Gender in Africa and the Americas

Graham Connah, “The Edge or the Center: Cities of the East African Coast and Islands,” from African Civilizations: An Archaeological Perspective, (2001).

1. What environmental factors were advantageous for the people of the east coast? What environmental factors constrained the region?

2.What are the chief sources of written information about Swahili settlements? Why does Connah believe that more attention must be paid to the mud, wood, and thatch buildings that surrounded stone buildings? Pick one – just one – archaeological site that he thinks reveals more than previous scholars have noted.

3. What kinds of materials (you can hold it in your hands) does Connah believe prove very early African settlement of the east coast? Why is he so excited about TIW? (Remember, TIW is nothing like TCB, which means “Taking Care of Business”)

4. What did Swahili people eat? What is the evidence for their diets?

5. What kinds of technologies were in use by the end of 1000 AD?

6. How does Connah argue that different building styles illustrate social hierarchy and changes in population?

7. What kind of belief system did east coast peoples have?

8. What is the evidence that east coast peoples positioned themselves as the “middleman” in extensive inland/oceanic trade networks?