Hostname: page-component-5447f9dfdb-xmf2s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-30T16:55:51.037Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Elites and commoners at Great Zimbabwe: archaeological and ethnographic insights on social power

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2018

Shadreck Chirikure ,
Robert Nyamushosho ,
Foreman Bandama  and
Collet Dandara
Shadreck Chirikure*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa
Robert Nyamushosho
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa
Foreman Bandama
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa
Collet Dandara
Affiliation:
Division of Human Genetics, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Observatory, 7925, South Africa
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: shadreck.chirikure@uct.ac.za)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Archaeological indicators of inequality at major historic centres of power have long been poorly understood. This paper is the first to address the archaeology of class and inequality at Great Zimbabwe (AD 1000–1700) from an African-centred viewpoint. Data from new excavations, combined with insights from Shona philosophy, practice and ethnography, suggest that the categories of ‘elite’ and ‘commoner’ were situational and transient, and that they require a more robust theorisation than that currently adopted for the site. The results provide a valuable study for the comparative archaeology of ancient cities, differing in many ways from established interpretive frameworks in global archaeology.

Keywords

Great ZimbabweelitescommonersinequalityShona philosophy

Information

Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 92 , Issue 364 , August 2018 , pp. 1056 - 1075
Copyright
© Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Beach, D. 1998. Cognitive archaeology and imaginary history at Great Zimbabwe 1. Current Anthropology 39: 47–72. https://doi.org/10.1086/204698 Google Scholar
Bent, J.T. 1896. The ruined cities of Mashonaland. London: Longmans, Green & Co.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51: 337–360. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200033865 Google Scholar
Brumfiel, E.M. 1992. Distinguished lecture in archaeology: breaking and entering the ecosystem—gender, class, and faction steal the show. American Anthropologist 94: 551–567. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1992.94.3.02a00020 Google Scholar
Bvocho, G. 2005. Ornaments as social and chronological icons: a case study of southeastern Zimbabwe. Journal of Social Archaeology 5: 409–424. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605305057586 Google Scholar
Caton-Thompson, G. 1931. The Zimbabwe culture: ruins and reactions. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Chakaipa, P. 1976. Pfumo reropa. Harare: Longman Zimbabwe.Google Scholar
Childe, V.G. 1950. The urban revolution. Town Planning Review 21: 3–17. https://doi.org/10.3828/tpr.21.1.k85301t614q42qh Google Scholar
Chimhundu, H. & Mangoya, E.. 2001. Duramazwi guru reChiShona. Harare: College Press, in conjunction with the African Languages Research Institute, University of Zimbabwe.Google Scholar
Chipunza, K.T. 1994. A diachronic analysis of the architecture of the Hill Complex at Great Zimbabwe. Uppsala: Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis.Google Scholar
Chirikure, S. & Pikirayi, I.. 2008. Inside and outside the dry stone walls: revisiting the material culture of Great Zimbabwe. Antiquity 82: 976–993. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00097726 Google Scholar
Chirikure, S., Pikirayi, I. & Pwiti, G.. 2002. A comparative study of Khami pottery, Zimbabwe, in C. Chami & G. Pwiti (ed.) Southern Africa and the Swahili world: 121–135. Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press.Google Scholar
Chirikure, S., Manyanga, M. & Pollard, M.. 2012. When science alone is not enough: radiocarbon timescales, history, ethnography and elite settlements in Southern Africa. Journal of Social Archaeology 12: 356–379. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605312457291 Google Scholar
Chirikure, S., Pollard, M., Manyanga, M. & Bandama, F.. 2013. A Bayesian chronology for Great Zimbabwe: re-threading the sequence of a vandalised monument. Antiquity 87: 854–872.Google Scholar
Chirikure, S., Bandama, F., House, M., Moffett, A., Mukwende, T. & Pollard, M.. 2016. Decisive evidence for multidirectional evolution of sociopolitical complexity in Southern Africa. African Archaeological Review 33: 75–95. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-016-9215-1 Google Scholar
Chirikure, S., Bandama, F., Chipunza, K., Mahachi, G., Matenga, E., Mupira, P. & Ndoro, W.. 2017. Seen but not told: re-mapping Great Zimbabwe using archival data, satellite imagery and geographical information systems. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 24: 489–513. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-016-9275-1 Google Scholar
Collett, D.P., Vines, A.E. & Hughes, E.G.. 1992. The chronology of the valley enclosures: implications for the interpretation of Great Zimbabwe. African Archaeological Review 10: 139–161. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01117699 Google Scholar
