{"title":"“Elephants for Want of Towns”: Archaeological Perspectives on West African Cities and Their Hinterlands","authors":"J. Cameron Monroe","doi":"10.1007/s10814-017-9114-2","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Sub-Saharan Africa has long been seen as lacking the potential for autochthonous urban development, and Near Eastern and European contact provided ready explanations for the emergence of precolonial cities across the continent. In the past few decades, the pace of archaeological work on African cities has accelerated, and archaeologists have increasingly deployed a functional model of the city, in which cities are defined in relation to broader hinterlands rather than particular traits. As a result, deeply rooted urban traditions have been identified in all corners of the continent. Despite the antiquity of urban traditions across Africa, however, long-distance forces clearly had wide-reaching impacts on urban developmental trajectories, and proponents of the functional model have yet to explain the specific role of long-distance forces in the process of urbanization. This review examines how multiscalar forces shaped urban trajectories in West Africa, specifically. I examine how local political entrepreneurs took advantage of the opportunities provided by local, interregional, and global forces, resulting in a heterogeneous set of urban traditions across West Africa, ranging from trading entrepôts to regional capitals. Throughout I emphasize how local agency articulated with multiscalar social and economic forces, transforming the nature of regional integration, economic specialization, and the materialization of social difference, defining qualities of urban life.","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.2000,"publicationDate":"2017-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Archaeological Research","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-017-9114-2","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ANTHROPOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Sub-Saharan Africa has long been seen as lacking the potential for autochthonous urban development, and Near Eastern and European contact provided ready explanations for the emergence of precolonial cities across the continent. In the past few decades, the pace of archaeological work on African cities has accelerated, and archaeologists have increasingly deployed a functional model of the city, in which cities are defined in relation to broader hinterlands rather than particular traits. As a result, deeply rooted urban traditions have been identified in all corners of the continent. Despite the antiquity of urban traditions across Africa, however, long-distance forces clearly had wide-reaching impacts on urban developmental trajectories, and proponents of the functional model have yet to explain the specific role of long-distance forces in the process of urbanization. This review examines how multiscalar forces shaped urban trajectories in West Africa, specifically. I examine how local political entrepreneurs took advantage of the opportunities provided by local, interregional, and global forces, resulting in a heterogeneous set of urban traditions across West Africa, ranging from trading entrepôts to regional capitals. Throughout I emphasize how local agency articulated with multiscalar social and economic forces, transforming the nature of regional integration, economic specialization, and the materialization of social difference, defining qualities of urban life.
期刊介绍:
Journal of Archaeological Research publishes the most recent international research summaries on a broad range of topics and geographical areas. The articles are intended to present the current state-of-the-discipline in regard to a particular geographic area or specific research topic or theme. This authoritative review journal improves access to the growing body of information and literature through the publication of original critical articles, each in a 25-40 page format.2-Year Impact Factor: 4.056 (2017) 5-Year Impact Factor: 4.512 (2017)2 out of 85 on the Anthropology listIncluded in the European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH) PLUS The European Reference Index for the Humanities and the Social Sciences (ERIH PLUS) was created and developed by European researchers under the coordination of the Standing Committee for the Humanities (SCH) of the European Science Foundation (ESF). https://dbh.nsd.uib.no/publiseringskanaler/erihplus/about/indexSCImago Journal and Country Rank (SJR) 2018: 1.7102 out of 263 on the Archeology (Arts and Humanities) list3 out of 254 on the Archeology list2 out of 131 on the General Arts and Humanities listSJR is a measure of the journal’s relative impact in its field, based on its number of citations and number of articles per publication year.Source Normalised Impact per Paper (SNIP) 2018: 2.112The SNIP measures contextual citation impact by weighting citations based on the total number of citations in a subject field. The impact of a single citation is given higher value in subject areas where citations are less likely, and vice versa.CiteScore 2018: 3.86Rated ''A'' in the Australian Research Council Humanities and Creative Arts Journal List. For more information, visit: http://www.arc.gov.au/era/journal_list.htm
SCImago Journal and Country Rank (SJR) 2011 1.227 Archeology 1 out of 96 Archeology (Arts and Humanities) 1 out of 59 Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) 1 out of 243