sources, which are among the most important on the continent. It is a heritage that is rich but ...
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Documenting Precolonial Trade in Africa
Shadreck Chirikure
Promoted by necessity, scarcity, and/or abundance, trade is one of the most essential cultural behaviors that promoted contact and exchange of ideas, commodities, and services between ...
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Ethnographic Analogy in Archaeology: Methodological Insights from Southern Africa
Mark McGranaghan
Analogical arguments are central to and pervasive within archaeological discourse. Within these arguments, ethnographic analogies are often seen as being particularly problematic exercises ...
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