scholarly journals The ‘Lost Caravan’ of Ma’den Ijafen Revisited: Re-appraising Its Cargo of Cowries, a Medieval Global Commodity

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.C. Christie ◽  
A. Haour
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
West African ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Shell Size ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
Ethnographic Interviews ◽  
Environmental Surveys ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractThe lost caravan of Ma’den Ijafen, Mauritania, with its cargo of cowries and brass, is widely discussed in African archaeology, providing significant insight into the nature of long-distance trade in the medieval period. While the brass bars recovered by Théodore Monod during his expedition to the site in 1962 have received considerable attention, the cowrie shells described in his comprehensive publication of the assemblage in 1969 have received much less coverage. This issue was addressed during a recent visit to the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire (IFAN) in Dakar, Senegal in May 2017, when the authors re-examined the shells as part of a wider project which also involved archaeological and environmental surveys in the Maldives, the oft-assumed source of these shells. Examinations of natural history collections of cowries, ethnographic interviews in the Maldives, and environmental surveys in East Africa were also carried out. Drawing on insights from these surveys, we systematically compared the Ma’den Ijafen cowrie assemblage to three others from the Maldives, focussing on four criteria: species composition and diversity, shell size and evidence of modifications. This analysis enabled us to shed new light on the nature of the Ma’den Ijafen cowries and their wider significance to understanding the role of the shells in West African trade networks.

“Over There”

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 157-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan V. Small
Keyword(s):  
Social Exchange ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Social Imaginaries ◽  
Financial Flows ◽  
Kinship Networks ◽  
International Remittances ◽  
Capital Transfer ◽  
Value Of Money ◽  
Insight Into

In Vietnam, international remittances from the diaspora are a significant input into the national economy. Yet beyond capital transfer, remittance economies are also key social nodes offering insight into the extension of imaginations, expectations, and desires that accompany them. This article examines the role of gifting remittances in reestablishing, maintaining, and straining kinship networks disrupted by refugee exile, and catalyzing shifting aspirations and mobile horizons. Drawing on fieldwork from Vietnam's southern and central coast regions, this essay interrogates the anthropological question of the mediatory role of gifts in social exchange relations. It argues that the long-distance nature of remittance exchanges in the contemporary global political economy juxtaposes the mobility and exchangeable value of money and its senders against the experiences of local bodies confined within the nation state. This contradiction reveals a liminal space for emergent social imaginaries in which the characteristics of the gifting medium itself come to partially affect and embody the relationships between and identities among givers and receivers. Such imaginaries draw awareness to spatial and ontological margins, borders, and horizons associated with migratory and financial flows and opportunities and are displaced into diverse sociocultural forms reflecting phenomenological degrees of aspiration, realization, and frustration.

Marine Shell Bead Production and the Role of Domestic Craft Activities in the Economy of the Guangala Phase, Southwest Ecuador

1995 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria A. Masucci
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Developmental Period ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
Symbol Systems ◽  
Subsequent Period ◽  
Socioeconomic System ◽  
Semi Arid

Spondylus and Strombus shells are believed to have been sacred items in Latin American societies, often traded over long distances. Studies of the manufacturing sites of these and other prized marine shells have been mainly undertaken to investigate the long distance trade networks and symbol systems of the ancient societies. In contrast, this report examines evidence from small, inland sites of the Regional Developmental Period-Guangala Phase in southwest Ecuador to understand the role of shell working as a craft activity within the local socioeconomic system. It is shown that this activity, which involves interaction between littoral and inland dwellers, played an important role in subsistence adaptations to the semi-arid southwest coast of Ecuador. These findings will also be of interest to scholars of the subsequent period seeking to understand the organization of the late prehistoric Ecuadorian trading chiefdoms.

scholarly journals Coral Stone Architecture, Chinese Porcelain, and Indian Ocean Artifacts along the Swahili Coast: Cross-Cultural Dynamics in Medieval East Africa

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera-Simone Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Cultural Dynamics ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Swahili Coast ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Indian Ocean

While the use of Chinese porcelain dishes in the stone towns along the Swahili coast has recently found much attention in art historical scholarship regarding the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries, the pre-history of these dynamics in the medieval period has up to now only been fully considered in other fields such as archaeology and anthropology. This paper sheds new light on the interrelations between the built environment and material culture in coastal East Africa from an art historical perspective, focusing on premodern Indian Ocean trajectories, the role of Chinese porcelain bowls that were immured into Swahili coral stone buildings, and on architecture across boundaries in a medieval world characterized by far-reaching transcultural entanglements and connectivity. It will show how Chinese porcelain bowls in premodern Swahili architecture linked the stone towns along the coast with other sites both inland and across the Indian Ocean and beyond, and how these dynamics were shaped by complex intersections between short-distance and long-distance-relationships and negotiations between the local and the global along the Swahili coast and beyond.

