A discussion of magic and medicines in East African iron working

Actors and Artefacts in Technology

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7094841
AutoresRandi Barndon (autor correspondente)
Ano2004
Volume37
Fascículo1
Páginas21-40
Data de publicação2004-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoNorwegian Archaeological Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0029-3652 • E-ISSN: 1502-7678
EditoraRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00293650410001180
OpenAlexW2160622488
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas18
Referências citadas27

Through an inquiry into locally constructed, pre‐industrial Tanzanian iron smelting practices this article looks beyond social representation of technologies and suggests a more nuanced perspective than the more familiar rituals of transformation and gendered procreative paradigm. It is demonstrated that among the Pangwa and Fipa peoples iron smelting symbolism was not merely a social representation of “something” else and of something of greater significance such as religion, economy and politics, rather there were no real distinctions between technology and other spheres of life; there was no (ontological) difference between humans and non humans. Drawing on inspiration from phenomenology and semantics, as well as Actor Network Theory, I will argue that among Fipa and Pangwa iron workers the use of magic and medicines, as well as an overall thermodynamic conception of the body, was transferred from personal and collective lived experience by metaphorical imagination to the iron smelting furnaces

Actor–network theory · Aesthetics · Archaeology · Assemblage (archaeology · Epistemology · MAGIC (telescope · Materiality (auditing · Phenomenology (philosophy · Political science · Politics · Representation (politics · Smelting · Social science · Sociology · African history and culture analysis · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · History · Law · Philosophy