Power and Landscape in Atlantic West Africa

This volume examines the archaeology of precolonial West African societies in the era of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Using historical and archaeological perspectives on landscape, this collection of essays sheds light on how involvement in the commercial revolutions of the early modern period dramatically reshaped the regional contours of political organization across West Africa. The essays examine how social and political transformations occurred at the regional level by exploring regional economic networks, population shifts, cultural values and ideologies. The book demonstrates the importance of anthropological insights not only to the broad political history of West Africa, but also to an understanding of political culture as a form of meaningful social practice.

Author Biography

J. Cameron Monroe is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Director of the Abomey Plateau Archaeological Project in the Republic of Bénin, West Africa. He serves on the editorial board of Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa and has published in various journals, among them Historical Archaeology, The Journal of African History and Current Anthropology. Akinwumi Ogundiran is Professor of Africana Studies, Anthropology, and History at University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and Director of the Upper Osun Archaeological and Historical Project. He is the author or editor of several publications including Archaeology and History in Ilare District, Central Yorubaland; Precolonial Nigeria; and Archaeology of Atlantic Africa and the African Diaspora.