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Book Book Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The periodization of precolonial African history
Authors:Spaulding, JayISNI
Kapteijns, LidwienISNI
Year:1987
Issue:125
Pages:12
Language:English
Series:Working papers
City of publisher:Boston, MA
Publisher:African Studies Center, Boston University
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:historiography
chronology
Abstract:In this paper, the authors advocate the establishment of a series of analytically based periods for the precolonial history of Africa. The authors' broadest first-order periodization is based upon the social consequences of fundamental changes in the techniques of production, and divides the band societies of most hunter-gatherers from the larger societies of food producers; within the latter category, a second-order periodization separates non-State from State societies. The movement from one of these analytical periods to another may be understood in terms of internally generated economic dynamics within diverse African environments that permitted the retention of analytically prior and socially preferable forms in some areas but allowed or demanded transformation in others. The societies thus constituted were also subjected to successive waves of foreign influence that challenged all existing systems of exchange. The authors introduce a tertiary periodization based upon the course of the impact of these initially foreign concepts, which they term 'commercial capitalism', of which the town was the most conspicuous manifestation. During a long age of limited commerce in diverse commodities they distinguish on cultural and linguistic grounds between Hellenistic, Islamic, and early modern waves of influence, while the slave trade era that opened in about 1600 issued a far more radical challenge to all existing societies; their diverse responses obeyed a logic of their own.