The archaeology of African-European interaction

Investigating the social roles of trade, traders, and the use of space in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-centuryHuedaKingdom, Republic of Bénin

Bibliographic Data

ID5085599
AuthorsKenneth G Kelly (Northern Arizona University, corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume28
Issue3
Pages351-369
Publication date1997-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueWorld Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0043-8243 • E-ISSN: 1470-1375
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00438243.1997.9980353
OpenAlexW2146730094
LanguageEN
Citations received49
References cited44

Archaeological research has been underway at the site of the town of Savi, on the coast of Bénin, West Africa, since 1991. Savi grew to international fame in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as the capital of the Hueda (Whydah) Kingdom, and a port of great importance in the trans‐Atlantic slave trade. Traders of many European nations, including the Netherlands, England, France, and Portugal, maintained permanent trading establishments in Savi, until its destruction at the hands of the expanding state of Dahomey. These historical circumstances place Savi in a unique situation which can shed light on the transformations and continuities experienced by an African society in the early period of extensive European trade contacts. This paper discusses recent research that has focused on identifying the role of trade and intercultural contact in the development and transformation of Hueda society during the course of Savi's transition into a major trans‐Atlantic trading centre. Archaeological research has demonstrated that the Hueda actively assigned significant values and meanings to trade items that were incorporated into their society. Moreover, archaeological material from excavations within elite and commoner districts, combined with documentary evidence from eyewitness accounts, demonstrate distinct and multifaceted motivations and strategies involved in establishing trading relations with Europeans. Special notice is made of the Hueda efforts to negotiate and naturalize the contradictions introduced through the presence of European traders, who were recognized as both the source of wealth and power, and as potentially destabilizing influences

Economic history · Economics · Economy · Elite · Ethnology · Kingdom · Negotiation · Notice · Political science · Politics · Port (circuit theory · Power (physics · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Law

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