Since the 1980's, few have included sub-Saharan African in worldwide comparative discussion of complex societies. This exclusion is at the expense of challenging embedded notions of the development of complexity. The trading polity Bosutswe (700-1700 AD) at the eastern edge of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana and its surrounding region provide a perfect example of why this is important. In the Bosutswe region, complexity was not be driven by external factors, elites, or the core, but arose from local actors and out of localized contexts. During its occupation, Bosutswe became increasingly involved with long-distance trade in the Indian Ocean exchange network, linking trade from the African coast to the interior. At Bosutswe, glass beads associated with long-distance trade and local ostrich eggshell beads attest to a strong local economy supported by cattle herding, subsistence farming, and iron and bronze manufacture. This trade with Bosutswe peaked from 1200-1450 AD, when social stratification at Bosutswe became spatially and materially evident. This dissertation focuses on Bosutswe's trajectory through the point of view of two nearby settlements, Khubu la Dintša (1220-1420 AD) and Mmadipudi Hill (~550-1200 AD), to reconstruct the local economy and landscape. Expanding the concept of the polity to one situated in a landscape of human and environmental interchange provides a key comparative insight to other studies of complex societies and variable trajectories of societal development. The Bosutswe landscape and by extension Iron Age southern Africa can be conceptualized as a patchwork of landmark hilltop polity centers on a scrub desert landscape of agropastoral activity surrounded by smaller hilltop and ground sites. The local dynamic may have involved strategies by Bosutswe to mitigate environmental characteristics of low rainfall, opportunistic hunting and herding opportunities for the surrounding communities, and alliances between these communities for security in a politically unstable era. Everyday life would have involved issues about land use, as over time herders and farmers exhausted pastures, soil fertility, and firewood. Treating these early polities as landscapes of human, animal, and environmental relationships will help revise the way early complex societies are conceptualized: not as individual sites, but as local landscapes of power. / text

Esta tese é uma etnografia de uma rede de parentes de ciganos Calon que se espalha por todo o estado de São Paulo. O intuito é compreender como vivem esses Calon, e, mais especificamente, como criam socialidade no mundo dos brasileiros. O cotidiano calon é englobado por uma noção fundamental que diferencia calons e gadjes (não ciganos): a vergonha - um valor moral que organiza ideias de puro/impuro, sujo/limpo, ancoradas no corpo feminino. Fazer-se calon é produzir e mostrar vergonha, em um processo constante de diferenciação em relação aos brasileiros, impuros. A tese explora como a concepção da vergonha se liga à viagem, à língua, ao ser ativo, ao viver apoiado, ao ser parente, e às conceitualizações de tempo e espaço, criando uma socialidade calon no meio de nós, os gadjes. / This dissertation is an ethnographic account of a Calon Gypsy kinship network that spreads throughout the state of São Paulo, in Brazil. The aim of this work is to understand how these Calon live and create sociality out of a Brazilian world. A fundamental category differentiates Calon from gadje (non Gypsies): vergonha (shame) - a moral value that organizes ideas of purity and impurity, anchored in the female body. In order to make oneself Calon one must produce and show shame, in an ongoing process of differentiation from the gadje. The thesis explores native categories of travel, language, being active, being supported, as well as conceptualizations of time and space, that inform how Calon create sociality among us, the gadjes.

This article considers the earliest evidence of complex societies in sub-Saharan Africa. The evidence derives from two archaeological entities located in Nigeria, West Africa: the Gajiganna Culture of the Chad Basin and the Nok Culture of Central Nigeria. Studies of both cultures, carried out by the author’s team during the last years, indicate a significant cultural change during the 1st millennium BC. The change concerns social, economic, and technological aspects, described and discussed for each of the two mentioned cases. It is supposed that the change was a nucleus of social complexity that triggered further developments up to the great West African empires emerging from the end of the 1st millennium AD onwards. / El presente artículo trata acerca de las evidencias más tempranas de sociedades complejas en el África subsahariana procedentes de dos entidades arqueológicas ubicadas en Nigeria, en la parte occidental de este continente: la cultura Gajiganna, localizada en la cuenca del Chad, y la cultura Nok, del área central de este país. Los estudios realizados acerca de estas dos sociedades por parte del equipo dirigido por el autor durante los últimos años indican una transformación cultural significativa durante el primer milenio a.C. Este cambio se relaciona con aspectos sociales, económicos y tecnológicos particulares que se describen y discuten para cada uno de los casos mencionados. Se postula que ese proceso constituyó el núcleo de la complejidad social que desencadenó desarrollos posteriores hasta llegar a los grandes imperios del África Occidental que surgieron hacia fines del primer milenio d.C. y en adelante.

