Bridging Conceptual Boundaries, A Global Perspective

Abstract

The production and use of metals in Africa has notable similarities and differences which were contextually mediated. African categories of metalworking practices differed with activities documented in other parts of the word thereby showcasing diversity in human experiences spatially and temporally. The origins of African metallurgy loom large in any discourse on metals in society because sub Saharan Africa deviates from the picture in other parts of the world. Latin America had its own experience just like the major regions of Eurasia. Whether African metallurgy is local or external is irrelevant, it is an interesting study in different approaches to innovation, value transfer and experimentation and innovation. Through metal production, use and exchange, Africa participated in the development of the world from a very early period and also exercised a great deal of agency by carefully selecting what could pass or not pass through established sociocultural membranes. This too suggests that neither was Africa isolated nor backward but it followed a different trajectory as molded by local experiences. Densities in population may have accounted for different responses to innovations. As traditionally claimed high populations nurture particular technologies while comparatively small populations make it difficult to sustain them. Finally, there is great value for global archaeology to use more of locally available ethnographic and historical sources. Obviously, caution is required to avoid imposing modern views onto the past but such an activity creates good reference points for understanding innovation and improvisation through time.

“Pre-European metalworkers are worthy of respect for the results they achieved with primitive methods”

(Steel 1975, p. 232)