African Material Culture (African Systems of Thought)

"This volume has much to recommend it―providing fascinating and stimulating insights into many arenas of material culture, many of which still remain only superficially explored in the archaeological literature." ―Archaeological Review

". . . a vivid introduction to the topic. . . . A glimpse into the unique and changing identities in an ever-changing world." ―Come-All-Ye

Fourteen interdisciplinary essays open new perspectives for understanding African societies and cultures through the contextualized study of objects, treating everything from the production of material objects to the meaning of sticks, masquerades, household tools, clothing, and the television set in the contemporary repertoire of African material culture.

MARY JO ARNOLDI is Curator for African Ethnology in the Department of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.

CHRISTRAUD M. GEARY is Curator of the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution.

KRIS L. HARDIN is a Research Associate with the Smithsonian Institution.