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Ceramics and group identities

Towards a social archaeology in southern African Iron Age ceramic studies

Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Pretoria, South Africa, innocent.pikirayi{at}up.ac.za

Southern African Iron Age archaeology has engaged with identity issues using ceramic evidence as the basis for culture group definition, chronology and determining origins and movements of people. Archaeological research should go beyond typologically defined ceramic styles to explore material culture meanings and group interactions. I argue that ceramics communicated social messages to their users, and thus archaeologists should borrow from communication theory to understand, for example, why pottery was decorated. It is from this decoration that archaeologists can obtain social meanings straddling across or beyond ethnic identities.

Key Words: ceramics • communication • decoration • ethnicity • identities • social meaning • style

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Journal of Social Archaeology, Vol. 7, No. 3, 286-301 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1469605307081389


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Pikirayi, I. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?