Narrating the meaning of town walls: symbolism and social trust on the East African coast

Kód výsledku v IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F49777513%3A23330%2F23%3A43968894" target="_blank" >RIV/49777513:23330/23:43968894 - isvavai.cz</a>

Výsledek na webu

<a href="http://www.archaeolingua.hu/book/narrating-past-archaeological-epistemology-explanation-and-communication" target="_blank" >http://www.archaeolingua.hu/book/narrating-past-archaeological-epistemology-explanation-and-communication</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

Narrating the meaning of town walls: symbolism and social trust on the East African coast

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

Town walls are an important feature of urbanism around the globe, representing boundaries and demarcating connecting routes that enclose and divide space. This paper presents a case study of town walls from sub-Saharan Africa, which can contribute to global archaeological narratives explaining the meaning of the urban built environment. From pre-colonial times to the colonial era, some of the most prominent Swahili towns on the East coast of Africa featured low town walls, a tradition in the built environment that was maintained for centuries before disappearing with colonialism. Although decidedly non-monumental compared to the rest of the pre-colonial urban space and virtually ignored by the written accounts, the town walls represent an important type of otherwise rare public construction project known from the extensive cultural region of today’s coastal East Africa. So far, the function of the Swahili town walls has been mainly studied using archaeological approaches and interpreted using two types of hypotheses – either defensive or having some kind of “symbolic” meaning. Because the defensive role of these low walls is increasingly viewed as less likely, this paper explores what new interdisciplinary considerations could be brought into the debate. I aim to demonstrate how the archaeological narrative of their symbolic purpose comes short of providing more detailed answers and how the concept can be elaborated further by employing sociological considerations of behaviour, especially in context with trade and urbanism typical for the Swahili coast. Focusing on the concepts of social norms and trust known from sociology, the presented argument highlights how we may improve our understanding of the role of this urban feature, specifically showing how the walls channelled movement and affected the bodily experience of social power and visual understanding of the past Swahili towns.

Název v anglickém jazyce

Narrating the meaning of town walls: symbolism and social trust on the East African coast

Popis výsledku anglicky

Town walls are an important feature of urbanism around the globe, representing boundaries and demarcating connecting routes that enclose and divide space. This paper presents a case study of town walls from sub-Saharan Africa, which can contribute to global archaeological narratives explaining the meaning of the urban built environment. From pre-colonial times to the colonial era, some of the most prominent Swahili towns on the East coast of Africa featured low town walls, a tradition in the built environment that was maintained for centuries before disappearing with colonialism. Although decidedly non-monumental compared to the rest of the pre-colonial urban space and virtually ignored by the written accounts, the town walls represent an important type of otherwise rare public construction project known from the extensive cultural region of today’s coastal East Africa. So far, the function of the Swahili town walls has been mainly studied using archaeological approaches and interpreted using two types of hypotheses – either defensive or having some kind of “symbolic” meaning. Because the defensive role of these low walls is increasingly viewed as less likely, this paper explores what new interdisciplinary considerations could be brought into the debate. I aim to demonstrate how the archaeological narrative of their symbolic purpose comes short of providing more detailed answers and how the concept can be elaborated further by employing sociological considerations of behaviour, especially in context with trade and urbanism typical for the Swahili coast. Focusing on the concepts of social norms and trust known from sociology, the presented argument highlights how we may improve our understanding of the role of this urban feature, specifically showing how the walls channelled movement and affected the bodily experience of social power and visual understanding of the past Swahili towns.

Druh

C - Kapitola v odborné knize

CEP obor

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OECD FORD obor

60102 - Archaeology

Projekt

<a href="/cs/project/GJ20-02725Y" target="_blank" >GJ20-02725Y: Srovnání transformace městské morfologie z předkoloniálních do koloniálních urbánních tradic</a><br>

Návaznosti

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Rok uplatnění

2023

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název knihy nebo sborníku

Narrating the past: archaeological epistemology, explanation and communication

ISBN

978-615-5766-61-9

Počet stran výsledku

29

Strana od-do

241-269

Počet stran knihy

436

Název nakladatele

Archaeolingua

Místo vydání

Budapešť, Maďarsko

Kód UT WoS kapitoly

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