Socio-economic interaction and ceramic aesthetic: understanding West African ceramic production and use in context

Abstract

This paper explores the multi-faceted nature of ceramic production and use in the context of contact and interaction through a detailed examination of pottery manufacture immediately before, during and after the decline of the Atlantic trade at the trading site of Juffure on the Gambia River. It is argued that potters’ decisions during the production process affected the aesthetic qualities of pots, including paste colour, temper, form and decoration and that some of these qualities are the by-products of acts of social displays related to diet. Analysis of ceramics during each phase of the Atlantic trade demonstrates that the potters’ choices were not exclusively expressions of communal ethnic identity of the producers or users. Additionally, the heightened production and eventual abandonment of this industry at Juffure fails to display a relationship between ceramics and personal identity. Rather, it is the broader socio-economic processes such as population fluctuations, consumer demand and socio-economic interactions as opposed to ethnic identity formation and maintenance, that affected shifts in local ceramic production.