Glass beads from Mutamba: patterns of consumption in thirteenth-century southern Africa

Alexander Antonites

43 citations0/0 files storedAzania Archaeological Research in Africa

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Archaeology and Rock Art Studies Global Maritime and Colonial Histories African Studies and Geopolitics

Abstract

Mutamba is a settlement located on the northern slopes of the Soutpansberg in South Africa. Radiocarbon and material culture suggest contemporaneity with regional developments of social complexity primarily concentrated in the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area around the important site of Mapungubwe. The spatial location of Mutamba on the apparent political and economic periphery of Mapungubwe means that it is well suited to investigate patterns of distribution between centres of political influence and their larger hinterlands. It is proposed that trade goods followed variable patterns of distribution and consumption shaped by patterns in taste preference. In addition, this study suggests that, far from being deprived of trade goods, hinterland communities actively participated in regional networks of trade and exchange.

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References

1986The cultural biography of things: commoditization as process 1970Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference 1972Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference 1988Specialization, Exchange and Complex Societies.1984Advances in world archaeology 2008Handbook to the Iron Age: the archaeology of pre-colonial farming societies in Southern Africa 1982Archaeology and Ethnohistory of the African Iron Age 1985Approaches to Social Archaeology.

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