Exploration of Exchange Networks in Nineteenth Century Guinea

Summary

For centuries, European traders of human capital have impacted the African cultural landscape, resulting in significant consequences that have played a major role in shaping new identities, group memory, and trade relations. This influence did not end with the abolition of the slave trade by European and North American countries in the early nineteenth century; rather it simply prompted traders to explore new networks and more secluded trading establishments. This pattern is exemplified in several locations along the coastal lands of Guinea, where lowland tidewater routes provide access to the mainland resources. In the spring of 2013 an international team of archaeologists excavated known trade lodges in three rural Guinean villages. Through an analysis of artifacts recovered from the 2013 field season, and an exploration of their spatial distribution, this study investigates changes to local networks brought about through contact with Europeans and their goods.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage