The African Diaspora An Archaeological Perspective

With a focus on slavery, this 4-hour free course explored how archaeology can contribute to the study of the African diaspora.

Through interdisciplinary approaches to material culture, the dynamics of a comparative transatlantic archaeology is developed.

The African Diaspora Archaeology volume is compiled by Chris Fennell, organizer of the African Diaspora Archaeological Network (ADAN): www.diaspora.uiuc.edu. This publication includes an introduction by Fennell that reviews the field and 23 articles selected from Historical Archaeology. Including studies from Africa, the Caribbean, South America, and both the northern and southern US, this volume provides a fascinating look at African culture, sites, and artifacts and the traces the transition of African peoples from the Old World to the New. For a complete Table of Contents, please view http: //pastfoundation.org/lulu/m7b0h5.jpg, or visit the publication's homepage and click "preview" beneath the large image of the cover, which will display the first few pages of the book.

The first multiauthor collection to focus on archaeology and the construction of gender in an African American context.

Focusing on the problems and conflicts of doing African diaspora research from various disciplinary perspectives, these essays situate, describe, and reflect on the current practice of diaspora scholarship. Tejumola Olaniyan, James H. Sweet, and the international group of contributors assembled here seek to enlarge understanding of how the diaspora is conceived and explore possibilities for the future of its study. With the aim of initiating interdisciplinary dialogue on the practice of African diaspora studies, they emphasize learning from new perspectives that take advantage of intersections between disciplines. Ultimately, they advocate a fuller sense of what it means to study the African diaspora in a truly global way.

From the exodus of early modern humans to the growth of African diasporas, Africa has had a long and complex relationship with the outside world. More than a passive vessel manipulated by external empires, the African experience has been a complex mix of internal geographic, environmental, sociopolitical and economic factors, and regular interaction with outsiders. Peter Mitchell attempts to outline these factors over the long period of modern human history, to find their commonalities and development over time. He examines African interconnections through Egypt and Nubia with the Near East, through multiple Indian Ocean trading systems, through the trans-Saharan trade, and through more recent incursion of Europeans. The African diaspora is also explored for continuities and resistance to foreign domination. Commonalities abound in the African experience, as do complexities of each individual period and interrelationship. Mitchell's sweeping analysis of African connections place the continent in context of global prehistory and history. The book should be of interest not only to Africanists, but to many other archaeologists, historians, geographers, linguists, social scientists and their students.

"Weik's comprehensive survey of the archaeology of freedom represents a critical contribution to African Diaspora studies, and serves as an admirable standard to which future research in this area should strive to achieve."--Maria Franklin, University of Texas at Austin "Offers a fresh approach to understanding the varied ways in which enslaved people sought freedom."--Theresa Singleton, Syracuse University In the days of slavery, people of African descent sought to protect their human rights, escape from bondage, and combat exploitation. Their actions varied across different settings and times, and included accommodation, collaboration, autonomy, and militancy. This volume focuses on the evolution of antislavery resistance by examining material culture, documents, oral traditions, and other evidence that illustrate how enslaved people fought for their freedom. Terrance Weik presents readers with case studies accumulated from the material record left by Maroons in the Americas, Black Seminoles, and the Underground Railroad. He specifically highlights the way archaeologists' contributions have added to our understanding of struggles for freedom from slavery that were pursued by people of the African Diaspora in the Americas and their allies. Weik encourages readers to consider the global dimensions of antislavery resistance as well as issues that continue to spark debate today, including racism, cultural survival, self-determination, and inequality.

An exploration of the archaeology of the African diaspora.