Abstract
Data collection during April and June 2001in the Sikasso region of southern Mali, West Africa, proved to be a journey of self-discovery, both from an individual and communal perspective. My fieldwork was primarily aimed at understanding how the indigenous Senufo perceive and manage their cultural heritage. Despite a long history of cultural contact, these peoples are found to be culturally heterogeneous, adhering to strong traditions and claiming common cultural identity. Given these continuing cultural traditions, my position as a community member placed me in a unique position to provide useful insights regarding both the processes of establishing and/or assessing cultural identities over time and the understanding of local material culture from an indigenous perspective. The methodological approach therefore, consisted of meshing indigenous Senufo knowledge with archaeological evidence to attempt a cursory blueprint of the archaeological landscape of the Senufo inhabited area. The following report will aim to introduce the reader to some of the social dynamics underpinning this study and some preliminary results.
Highlights
It has been argued by a number of scholars that the conceptualisation of the past continually anchors peoples to variable debates, irrespective of status and cultural backgrounds (Lowenthal 1985; McBride 1995; Schmidt and McIntosh 1996; Ucko 2000)
Overall, the fieldwork activities led to what might be best described as a reconstruction of a votive archaeological landscape, which is viewed as sacred in its entirety by the Senufo
The archaeological landscape is defined by the Senufo as that of a cultural locus of ancient events, things, and places
Summary
It has been argued by a number of scholars that the conceptualisation of the past continually anchors peoples to variable debates, irrespective of status and cultural backgrounds (Lowenthal 1985; McBride 1995; Schmidt and McIntosh 1996; Ucko 2000). This does appear as a constant dynamic cross-culturally, the control of the globally widespread modes of access to the past such as history and prehistory remain a chasse gardée (vanguard) of a westernised mainstream of ‘experts’ i.e. scholars, and cultural resource brokers (Cleere 1989; Hartley 1997;Layton 1994; Lertrit 1997; Pwiti 1996; Shackley 1997).
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