Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T07:04:31.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The future of archaeology in Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2015

Innocent Pikirayi*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Pretoria, Hatfield 0028, South Africa (Email: innocent.pikirayi@up.ac.za)

Archaeological futures

In February's edition of Antiquity Koji Mizoguchi launched our new feature, ‘Archaeological Futures’, with his thoughts on the regional traditions of archaeology in a globalised world. In this issue, Innocent Pikirayi, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Pretoria, continues the series with his reflections on archaeology in Africa. In particular, he focuses on the barriers that must be broken down in order to secure a relevant and meaningful future for the practice and dissemination of archaeology in this continent that was the cradle of humanity.

Type
Research
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2015 

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.)

References

Beavis, J. & Hunt, A..1999. Communicating archaeology. Papers presented to Bill Putnam at a conference held at Bournemouth University, September 1995. Bournemouth & Oxford: Bournemouth University School of Conservation Sciences & Oxbow Books.Google Scholar
Brown, L. 2004. African philosophy: new and traditional perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/019511440X.001.0001 Google Scholar
Carr, E.H. 1961. What is history? London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Chadwick, A.M. 1998. Archaeology at the edge of chaos: further towards a reflexive excavation methodology. Assemblage 3. Available at: http://www.assemblage.group.shef.ac.uk/3/3chad.htm#l (accessed 10 March 2015).Google Scholar
Coetzee, P. & Roux, A.. 2003. The African philosophy reader. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Costanza, R., Graumlich, L. & Steffen, W. (ed.) 2007. Sustainability or collapse? An integrated history and future of people on earth. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press.Google Scholar
Davis, H.A. 1989. The future of archaeology: dreamtime, crystal balls. American Journal of Archaeology 93: 451–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/505595 Google Scholar
Ellison, J., Robertshaw, P., Gifford-Gonzalez, D., McIntosh, R.J., Stahl, A.B., Decorse, C.R., Robbins, L.H., Kent, S., Ngaba-Waye, A., Sahnouni, M. & Segobye, A.K.. 1996. The African Archaeological Review 13: 534. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01956131 Google Scholar
Fontein, J. 2006. The silence of Great Zimbabwe: contested landscapes and the power of heritage. London: UCL Press.Google Scholar
Fritz, J.M. & Plog, F.. 1970. The nature of archaeological explanation. American Antiquity 35: 405–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/278113 Google Scholar
Funari, P.P. 2009. Historical archaeology and global justice. Historical Archaeology 3 (4): 120–21.Google Scholar
Grafton, A. 2007. What was history? The art of history in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hassan, F.A. 1999. African archaeology: the call of the future. African Affairs 98: 393406. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a008046 Google Scholar
Hodder, I. 1997. Always momentary, fluid and flexible: towards a reflexive excavation methodology. Antiquity 71: 691700.Google Scholar
Hodder, I. (ed.) 2012. Archaeological theory today. Cambridge & Malden (MA): Polity.Google Scholar
Johnson, M.H. 2009. The theoretical scene, 19602000, in B. Cunliffe, C. Gosden & R.A. Joyce (ed.) The Oxford handbook of archaeology: 7188. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, M.H. 2010. Archaeological theory: an introduction. Malden (MA) & Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Jones, A. 2009. Into the future, in Cunliffe, B., Gosden, C. & Joyce, R.A. (ed.) The Oxford handbook of archaeology: 89114. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Joyce, R. 2002. The languages of archaeology. Oxford: Backwell. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9780470693520 Google Scholar
Kristiansen, K. 2009. The discipline of archaeology, in Cunliffe, B., Gosden, C. & Joyce, R.A. (ed.) The Oxford handbook of archaeology: 346. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kristiansen, K. 2011. Theory does not die, it changes direction, in Bintliff, J. & Pearce, M. (ed.) Death of archaeological theory?: 7279. Oxford: Oxbow Books.Google Scholar
