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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Under the Rocks: Reconsidering the Origin of the Kintampo Tradition and the Development of Food Production in the Savanna-Forest/Forest of West Africa
Author:Watson, Derek J.ISNI
Year:2005
Periodical:Journal of African Archaeology
Volume:3
Issue:1
Pages:3-55
Language:English
Geographic terms:West Africa
Ghana
Subjects:Stone Age
archaeology
hunter-gatherers
Anthropology and Archaeology
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
History and Exploration
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/43135356
Abstract:Evidence for the earliest food production, symbolic representation and open air 'village communities' in sub-Sahelian West Africa is associated with the Kintampo Tradition (c. 3600 bp-3200 bp). This signals a profound transition in socioeconomic organization and technology as available evidence indicates that indigenes of the savanna-forest/forested zone comprised mobile and widely dispersed bands of hunter-gatherers. The Kintampo was originally viewed as a product of migration from the Sahel, but more recently, a syncretic development engendered by the adoption of northern traits by indigenous Punpun Tradition hunter-gatherers has been postulated. Both models are reconsidered in view of a series of excavations of rock shelters in central Ghana, including a further reexcavation of K6, which yielded material culture of both traditions. Results are supplemented by a review of previous research, analysis of archival material, consideration of the wider archaeological context of West Africa and ethnoarchaeological studies. The model proposed here challenges previous hypotheses for the emergence of the Kintampo out of existing local hunter-gatherer populations. The paper is followed by a reply by Ann B. Stahl (Glass houses under the rocks: a reply to Watson, p. 57-64) and a reaction by Derek J. Watson (Straws within a glass house: a reply to Stahl, p. 65-68). Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]
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