Genealogies of Practice & Global Entanglements in Banda, Ghana, AD1000-1900

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Ann Stahl博士和同事们将进行两个季节的考古发掘，以调查加纳班达的日常生活是如何通过全球进程重塑的。该项目将调查与该地区不断变化的全球联系有关的仪式、手工艺生产和饮食做法的变化和连续性，包括从公元1200年开始的跨撒哈拉贸易，从公元1600年开始的大西洋贸易，以及从19世纪末开始的正式殖民统治。正如在非洲和其他地方充分证明的那样，日常生活因全球纠葛而被重塑。新的产品被生产和消费，新的农作物被采用，劳动分工被重新配置。这项研究是一个长期项目的一部分，该项目先后对早期的班达遗址进行了调查，以相对深入地了解文化实践的动态。利用口述历史、档案和考古证据，项目人员记录了随着班达被纳入英国殖民领地的文化实践的动态；随着班达成为扩张主义的阿桑特国家的附庸，对外奴隶贸易被加强的国内贸易所取代(17世纪70年代至19 80年代)；随着班达人通过谈判贸易重心南移，大西洋网络的开放(从17世纪初开始)。因此，项目成果挑战了西非社会一成不变、固守传统的传统形象。在这一研究阶段，注意力将集中在班达卷入跨撒哈拉贸易的时期。在两个先前测试过的遗址(公元1250-1400年的Ngre阶段遗址和公元1000-1200年的Volta阶段遗址)的扩大考古发掘将为班达村民与尼日尔河上的城市中心建立联系的时期的仪式、饮食和手工艺生产提供证据。第一年对一处19世纪遗址进行的较小规模的发掘，将提供对19世纪政治和经济混乱时期仪式、手工艺生产和饮食实践的空间差异的洞察。对当代植物利用的研究将为解释考古植物学证据创造一个必要的基线。该项目的一个特别重点是如何通过物质实践(陶器和金属的制作和使用；仪式中物品的操作；食物的获取、准备和消费；以及创造考古沉积物的沉积做法)来形成和重组社区。对考古阶段内和考古阶段之间的实践进行比较分析，将有助于洞察社区之间的谱系联系，因为他们正在协商不断变化的地缘政治格局。从理论上讲，这个项目将有助于我们理解全球进程，因为它平衡了对其共同影响的认识，并探索了人们通过物质实践谈判地缘政治潮流的当地和文化具体方式。更广泛的影响包括为美国和加纳学生提供培训机会，以及社区继续参与一个强调考古数据对了解西非充满活力的过去的价值的项目。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Ann Stahl and associates will conduct two seasons of archaeological excavations to investigate how daily life in Banda, Ghana was reshaped through global processes. The project will investigate change and continuity in practices of ritual, craft production and diet in relation to the area's shifting global connections, including the trans-Saharan trade from c AD 1200, Atlantic trade from c AD 1600 and formal colonial rule from the late 19th century. As amply demonstrated in Africa as elsewhere, daily life was reshaped through global entanglements. New products were produced and consumed, new crops adopted, and divisions of labor reconfigured. This research is part of a long-term project that has investigated successively earlier Banda sites to gain comparative insight into the dynamics of cultural practice. Drawing on oral historical, archival and archaeological evidence, project personnel have documented the dynamics of cultural practice as Banda was drawn into the British colonial sphere (after 1880); as Banda became subject to the expansionist Asante state and the external slave trade gave way to intensified internal trade (1770s to 1880s); and as Banda peoples negotiated the southward shift in the gravity of trade with the opening of Atlantic networks (from the early 17th century). As such, project results challenge conventional images of West African societies as unchanging and enmeshed in tradition. In this research phase, attention will focus on the period when Banda became enmeshed in trans-Saharan trade. Expanded archaeological excavations at two previously tested sites (an Ngre Phase site dating to c. AD 1250-1400 in year 1 and a Volta Phase site occupied c. AD 1000-1200 in year 2) will generate evidence on practices of ritual, diet and craft production in a period when Banda villagers were forging connections with urban centers on the Niger River. Smaller scale excavations at a 19th-century site in year 1 will provide insight into spatial variation in practices of ritual, craft production and diet during a period of political and economic dislocation in the 19th century. A study of contemporary plant exploitation will create a required baseline for interpreting archaeological botanical evidence. A particular focus of this project is how communities were formed and reconfigured through material practice (the making and using of pottery and metal; the manipulation of objects in ritual; the acquisition, preparation and consumption of foods; and the depositional practices that created archaeological deposits). Comparative analyses of practices within and across archaeological phases will provide insight into the genealogical connections between communities as they negotiated a changing geopolitical landscape. Intellectually this project will contribute to our understanding of global processes by balancing an appreciation of their shared effects with an exploration of the locally and culturally specific ways in which people negotiate geopolitical currents through material practice. Broader impacts include training opportunities for American and Ghanaian students and continuing community involvement in a project that underscores the value of archaeological data for understanding West Africa's dynamic past.