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Journal of Social Archaeology
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Clove plantations on nineteenth-century Zanzibar

Possibilities for gender archaeology in Africa

Sarah K. Croucher

Anthropology Department, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, USA, scroucher{at}wesleyan.edu

Clove plantations on nineteenth-century Zanzibar were sites on which many recent immigrants from Oman and Africa constructed new identities within the complex social relations of colonial rule, enslavement and concubinage. Archaeological evidence relating both to architectural and ceramic remains is used within this work to interpret such multifaceted identities. Ethnographic and historical accounts of African societies have both shown that gendered identities across the continent are, and have been in the past, characterized by diversity. This article has a wider significance beyond the field of African archaeology, in suggesting that archaeologists working across Africa are ideally placed to make an important contribution to the field of gender archaeology in exploring such heterogeneous subjectivities.

Key Words: African archaeology • feminism • gender • historical archaeology • identity • Zanzibar

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Journal of Social Archaeology, Vol. 7, No. 3, 302-324 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1469605307081390


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This Article
Right arrow Abstract Freely available
Right arrow Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
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Right arrow Email this article to a friend
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Citing Articles
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Right arrow Articles by Croucher, S. K.
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 Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
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