Little, B.J. 2009. What can archaeology do for justice, peace, community, and the earth? Historical Archaeology 43 (4): 115–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meskell, L. 2007. Falling walling and mending fences: archaeological ethnography in the Limpopo. Journal of Social Archaeology 33: 383400.Google Scholar
Meskell, L. 2011. The nature of culture in the new South Africa. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Mizoguchi, K. 2015. A future of archaeology. Antiquity 89: 1222. http://dx.doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2014.39 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Musonda, F.B. 1990. African archaeology: looking forward. African Archaeological Review 8: 322. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01116870 Google Scholar
Pagán-Jiménez, J.R. 2004. Is all archaeology at present a post-colonial one? Constructive answers from an eccentric point of view. Journal of Social Archaeology 4: 200–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1469605304041075 Google Scholar
Preece, J. 2010. Post-holier than thou: analogical theory and me. The Post Hole 13: 1417.Google Scholar
Roberts, D. 2010. A reply to Preece-hole-istic post-processualim? The Post Hole 14: 2124.Google Scholar
Rockman, M. & Flatman, J.. 2002. Archaeology in society: its relevance in the modern world. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Sabloff, J.A. 2008. Archaeology matters: action archaeology in the modern world. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast.Google Scholar
Schmidt, P. 1995a. Using archaeology to remake African history, in Schmidt, P. & Patterson, T. (ed.) Making alternative histories: the practice of archaeology and history in non-Western settings: 118–47. Santa Fe (NM): School of American Research.Google Scholar
Schmidt, P. 1995b. Introduction. From constructing to making alternative histories, in Schmidt, P. & Patterson, T. (ed.) Making alternative histories: the practice of archaeology and history in non-Western settings: 124. Santa Fe (NM): School of American Research.Google Scholar
Schmidt, P. (ed.) 2006. Historical archaeology in Africa: representation, social memory, and oral traditions. Walnut Creek (CA): AltaMira.Google Scholar
Schmidt, P. 2009. Postcolonial archaeologies in Africa. Santa Fe (NM): School for Advanced Research Press.Google Scholar
Schmidt, P. & Patterson, T.C. (ed.) 1995. Making alternative histories: the practice of archaeology and history in non-Western settings. Santa Fe (NM): School of American Research.Google Scholar
Schmidt, P. & Pikirayi, I.. 2014. Final schedule for Wenner-Gren. Workshop on community archaeology and heritage in Africa, March 24–28 2014. Gainesville: University of Florida, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.Google Scholar
Shaw, T. 1989. African archaeology: looking back and looking forward. The African Archaeological Review 7: 331. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01116836 Google Scholar
Sinclair, P.J.J. 2010. Towards an archaeology of the future: the urban mind, energy regimes and long-term settlement system dynamics on the Zimbabwe Plateau, in Sinclair, P.J.J., Gullög, N., Herschend, F. & Isendahl, C. (ed.) The urban mind: cultural and environmental dynamics: 591616. Uppsala: African and Comparative Archaeology, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University.Google Scholar
Smith, M.E. 2007. Form and meaning in the earliest cities: a new approach to ancient urban planning. Journal of Planning History 6: 347. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1538513206293713 Google Scholar
Smith, M.E. 2010. Sprawl, squatters, and sustainable cities: can archaeological data shed light on modern urban issues? Cambridge Archaeological Journal 20: 229–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0959774310000259 Google Scholar
Stump, D. 2013. On applied archaeology, indigenous knowledge, and the usable past. Current Anthropology 54: 268–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/670330 Google Scholar
Thiaw, I. 2003. Archaeology and the public in Senegal: reflections on doing fieldwork at home. Journal of African Archaeology 1: 2735. http://dx.doi.org/10.3213/1612-1651-100010 Google Scholar
Thomas, J. 2004. Archaeology and Modernity. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tomaskova, S. 2003. Nationalism, local histories and the making of data in archaeology. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 9: 485507. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.00160 Google Scholar
Wiredu, K. 2005. A companion to African philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar