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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | 'Symbolic Reservoirs' and Inter-Group Relations: West African Examples |
Author: | MacEachern, Scott |
Year: | 1994 |
Periodical: | African Archaeological Review |
Volume: | 12 |
Pages: | 205-224 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | West Africa |
Subjects: | ethnic relations symbols archaeology Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Anthropology and Archaeology |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01953043 |
Abstract: | A number of archaeologists have recently considered the possible functioning of shared systems of symbols and beliefs - sometimes called 'symbolic reservoirs' - within and between more or less closely related West African societies. Elements from these systems are expressed in behaviour and in material culture to support and articulate group social strategies; they are therefore capable of structuring artifact variation on a large scale. This concept has obvious implications for the understanding of regional variation in archaeological assemblages. This paper offers a critique of the concept of the 'symbolic reservoir'; the author believes that the metaphorical implications of the term 'reservoir' are not useful, and that present conceptions are of an entity too bounded and too stable usefully to reflect the dynamics of social interaction within and (especially) between African societies. He then offers an alternative view of the spread of symbolic and stylistic elements between groups. Instead of unitary, bounded, integrated 'symbolic reservoirs', the author thinks that we can expect to find different, often competing, conceptual systems operating at different scales and differentially accessed by various social groups acting both within and between societies. These systems will be expressed in, and integrated with, material culture and artifact patterning, as well as more transitory behaviours. Bibliogr., notes, sum. in English and French. |