Islam and Politics in West Africa

1984 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 20-25
Author(s):  
Sulayman S. Nyang
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
West African ◽  
African Politics ◽  
Islamic Culture ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
The West ◽  
Islam And Politics ◽  
African Religions ◽  
The One

The role of Islam in West African politics goes back to the beginnings of the encounter between Islamic culture and traditional African political leadership in the medieval period. When Arabo-Berber culture arrived in the West Soudan, African rulers in Ghana, Soudan, and other smaller kingdoms of the time were very much influenced by their traditional African world view. According to this world view, rulers were thought to be a link between the living and the dead, on the one hand, and between the temporal and the spiritual on the other. Indeed, it is because of this fusion of politics and primordial religion in the old Africa that the well-known American student of African religions, James W. Fernandez, wrote in the early 1960s that the “African, it can be argued, inherited a traditional disposition to shift back and forth from a political to a religious mode of address.”

Frog in the Pond: Gökçeada (Imbros), an Aegean Stepping-stone in the Chalcolithic use of Spondylus Shell

2014 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 363-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Baysal ◽  
Burçin Erdoğu
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
White Marble ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
History Of ◽  
Culture Production

The use of marine shells in the manufacture of bracelets and beads is a well-attested phenomenon of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods of Western Anatolia, the Aegean, and the Balkans. The site of Gökçeada-Uğurlu, located on an island in the Aegean between mainland Europe and Anatolia, shows evidence for the manufacture and use of bracelets and beads from Spondylus and Glycymeris shell. This use of personal ornamentation ties the site into one of the widest material culture production and trade networks of the prehistoric period. This article explores the possible role of, and influences on, an island site within the wider context of long-distance exchange. The life history of shell products is investigated, showing that a bracelet may have gone through processes of transformation in order to remain in use. The article also questions whether there was a relationship between the use of marine shell and white marble from which similar products were manufactured in contemporary contexts. In its conclusions the article addresses the value of materials and of the personal ornaments they were used to make.

scholarly journals Reducing language to rhythm: Amazonian Bora drummed language exploits speech rhythm for long-distance communication

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 170354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Seifart ◽  
Julien Meyer ◽  
Sven Grawunder ◽  
Laure Dentel
Keyword(s):  
Communication Systems ◽  
Acoustic Features ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Speech Rhythm ◽  
Distance Communication ◽  
Rare Occasion ◽  
Original Insight ◽  
Northwest Amazon ◽  
Insight Into

Many drum communication systems around the world transmit information by emulating tonal and rhythmic patterns of spoken languages in sequences of drumbeats. Their rhythmic characteristics, in particular, have not been systematically studied so far, although understanding them represents a rare occasion for providing an original insight into the basic units of speech rhythm as selected by natural speech practices directly based on beats. Here, we analyse a corpus of Bora drum communication from the northwest Amazon, which is nowadays endangered with extinction. We show that four rhythmic units are encoded in the length of pauses between beats. We argue that these units correspond to vowel-to-vowel intervals with different numbers of consonants and vowel lengths. By contrast, aligning beats with syllables, mora or only vowel length yields inconsistent results. Moreover, we also show that Bora drummed messages conventionally select rhythmically distinct markers to further distinguish words. The two phonological tones represented in drummed speech encode only few lexical contrasts. Rhythm thus appears to crucially contribute to the intelligibility of drummed Bora. Our study provides novel evidence for the role of rhythmic structures composed of vowel-to-vowel intervals in the complex puzzle concerning the redundancy and distinctiveness of acoustic features embedded in speech.

