Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Social and Political Interaction in South Africa

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

Under the supervision of Dr. Roderick J. McIntosh, Alexander Antonites will conduct excavations and analyze data from two archaeological settlements, Mutamba and Vhunyela, located on the periphery of southern Africa's earliest state-like polities, K2 and Mapungubwe, dating from AD1000 to AD1300. The hinterland location of Mutamba and Vhunyela is ideal to study how small-scale communities structure interaction with emerging political centers. Too often, there is an overemphasis on control and homogeneity stemming directly from the more complex center. Excavations and analysis by Antonites will test a model that views this region as comprised of geographically separate but interacting communities. These interactions are believed to be structured locally rather than orchestrated from above. The research is guided by specific questions regarding household identity, patterns of interaction, association and social organization at a community level. In particular, the study aims to identify differences in foodway patterns, access to exotic items and craft production activities between households through comparative excavations of both household and public areas at the two settlement sites. Among the analytical methods to be used are ceramic petrography and Inductively Coupled Mass Plasma Spectrometry (ICP-MS) to trace the source of ceramics. Sourcing ceramics to their manufacturing locales will indicate whether centralized monopolies over production and redistribution patterns existed, or whether the alternative expectation for dispersed local exchange of materials is a better explanation. The geochemical sampling of house floors and courtyards and the flotation of excavated soils will recover small-scale cultural and environmental data. This will be used to test whether expectations for intensified tribute based production are adequate, or whether production was intended to satisfy local needs. Significantly, this project moves beyond the over-emphasis of South African Iron Age studies on ceramic data by simultaneously incorporating multiple lines of evidence from phytolith, starch, ICP-MS, petrographic and macro botanical studies. By using a paradigm that takes interaction patterns and the role of identity into account, the research will contribute to a more nuanced view of variability in the South African past. It is a departure from normative models in South African archaeology and, instead, explores significant variation in material culture. Examining variability and agency on the outlying frontier of the K2/Mapungubwe polity will hopefully provide an example for research on emerging regional polities beyond South Africa. The project also adds to a worldwide body of research in which consideration of peripheral communities results in a more comprehensive understanding of early politics. As such, the project will contribute to debates concerning political interaction and contestation in areas as diverse as Mesoamerica, East Asia, and the Andes. This research is intended to refine conceptions of early politics by focusing on the relationship between larger scale social change and the daily practices carried out by common people who primarily populated the past.