{"title":"Firing Pots in Contemporary South-Eastern Botswana","authors":"P. Thebe, K. Sadr","doi":"10.1080/19442890.2017.1364488","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT For many years, archaeologists in Southern Africa have equated pottery “style” with archaeological “cultures” and modern ethno-linguistic groups. In order to investigate this association, we undertook an ethnoarchaeological study of 41 contemporary potters in south-eastern Botswana to observe what social groupings of potters correlate with their preferences for a particular style of making and decorating pots. This paper presents and analyses the firing stage of pottery manufacturing in contemporary south-eastern Botswana and looks for social boundaries in the preference for firing techniques. Unlike a study completed half a century ago, we find that firing technique preferences are village based and reflect the common technique used by potters in that locality, regardless of their linguistic affiliation, ethnic group membership, gender, age, religious persuasion or the network in which they learnt their craft.","PeriodicalId":42668,"journal":{"name":"Ethnoarchaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2017-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ethnoarchaeology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19442890.2017.1364488","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"ARCHAEOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
ABSTRACT For many years, archaeologists in Southern Africa have equated pottery “style” with archaeological “cultures” and modern ethno-linguistic groups. In order to investigate this association, we undertook an ethnoarchaeological study of 41 contemporary potters in south-eastern Botswana to observe what social groupings of potters correlate with their preferences for a particular style of making and decorating pots. This paper presents and analyses the firing stage of pottery manufacturing in contemporary south-eastern Botswana and looks for social boundaries in the preference for firing techniques. Unlike a study completed half a century ago, we find that firing technique preferences are village based and reflect the common technique used by potters in that locality, regardless of their linguistic affiliation, ethnic group membership, gender, age, religious persuasion or the network in which they learnt their craft.
期刊介绍:
Ethnoarchaeology, a cross-cultural peer-reviewed journal, focuses on the present position, impact of, and future prospects of ethnoarchaeological and experimental studies approaches to anthropological research. The primary goal of this journal is to provide practitioners with an intellectual platform to showcase and appraise current research and theoretical and methodological directions for the 21st century. Although there has been an exponential increase in ethnoarchaeological and experimental research in the past thirty years, there is little that unifies or defines our subdiscipline. Ethnoarchaeology addresses this need, exploring what distinguishes ethnoarchaeological and experimental approaches, what methods connect practitioners, and what unique suite of research attributes we contribute to the better understanding of the human condition. In addition to research articles, the journal publishes book and other media reviews, periodic theme issues, and position statements by noted scholars.