“Humbly dedicated”: Petiver and the audience for natural history in early eighteenth-century Britain

2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 318-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. A. James
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Modern Britain ◽  
Early Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern Britain ◽  
Eighteenth Century Britain ◽  
Insight Into

Over the winter and spring of 1713–1714, Dr Patrick Blair (1666–1728) acted as agent for James Petiver (c. 1664–1718) while in Dundee and Edinburgh, promoting the London apothecary's publications on natural history. Blair was successful in attracting a readership for Petiver's works, despite enduring the diffi culty of having to wait for Petiver to act on his promise to supply the publications. Publications - through presentation copies, dedications, or subscriptions - were used as compliments to attract individuals into the network of correspondence and acquaintance by which natural history in early modern Britain was conducted. These dedications also exhibited the readership to itself, acting as a social advertisement for natural history. Blair's endeavours in 1713–1714 offer insight into the role of audience in the practice of natural history in early-modern Britain.

Global Nature, Global Brand: Bbc Earth and David Attenborough's Landmark Wildlife Series

2013 ◽  
Vol 146 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morgan Richards
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Ethnographic Interviews ◽  
Global Brand ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
The Us ◽  
Global Nature ◽  
Global Television ◽  
Life On Earth

Landmark wildlife series like Life on Earth (1979), Planet Earth (2006) and Frozen Planet (2011) are synonymous with the BBC, and are largely seen as unquestioned embodiments of its public service values. Yet the landmark format for wildlife programming was designed from its outset to appeal to international television markets, particularly the US market. This article examines the history and evolution of David Attenborough's landmark series, tracing the development of the landmark format from its roots in the BBC's programming policy of the early 1960s through broader changes in national and international television markets to the development of the global brand BBC Earth. Combining close analysis of landmark wildlife series with ethnographic interviews with BBC Natural History Unit staff and detailed archival research, the article focuses on the role of BBC wildlife documentary in debates about how public service media should be defined and understood. It is concluded that landmark wildlife series have always evinced the tensions between the BBC's public service values and the need for these series to appeal to global television markets.

The Soninke in Ancient West African History

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kassim Kone
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
West African ◽  
African History ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The West ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Ecological Zones

The Soninke are an ancient West African ethnicity that probably gave rise to the much larger group that is called the Mande of which the Soninke are part. The Soninke language belongs to the northwestern Mande group but through the dynamism of its speakers has loaned many words and concepts to distant ethnic groups throughout the West African ecological zones. Mande groups such as the Malinke and Bambara may be descendants of the Soninke or a Proto-Soninke group. The Soninke are the founder of the first West African empire, Ghana, which they themselves call Wagadu, from the 6th to the 12th centuries ad Ghana was wealthy and powerful due to its access to gold, its geographic location between the Sahara and the Sahel, and its opening of trade routes from these ecological zones into the West African forest. Long distance trade contributed to the development of an ethos of migration among the Soninke, arguably making them the most traveled people of the whole continent. As they embraced Islam, some Soninke clans became clerics and proselytizers and followed the trade routes, sometimes becoming advisers to kings and chiefs. By the time of Ghana’s fall, the Soninke diaspora and trade networks were found all over West Africa. At present, pockets of Soninke, small and large, are found on all continents.

scholarly journals A role of the CTCF binding site at enhancer Eα in the dynamic chromatin organization of the Tcra–Tcrd locus

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (17) ◽  
pp. 9621-9636
Author(s):  
Hao Zhao ◽  
Zhaoqiang Li ◽  
Yongchang Zhu ◽  
Shasha Bian ◽  
Yan Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Binding Site ◽  
Binding Sites ◽  
Gene Rearrangement ◽  
Cell Receptor ◽  
Ctcf Binding ◽  
Ctcf Binding Site ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Distance Regulation ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract The regulation of T cell receptor Tcra gene rearrangement has been extensively studied. The enhancer Eα plays an essential role in Tcra rearrangement by establishing a recombination centre in the Jα array and a chromatin hub for interactions between Vα and Jα genes. But the mechanism of the Eα and its downstream CTCF binding site (here named EACBE) in dynamic chromatin regulation is unknown. The Hi-C data showed that the EACBE is located at the sub-TAD boundary which separates the Tcra–Tcrd locus and the downstream region including the Dad1 gene. The EACBE is required for long-distance regulation of the Eα on the proximal Vα genes, and its deletion impaired the Tcra rearrangement. We also noticed that the EACBE and Eα regulate the genes in the downstream sub-TAD via asymmetric chromatin extrusion. This study provides a new insight into the role of CTCF binding sites at TAD boundaries in gene regulation.

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