Esta tese é uma etnografia de uma rede de parentes de ciganos Calon que se espalha por todo o estado de São Paulo. O intuito é compreender como vivem esses Calon, e, mais especificamente, como criam socialidade no mundo dos brasileiros. O cotidiano calon é englobado por uma noção fundamental que diferencia calons e gadjes (não ciganos): a vergonha - um valor moral que organiza ideias de puro/impuro, sujo/limpo, ancoradas no corpo feminino. Fazer-se calon é produzir e mostrar vergonha, em um processo constante de diferenciação em relação aos brasileiros, impuros. A tese explora como a concepção da vergonha se liga à viagem, à língua, ao ser ativo, ao viver apoiado, ao ser parente, e às conceitualizações de tempo e espaço, criando uma socialidade calon no meio de nós, os gadjes. / This dissertation is an ethnographic account of a Calon Gypsy kinship network that spreads throughout the state of São Paulo, in Brazil. The aim of this work is to understand how these Calon live and create sociality out of a Brazilian world. A fundamental category differentiates Calon from gadje (non Gypsies): vergonha (shame) - a moral value that organizes ideas of purity and impurity, anchored in the female body. In order to make oneself Calon one must produce and show shame, in an ongoing process of differentiation from the gadje. The thesis explores native categories of travel, language, being active, being supported, as well as conceptualizations of time and space, that inform how Calon create sociality among us, the gadjes.

Nesta dissertação são analisados os sítios cerimoniais associados à ocupação Jê do Sul no município de Pinhal da Serra, RS. Os sítios são compostos por aterros anelares (muros de terra) isolados ou cercando montículos. É proposta uma classificação que leva em conta a variabilidade arquitetônica de tais sítios, conforme as dimensões dos aterros, seu formato e a presença ou ausência de montículos. São considerados também os dados de escavações que evidenciam as atividades realizadas nesses locais. O tipo de sítio mais freqüente consiste em pequenos aterros anelares cercando montículos que contêm sepultamentos cremados. Pode-se interpretá-los como cemitérios de grupos que habitavam em sítios de casas subterrâneas vizinhos. Os aterros anelares de grandes dimensões e sem montículos são interpretados como centros cerimoniais regionais onde se reunia uma população mais ampla. Sítios com arquitetura complexa - aterros de diferentes formatos combinados e muitos montículos - apresentaram evidências de ritos mais elaborados, envolvendo festins mortuários. Possivelmente, eram locais de sepultamento de indivíduos de maior status. Os dados dos sítios mortuários são combinados com os dos assentamentos, que também sugerem um padrão hierárquico, com sítios densos (aglomerados com muitas casas subterrâneas) regularmente espaçados e cercados por sítios menos densos. Por fim, consideram-se as continuidades com os cacicados Kaingang históricos, que mantiveram a construção de montículos funerários como elemento importante da autoridade dos caciques no momento de enfrentamento com os colonizadores europeus. / This dissertation analyzes the ceremonial sites associated with a Southern Jê occupation in the city of Pinhal da Serra, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The sites consist in earthworks which can be either isolated or surrounding mounds. A classification is proposed considering the architectonic variability of the sites, according to earthwork size, shape, and the presence or absence of mounds. Excavation data which reveal activities performed in such places are also taken into consideration. The most frequent site type consists in small earthworks surrounding mounds which contain cremated burials. They can be interpreted as cemeteries for groups that inhabited pithouse sites nearby. Large earthworks without mounds are interpreted as regional ceremonial centers where a larger population gathered. Sites with complex architecture - earthworks of different shapes combined and surrounding many mounds - exhibited evidences of more elaborate rites including funerary feasting. It is possible that they were places for the burial of individuals with higher status. The data from the mortuary sites are combined with those from the settlements, which also suggest a hierarchical pattern with dense sites (clusters of many pithouses) regularly spaced and surrounded by less dense sites. Finally, I consider continuities with the historical Kaingang chiefdoms, where the construction of burial mounds had been maintained as an important element of chiefly authority during the confrontation with the european colonizers.

