Ritual Geology

Gold and Subterranean Knowledge in Savanna West Africa

Inbunden, Engelska, 2022

Av Robyn d'Avignon, Robyn D'Avignon

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Set against the ongoing corporate enclosure of West Africa’s goldfields, A Ritual Geology tells the untold history of one of the world’s oldest indigenous gold mining industries: Francophone West Africa’s orpaillage. Establishing African miners as producers of subterranean knowledge, Robyn d’Avignon uncovers a dynamic “ritual geology” of techniques and cosmological engagements with the earth developed by agrarian residents of gold-bearing rocks in savanna West Africa. Colonial and corporate exploration geology in the region was built upon the ritual knowledge, gold discoveries, and skilled labor of African miners even as states racialized African mining as archaic, criminal, and pagan. Spanning the medieval and imperial past to the postcolonial present, d’Avignon weaves together long-term ethnographic and oral historical work in southeastern Senegal with archival and archeological evidence from Burkina Faso, CÔte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Mali. A Ritual Geology introduces transnational geological formations as a new regional framework for African studies, environmental history, and anthropology.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2022-08-26
Mått152 x 229 x 22 mm
Vikt590 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor328
FörlagDuke University Press
ISBN9781478015833

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Antropologi inom Samhalle och politik

Acknowledgments ixOrthographic Notes xvAbbreviations xviiIntroduction. Geology and West African History 11. A Tale of Two Miners in Tinkoto, Senegal, 2014 292. West Africa’s Ritual Geology, 800–1900 583.Making Customary Mining in French West Africa 864. Colonial Geology and African Gold Discoveries 1085. Mineral Mapping and the Global Cold War in SÉnÉgal Oriental 1296. A West African Language of Subterranean Rights 1537. Race, Islam, and Ethnicity in the Pits 177Conclusion. Subterranean Granaries 201Glossary 207Notes 211Bibliography 259Index 295

“The foremost contribution of A Ritual Geology is the representation of African miners as intellectual actors. . . . A Ritual Geology is impressive. It is crucial reading for anthropologists and historians looking to understand decolonial methodologies. It should also find a readership among actors who intervene in mining worlds, be it as corporate employees, state officials or development agencies.” - Dr Dagna Rams (LSE Review of Books) “Examining the ritual meaning of mining-which focuses on African relations with territorial spirits-[D’Avignon] brings a rich new perspective to understanding the mining industry, which considers Africans as intellectual actors, not just exploited laborers who were forced to work in European-owned mines because of land alienation. Recommended.” - E. S. Schmidt (Choice) "D’Avignon illuminates the complex narrative of African knowledge production and resource extraction using thick ethnographic descriptions, oral and life histories, and archival sources. ... [The] book is refreshing and provokes debates about African artisanal miners and local knowledge."- Jabulani Shaba (H-Environment, H-Net Reviews) "It is a rare to read a book that is, at once, innovative in its methodology, provocative in its argument, convincing in its claims and evidentiary foundations, and beautifully written throughout. ... [D'Avignon's] book testifies to the complex and often moving insights that can be gained from approaching peoples and places, of the past and of the present, with humble curiosity and a profound sense of shared humanity."- Emily Lynn Osborn (Journal of African History) "Historians of geology, anthropologists focused on mining, and anyone interested in the relationship between West Africa’s futures and its longue durÉe will all find this book tremendously valuable." - Tom Özden-Schilling (American Ethnologist)