Abstract
In East-Central Africa,1 both potting and potters were significant in the early social history of the region, and this importance challenges the generally accepted understanding of the role of both ceramic technology2 and ceramic producers in African history. Thus this study also disputes the works of some Western scholars who, after examining both iron smelting and potting, imposed faulty “paradigms” such as a strict division of labor by gender and the resulting “technology hierarchy” onto African societies.
… potters are of low socioeconomic status, [and] pots are often viewed as worthless bits of household paraphernalia …
(Rice 1991, 436)
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Saidi, C. (2011). NAKABUMBA: God Creates Humanity as a Potter Creates a Pot. In: Oyĕwùmí, O. (eds) Gender Epistemologies in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230116276_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230116276_10
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