Divine consumption : sacrifice, alliance building, and making ancestors in West Africa / Stephen A. Dueppen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dueppen, Stephen A., author.

Series:

Monumenta archaeologica (Los Angeles, Calif.) ; v. 48.

Monumenta archaeologica ; 48

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sacrifice--Burkina Faso--Kirikongo Site.

Sacrifice.

Ritual--Burkina Faso--Kirikongo Site.

Ritual.

Ancestor worship--Burkina Faso--Kirikongo Site.

Ancestor worship.

Animal remains (Archaeology)--Burkina Faso--Kirikongo Site.

Animal remains (Archaeology).

Domestic animals--Burkina Faso--Kirikongo Site.

Domestic animals.

Iron age--Africa, West.

Iron age.

Excavations (Archaeology)--Burkina Faso--Mohoun.

Excavations (Archaeology).

Kirikongo Site (Burkina Faso).

Mohoun (Burkina Faso)--Antiquities.

Mohoun (Burkina Faso).

Antiquities.

Burkina Faso--Kirikongo Site.

West Africa.

Physical Description:

xvii, 306 pages, 1 unnumbered page : illustrations (chiefly color), maps (chiefly color) ; 29 cm.

Place of Publication:

[Los Angeles, CA] : The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, [2022]

Summary:

"Kirikongo is an archaeological site composed of thirteen remarkably well-preserved discrete mounds occupied continually from the early first to the mid second millennium AD. It spans a dynamic era that saw the growth of large settlement communities and regional socio-political formations, development of economic specializations, intensification in interregional commercial networks, and the effects of the Black Death pandemic. The extraordinary preservation of architectural units, activity areas and industrial zones provides a unique opportunity to discern the cultural practices that created stratified mounds (tells) in this part of West Africa. Building from a new detailed zooarchaeological analysis and refinements in stratigraphic precision, this book argues that repeated ritual activity was a significant factor in the accumulation of stratified archaeological deposits. The book details consistencies in form and content of discrete loci containing animal bones, food remains, and broken and unbroken objects and suggests that these are the remnants of sequential ancestor shrines created when domestic spaces were converted to tombs or dedicated mortuary monuments were constructed. Continuities and transformations in ancestral rituals at Kirikongo inform on earlier West African ritual practices from the second millennium BC as well as political and social transformations at the site. More broadly, this case study provides new insights on anthropogenic mound (tell) formation processes, social zooarchaeology, material culture theory, historical ontology, and the analysis of ritual and religion in the archaeological record"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Archaeology and sacrifice in central West Africa

Kirikongo in historical and social context

Archaeology of animals in West Africa

The animals of Kirikongo

Depositional contexts and relational associations

Divine consumption : feasts, sacrifice, and societal transformation

Emplacing ancestors : enabling co-presence through material sacrifice and rituals of attachment/detachment

Sacrificing animals, objects, and houses : toward an archaeology of attachment and detachment.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781950446278

1950446271

OCLC:

1292531856