NDLI: Beyond the Coastalscapes: Preindustrial Social and Political Networks in East Africa

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Beyond the Coastalscapes: Preindustrial Social and Political Networks in East Africa

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Kusimba, Chapurukha M. Kusimba, Sibel B. Dussubieux, Laure
Copyright Year	2013
Abstract	The archaeological community worldwide now readily recognizes the role and significance of interregional interaction in the development and sustenance of urban societies (e.g., Marcus and Sabloff 2008; Sinclair et al. 2010; Trigger 2003). Over the past two decades, we have carried out a systematic, problem-oriented research program on the Kenyan coast and its hinterland in an effort to understand the ecological and cultural milieu that enabled towns and city-states to develop along the East African coast beginning in the late first millennium CE. Archaeological research complemented with historical sources of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries shows that different scales of analysis can be used to understand the long-term history of the development of urbanism along this Swahili coast: local, regional, and trans-continental frames of reference each show that Swahili communities were part of numerous networks of interactions. An emerging picture of preindustrial urbanism shows that local, regional, and trans-continental interaction spheres tied coastal towns to the hinterland and to wider Indian Ocean commercial and social networks. Not all of the theorized links between the coastal towns and their local and regional trade and interaction partners will be visible archaeologically. We address the still poorly known elements of preindustrial regional networks of alliance and interaction spheres between urban and rural polities and argue that an integrative approach is necessary to understand the context of coastal urban society.La communauté archéologique mondiale reconnaît maintenant le rôle et l’importance des interactions interrégionales dans le développement et le maintien des communautés urbaines (e.g., Marcus and Sabloff 2008; Sinclair et al. 2010; Trigger 2003). Durant deux décennies, nous avons développé un programme de recherches systématiques traitant de différents problèmes sur la côte et l’intérieur des terres kenyanes dans le but de comprendre les milieux écologiques et culturels qui ont permis les établissements humains, qu’ils s’agissent de villes ou de cités-états, le long de la côte est de l’Afrique à partir du milieu du premier millénaire de notre ère. Les recherches archéologiques ainsi que les sources historiques du dix-huitième et du dix-neuvième siècle montrent qu’une telle analyse visant à comprendre l’histoire à long terme du développement de l’urbanisme le long de la côte swahilie peut être menée à plusieurs niveaux: quel que soit le référentiel choisi, local, régional ou transcontinental, il est possible de voir que les communautés swahilies faisaient parties de réseaux d’interaction à diverses échelles. Le tableau que nous brossons ici révèle que les sphères d’interactions locales, régionales et transcontinentales lient les villes côtières à l’intérieur des terres et au réseau commercial et social de l’Océan indien. Tous les liens entre villes côtières et leurs partenaires commerciaux locaux et régionaux mis en avant dans cette théorie ne sont pas perceptible archéologiquement. Nous prenons en considération ces éléments encore peu connus de notre connaissance des alliances au sein des réseaux préindustriels et des sphères d’interaction entre les communautés rurales et urbaines et nous prétendons qu’une approche créative et intégrative est nécessaire à la compréhension du contexte des sociétés urbaines.
Starting Page	399
Ending Page	426
Page Count	28
File Format	PDF
ISSN	02630338
Journal	African Archaeological Review
Volume Number	30
Issue Number	4
e-ISSN	15729842
Language	English
Publisher	Springer US
Publisher Date	2013-08-02
Publisher Place	Boston
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Urbanism Swahili Coast-hinterland Networks Tsavo Indian Ocean Archaeology Anthropology Regional and Cultural Studies
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Archeology Archeology (arts and humanities)

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