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Precolonial African Material Culture presents a comprehensive challenge to the long-held myth of the inherent backwardness of technology and material culture in sub-Saharan Africa. It revisits the history of early and late precolonial technology in Africa and explores its impacts on the wider world.
List of contents
Preface: Technology and the Black Peoples
Part One
Africa: A Continent without History, Progress, or Native Genius: The Origins of a Legend
Chapter :1 Narratives on Precolonial African Material Culture and Technology: A Lesson in the Evolution of an Idea in the Cauldron of Modern Race Theory
Chapter 2: Perceptions of Technological Backwardness in Precolonial Africa in the Late Twentieth Century: Some Africanist Views
Chapter 3: Africans in the Eyes of Others Across Time: From the Ancient World to the Enlightenment
Chapter 4: The Origins of Modern Race Theory and the Theory of Socio-cultural Evolution, c. 1680-1800: The Enlightenment
Chapter 5: The Convergence and Crystallization of Modern Race Theory and Socio-Cultural Evolution: c. 1800-1900
Chapter 6: Racial Models of African History and Culture in the Twentieth Century: c. 1900-1975
Chapter 7: A Critical Look at Some Theories of Precolonial African Technological Development
Part Two
Aspects of Technology and the Material Conditions of Life in Tropical Africa
Chapter 8: Indigenous Systems of Tropical African Agriculture
Chapter 9: Metallurgy: African Traditions in Ironworking
Chapter 10: Textile Manufacture
Chapter 11: Indigenous African Building Construction: Some Considerations of Building Materials and Techniques
Chapter 12: Subsistence Systems, Settlements, and Commerce: The Trade in Foodstuffs and Its Relation to the Expansion of Systems of Water Transport, Economic Growth, and the Proliferation of Cities. The West African Evidence
Part Three
"All That Is Hidden in Darkness Will One Day Come to Light": Africa in America
Chapter 13
The African Impact on Technology and Material Culture in the Americas: Evidence and Meanings
About the author
V. Tarikhu Farrar is professor of African American studies and history at City College of San Francisco.
Summary
Precolonial African Material Culture presents a comprehensive challenge to the long-held myth of the inherent backwardness of technology and material culture in sub-Saharan Africa. It revisits the history of early and late precolonial technology in Africa and explores its impacts on the wider world.
