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On Evidence, Ideas and Fantasy: The Origins of Iron in Sub-Saharan Africa Thoughts on É. Zangato & A.F.C. Holl’s “On the Iron Front”

On Evidence, Ideas and Fantasy: The Origins of Iron in Sub-Saharan Africa Thoughts on É. Zangato... on evidence, ideAs And FAntAsy: tHe origins oF iron in sub-sAHArAn AFricA Thoughts on É. Zangato & A.F.C. Holl's "On the Iron Front" Shadreck Chirikure To say that the history of metallurgy in sub-Saharan Africa is complicated is perhaps an understatement. In fact, the discourse has over the years burgeoned into a highly emotive topic with accusations and counter accusations being traded across different academic standpoints (Holl 2001; KillicK 2004; Alpern 2005; pringle 2009). The poignant nature of the topic and the layers of complexity it is often associated with hardly make it easy to discuss the issue of origins because the conclusion will be either they did or they did not do it (Alpern 2005). Given the long history of polarisation associated with the origins debate, an uncritical mind would be forgiven for assuming that whenever new evidence is presented in favour of African origins, there is bound to be resistance. Similarly, whenever criticism is levelled against any new claims of local origins, there are some scholars who will resist the evidence. As such, any discussion on the origins of iron in Africa requires critical thinking and careful evaluation of the evidence used. Zangato and Holl present http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of African Archaeology Brill

On Evidence, Ideas and Fantasy: The Origins of Iron in Sub-Saharan Africa Thoughts on É. Zangato & A.F.C. Holl’s “On the Iron Front”

Chirikure, Shadreck
Journal of African Archaeology , Volume 8 (1): 25 – Oct 25, 2010
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
1612-1651
eISSN
2191-5784
DOI
10.3213/1612-1651-10156
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Abstract

on evidence, ideAs And FAntAsy: tHe origins oF iron in sub-sAHArAn AFricA Thoughts on É. Zangato & A.F.C. Holl's "On the Iron Front" Shadreck Chirikure To say that the history of metallurgy in sub-Saharan Africa is complicated is perhaps an understatement. In fact, the discourse has over the years burgeoned into a highly emotive topic with accusations and counter accusations being traded across different academic standpoints (Holl 2001; KillicK 2004; Alpern 2005; pringle 2009). The poignant nature of the topic and the layers of complexity it is often associated with hardly make it easy to discuss the issue of origins because the conclusion will be either they did or they did not do it (Alpern 2005). Given the long history of polarisation associated with the origins debate, an uncritical mind would be forgiven for assuming that whenever new evidence is presented in favour of African origins, there is bound to be resistance. Similarly, whenever criticism is levelled against any new claims of local origins, there are some scholars who will resist the evidence. As such, any discussion on the origins of iron in Africa requires critical thinking and careful evaluation of the evidence used. Zangato and Holl present

Journal

Journal of African Archaeology – Brill

Published: Oct 25, 2010

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