De Maret, P. 1999. The power of symbols and the symbols of power through time: probing the Luba past, in S.K. McIntosh (ed.) Beyond chiefdoms: pathways to complexity in Africa: 151–165. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Feinman, G.M. & Nicholas, L.M.. 2012. The late prehispanic economy of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico: weaving threads from data, theory, and subsequent history, in T. Matejowsky & D.C. Wood (ed.) Political economy, neoliberalism, and the prehistoric economies of Latin America (Research in Economic Anthropology 32) : 225–258. Bingley: Emerald Group.Google Scholar
Garlake, P.S. 1973. Great Zimbabwe. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Gombe, J. 1986. Tsika DzaVaShona. Harare: College Press.Google Scholar
Gonlin, N. & Lohse, J.C. (ed.). 2007. Commoner ritual and ideology in ancient Mesoamerica. Louisville: University Press of Colorado.Google Scholar
Hall, M. 2000. Archaeology and the modern world: colonial transcripts in South Africa and the Chesapeake. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hannan, M. 1994. Standard Shona dictionary. Harare: College Press.Google Scholar
Hogg, A.G., Hua, Q., Blackwell, P.G., Niu, M., Buck, C.E., Guilderson, T.P. & Zimmerman, S.R.. 2013. SHCal13 southern hemisphere calibration, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55: 1889–1903. https://doi.org/10.2458/azu_js_rc.55.16783 Google Scholar
Huffman, T.N. 1996. Snakes & crocodiles: power and symbolism in ancient Zimbabwe. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.Google Scholar
Huffman, T.N. 2007. Handbook to the Iron Age: the archaeology of precolonial farming societies in Southern Africa. Durban: University of KwaZulu-Natal.Google Scholar
Huffman, T.N. & Vogel, J.C.. 1991. The chronology of Great Zimbabwe. South African Archaeological Bulletin 46: 61–70. https://doi.org/10.2307/3889086 Google Scholar
Klein, R.G. & Cruz-Uribe, K.. 1984. The analysis of animal bones from archaeological sites. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Koleini, F., Pikirayi, I. & Colomban, P.. 2017. Revisiting Baranda: a multi-analytical approach in the classification of sixteenth-/seventeenth-century glass beads from northern Zimbabwe. Antiquity 91: 751–764. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2017.46 Google Scholar
Lohse, J.C. & Valdez, F. Jr. 2004. Ancient Maya commoners. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Marcus, J. 2004. Maya commoners: the stereotype and the reality, in J.C. Lohse & F. Valdez Jr (ed.) Ancient Maya commoners: 255–283. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
McIntosh, S.K. (ed.). 1999. Beyond chiefdoms: pathways to complexity in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, D. 2002. Smelter and smith: Iron Age metal fabrication technology in Southern Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 29: 1083–2031.Google Scholar
Moffett, A.J. & Chirikure, S.. 2016. Exotica in context: reconfiguring prestige, power and wealth in the Southern African Iron Age. Journal of World Prehistory 29: 337–382. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-016-9099-7 Google Scholar
Pikirayi, I. 1993. The archaeological identity of the Mutapa State: towards an historical archaeology of northern Zimbabwe. Uppsala: Societas Archaeologica Uppsaliensis.Google Scholar
Price, T.D. & Feinman, G.M.. 2010. Pathways to power: new perspectives on the emergence of social inequality. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6300-0 Google Scholar
Robertshaw, P., Wood, M., Melchiorre, E., Popelka-Filcoff, R.S. & Glascock, M.D.. 2010. Southern African glass beads: chemistry, glass sources and patterns of trade. Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 1898–1912. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2010.02.016 Google Scholar
Robinson, K.R. 1961a. Zimbabwe pottery. Occasional Papers of the National Museum of Southern Rhodesia 3(23A): 193–226.Google Scholar
Robinson, K.R. 1961b. Zimbabwe beads. Occasional Papers of the National Museums of Rhodesia 3(23A): 227–229.Google Scholar
Sinclair, P.J.J., Pikirayi, I., Pwiti, G. & Soper, R.. 1993. Urban trajectories on the Zimbabwe plateau, in T. Shaw, P.J.J. Sinclair, B. Andah & A. Okpoko (ed.) The archaeology of Africa: food, metals and towns: 705–731. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Stahl, A.B. 2004. Political economic mosaics: archaeology of the last two millennia in tropical sub-Saharan Africa. Annual Review of Anthropology 33: 145–172. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.33.070203.143841 Google Scholar
Summers, R., Robinson, K.R. & Whitty, A.. 1961. Zimbabwe excavations 1958 (volume 3) . Bulawayo: National Museums of Southern Rhodesia.Google Scholar
Thorp, C.R. 1995. Kings, commoners, and cattle at Zimbabwe tradition sites. Harare: National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe.Google Scholar
Whitty, A. 1961. Architectural style at Zimbabwe. Occasional Papers of the National Museums of Southern Rhodesia 3(23A): 289–305.Google Scholar
Wood, M. 2005. Glass beads and pre-European trade in the Shashe-Limpopo region. Unpublished MA dissertation, University of Witwatersrand.Google Scholar