Reimagining the African Internal Frontier Model: Implications from the Puebloan Southwest

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Essential Contributions from African to Global Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Igor Kopytoff’s (1987) model of the African Internal Frontier has impacted archaeological research in many areas of the world, including the US Southwest. His model has undergone considerable rethinking, such as Akinwumi Ogundiran’s (2014) work on the historical period of southwest Nigeria. We revisit the internal frontier model in light of research by African archaeologists and our own work in the Mogollon Rim region of the Southwest. Physiographically, demographically, and socially transitional, the Rim region provides a well-documented case study for looking at “edge region” or frontier dynamics. We discuss ways in which the Southwest’s internal frontier was constructed and changed from the eleventh through fourteenth centuries. These include the importance of recognizing frontier-frontier rather than center-periphery migration; acknowledging frontiers as socially heterogeneous, dynamic zones of innovation; showing how frontier social networks operated differently than those in more demographically dense areas; and discussing the ways in which frontiers were (and are) more susceptible to climatic and social crises. Our examples provide a comparative case to the study of internal frontiers worldwide and acknowledge the contributions of scholars working in Africa to global archaeology.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Essential Contributions from African to Global Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35756.0