Ethno-Archaeology in Jenné, Mali: Craft and Status Among Smiths, Potters and Masons
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Ethno-archaeology in Jenné, Mali: craft and status among smiths, potters and masons http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.CH.DOCUMENT.sip200003 Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka’s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsConditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education. The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law. Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org Ethno-archaeology in Jenné, Mali: craft and status among smiths, potters and masons Author/Creator LaViolette, Adria J. Date 2000 Resource type Books Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) Middle Niger, Mali, Djenné Source Smithsonian Institution Libraries, DT294 .C55 1846X Relation BAR international series, 838; Cambridge monographs in African archaeology, 49 Rights By kind permission of Adria J. LaViolette and Archaeopress. Description An anthropological study of Djenne focused on ethnic groups and social class. The study is based on field research carried out in the ealry 1980s. 37 illustrations, including maps, tables, and photographs. Format extent 171 pages (length/size) http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.CH.DOCUMENT.sip200003 http://www.aluka.org DTI DTI 5 1) Dm 4L 18 9000 WTI\H Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 49 Series editor: John Alexander Ethno-Archaeology in Jenne, Mali Craft and status among smiths, potters and masons Adria LaViolette BAR International Series 838 2000 IjqH L38~ This title published by Archaeopress Publishers of British Archaeological Reports PO Box 920 Oxford OX2 7YH England BAR S838 Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 49 Ethno-Archaeology in Jennd, Mali: Craft and status among smiths, potters and masons © A LaViolette 2000 Printed in England by The Basingstoke Press ISBN 1 84171 043 1 All BAR titles are available from: Hadrian Books Ltd 122 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7BP England The current BAR catalogue with details of all titles in print, prices and means of payment is available free from Hadrian Books 0 1000 km MALI C 200 kfn Frontispiece. Jennd and major sites mentioned in the text, in the context of the Republic of Mali, West Africa. Maps at left adapted from S. McIntosh and R. McIntosh 1980: 10. Table of Contents List of Figures, Tables and Appendices Acknowledgments Glossary Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Jenn6-jeno and Jennd as Research Contexts Chapter 3: Methodology Chapter 4: A Survey of Jenn6's Ethnic Groups Chapter 5: A Survey of Jennd's Artisans Chapter 6: The Blacksmiths Chapter 7: The Potters Chapter 8: The Masons Chapter 9: Conclusions: Craft, Status and Identity Figures Tables Appendices References Cited Page ii iii iv List of Figures, Tables and Appendices Figures Frontispiece Jennd and major sites mentioned in the context of Mali, West Africa Fig. 4. 1. The Inland Niger Delta and locales mentioned in the text Fig. 4.2 Jenn6 with quartiers and landmarks Fig. 5.1 Goldsmith Badjini Yaterra elongating a bar of gold Fig. 5.2 Goldsmith's terracotta mold and gold bar Fig. 5.3 Moroccan-style window made by Arma carpenters for a recently built home Fig. 5.4 Cotton weaver at work on a strip loom Fig. 5.5 A Fulani merchant displaying two high-quality wedding blankets Fig. 5.6 Pirogues moored at the eastern edge of Jennd Fig. 5.7 A pinasse approaching the northeastern edge of Jenn Fig. 5.8 Bozo pirogue maker Baba Kontao, smoothing irregularities in a plank Fig. 5.9 Baba Kontao making a permanently curved plank Fig. 6.1 The late blacksmith Baba Kass6 with a son, grandson, and visitor Fig. 6.2 The courtyard of Bambara merchant Almami Tawati with its stock of scrap iron Fig. 6.3 Blacksmith Mamadou Sounkoro reshaping his tongs while his son works the bellows Fig. 6.4 Blacksmith Tinka Samassekou heating the blade of a socketed ax head Fig. 6.5 Blacksmith Bamoye Kassd scoring a red-hot piece of automotive leaf-spring Fig. 7.1 Somono/numu potter Niamoye Nientao finishing the inside of a water pot Fig. 7.2 Griot potter Jenneba Lobo Gadjaka building up the side of a water pot Fig. 7.3 An assortment of pottery made by griot potters Fig. 7.4 Griot potter Fanta Guro Kass6 thinning the wall of a small cooking pot Fig. 7.5 Griot potter Aissata Pulo Kass6 painting leather-hard water pots in her courtyard Fig. 7.6 Somono/numu potter Niamoye Nientao rouletting the bottom half of a pot Fig. 7.7 Assorted tools for decorating the surface of Somono/numu pottery Fig. 7.8 Griot potter Aissata Pulo Kass6 and her neighbor arranging pots for firing Fig. 7.9 Somono/numu potter Kadidia Konipo adding grass to a mound of pots Fig. 7.10 Somono/numo potter Niamoye Kontao making the lower half of a water pot Fig. 7.11 Finished water pot of Niamoye Kontao and six pots awaiting painting and firing Fig. 7.12 Stockpiled pots made by Somono/numu potters in Soa, awaiting transport Fig. 8.1 Tools of Jennd mason Bd Sau Fig. 8.2 Eroded house wall withjennefrey at bottom left and tubabufrey above and right Fig. 8.3 Detail of the central minaret of the Jenn6 mosque Fig. 8.4 Examples of Sudanese architecture, including Moroccan-style window shutters Fig. 8.5 Annual recripissage of the Jenn6 mosque Fig. 8.6 Young masons applying banco to the southern wall of the Jenn6 mosque Fig. 8.7 Bozo masons in Soa Fig. 8.8 A narrow street in Soa leading to the mosque Tables Table 3.1 Artisans Interviewed in Jenn6 Table 4.1 Ethnic Groups in Jenn6 Table 4.2 Major Artisans and their Ethnic Associations Table 6.1 Blacksmiths' Manufactured Items Table 7.1 Somono/Numu Potters" Manufactured Items Table 7.2 Fulani Griot Potters' Manufactured Items Appendices Appendix A Villages in the Cercle of Jennd Appendix B Plans of Blacksmith and Goldsmith Forges B. 1 Ibrahim Sounkoro B.2 Sori Kass6 B.3 Sekou Bilakoro B.4 Babalay Tour6 B.5 Hasseye Tourd B.6 Boubacar Yaterra B.7 Karamogo Tourd Page vi vi 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 135 136 142 143 144 145 146 147 Acknowledgements My experience conducting research and working in Africa began at the end of December, 1980 and spans the 19 years since. Susan and Rod McIntosh provided my first opportunity to travel to Africa by including me in their 1981 excavations at Jenn6-jeno, and when I finished my graduate program at Washington University, they encouraged me to take a teaching position in Tanzania which was another important turning point. The Mclntoshes' early mentoring and long- standing counsel have been fundamental to shaping my academic life, and I thank them once again for their valued contributions and friendship. After returning from Jenn6 to my graduate program in August 1981, 1 prepared for the fieldwork upon which this study is based. By spring 1982 I received dissertation support from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (Grant-in-Aid #4257), whom I wish to acknowledge here with gratitude for what was to be their first of three research grants. I received supplemental support from Sigma Xi, The Explorers Club, and the Graduate School of Washington University. I spent the last five months of 1982 in The Netherlands, where I was able to use the library and archival resources of the Departments of Anthropology, Human Geography, and Human Biology at the State University of Utrecht, departments that had sponsored a number of interrelated research projects in Mali and Jenn6. In that period Dr. Rogier Bedaux was a great help as I prepared for the field. I left for Jenn6 in late December, 1982. I thank Dr. K16na Sanogo, then Director of the Institut de Sciences Humaines in Bamako, for generously granting me a permit to conduct that research. In Jenn6 my greatest debt remains to the individuals who made this research possible day- to-day. Haber Gano and Kolado Bocoum were my research assistants, whose insights, partnership, and camaraderie were fundamentally important to this project. My other closest associates in Jenn6 were Kadidia Bilakoro, the late Baba Kass6, Niamoye Nientao, B6 Sau, and Diadie Tour6. Hamadi Mama Ciss6, a farmer from the village of Senossa, was a guiding hand and friend throughout my experience. Barbara Frank, Paul Lane, and R6my Maasen, who were involved in their own research, and Suzanne Gilligan and Donald Osborne, Peace Corps volunteers, all overlapped my time living in Jenn6, and were great friends in a special place. While writing my dissertation I received enormous support from my Chair, Patty Jo Watson, and David Browman, and Robert Canfield, all on the faculty in the Department of Anthropology at Washington University, as well as Susan and Rod McIntosh, by then at Rice University Fellow graduate student Mary Kennedy was a spectacular help through the final stages of the revisions in 1987 A decade later my colleague at the University of Virginia, Jeffrey Hantman, read the manuscript and urged me to rework it for publication in its entirety.