Nesta dissertação são analisados os sítios cerimoniais associados à ocupação Jê do Sul no município de Pinhal da Serra, RS. Os sítios são compostos por aterros anelares (muros de terra) isolados ou cercando montículos. É proposta uma classificação que leva em conta a variabilidade arquitetônica de tais sítios, conforme as dimensões dos aterros, seu formato e a presença ou ausência de montículos. São considerados também os dados de escavações que evidenciam as atividades realizadas nesses locais. O tipo de sítio mais freqüente consiste em pequenos aterros anelares cercando montículos que contêm sepultamentos cremados. Pode-se interpretá-los como cemitérios de grupos que habitavam em sítios de casas subterrâneas vizinhos. Os aterros anelares de grandes dimensões e sem montículos são interpretados como centros cerimoniais regionais onde se reunia uma população mais ampla. Sítios com arquitetura complexa - aterros de diferentes formatos combinados e muitos montículos - apresentaram evidências de ritos mais elaborados, envolvendo festins mortuários. Possivelmente, eram locais de sepultamento de indivíduos de maior status. Os dados dos sítios mortuários são combinados com os dos assentamentos, que também sugerem um padrão hierárquico, com sítios densos (aglomerados com muitas casas subterrâneas) regularmente espaçados e cercados por sítios menos densos. Por fim, consideram-se as continuidades com os cacicados Kaingang históricos, que mantiveram a construção de montículos funerários como elemento importante da autoridade dos caciques no momento de enfrentamento com os colonizadores europeus. / This dissertation analyzes the ceremonial sites associated with a Southern Jê occupation in the city of Pinhal da Serra, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The sites consist in earthworks which can be either isolated or surrounding mounds. A classification is proposed considering the architectonic variability of the sites, according to earthwork size, shape, and the presence or absence of mounds. Excavation data which reveal activities performed in such places are also taken into consideration. The most frequent site type consists in small earthworks surrounding mounds which contain cremated burials. They can be interpreted as cemeteries for groups that inhabited pithouse sites nearby. Large earthworks without mounds are interpreted as regional ceremonial centers where a larger population gathered. Sites with complex architecture - earthworks of different shapes combined and surrounding many mounds - exhibited evidences of more elaborate rites including funerary feasting. It is possible that they were places for the burial of individuals with higher status. The data from the mortuary sites are combined with those from the settlements, which also suggest a hierarchical pattern with dense sites (clusters of many pithouses) regularly spaced and surrounded by less dense sites. Finally, I consider continuities with the historical Kaingang chiefdoms, where the construction of burial mounds had been maintained as an important element of chiefly authority during the confrontation with the european colonizers.

West Wales in the Iron Age contained a diverse range of settlement types, from hill-forts to unenclosed farmsteads, with the dominant type of settlement the enclosed farmstead. However, a recent review of information available for the British Iron Age identified a relative lack of systematised information for Wales and consequently there is a pressing need to re-examine the settlement record for this area, as the belief in a single Iron Age "culture" gives way to recognition of regional difference in material cultures, social institutions and life-ways. This thesis examines the settlements and landscape of West Wales in an attempt to contribute to our understanding of this region in the Iron Age. In order to make a regionally synthesised investigation of the social, I conducted a survey of excavation and survey information for Iron Age settlements in West Wales. Analysis centred on examining the spatial patterning of settlements by considering the morphology, distribution, placement and structure of settlements, their place in the landscape and regional trends in the structuring of space and artefacts. The investigation was contextualised within the wider body of material for the Iron Age in Britain. The use of landscape theory as an interpretive framework in examining the spatial patterning of the material culture in the Iron Age proved an effective method for interpreting domestic settlements within the lived landscape. Social and cosmological relations within settlements and within the referential structuring of a landscape, particularly with respect to pre-existing monuments, were suggested by the analysis. By comparing these trends in the structuring of settlements within the landscape to settlements elsewhere in Britain, a distinct and regional culture for the Iron Age of West Wales was identified.

West Wales in the Iron Age contained a diverse range of settlement types, from hill-forts to unenclosed farmsteads, with the dominant type of settlement the enclosed farmstead. However, a recent review of information available for the British Iron Age identified a relative lack of systematised information for Wales and consequently there is a pressing need to re-examine the settlement record for this area, as the belief in a single Iron Age "culture" gives way to recognition of regional difference in material cultures, social institutions and life-ways. This thesis examines the settlements and landscape of West Wales in an attempt to contribute to our understanding of this region in the Iron Age. In order to make a regionally synthesised investigation of the social, I conducted a survey of excavation and survey information for Iron Age settlements in West Wales. Analysis centred on examining the spatial patterning of settlements by considering the morphology, distribution, placement and structure of settlements, their place in the landscape and regional trends in the structuring of space and artefacts. The investigation was contextualised within the wider body of material for the Iron Age in Britain. The use of landscape theory as an interpretive framework in examining the spatial patterning of the material culture in the Iron Age proved an effective method for interpreting domestic settlements within the lived landscape. Social and cosmological relations within settlements and within the referential structuring of a landscape, particularly with respect to pre-existing monuments, were suggested by the analysis. By comparing these trends in the structuring of settlements within the landscape to settlements elsewhere in Britain, a distinct and regional culture for the Iron Age of West Wales was identified.

Esta dissertação apresenta o relato de uma experiência etnográfica realizada em dois bairros operários. Em Porto Alegre, a etnografia foi desenvolvida na Vila dos Industriários, e, em Buenos Aires, no bairro Parque Cornelio Saavedra. O objetivo principal é entender com se dá, através das narrativas de alguns moradores, a articulação entre um projeto coletivo baseado na concepção arquitetônica da cidade-jardim e os projetos individuais de quem ali reside. No seio desta interpretação, entram como elementos de análise as transformações sociais que ocorrem nestas cidades e o processo de valorização ou desvalorização destes imóveis dentro de uma sociedade em constante mudança, agenciados nas memórias e lembranças dos moradores antigos destes locais. A partir da etnografia da duração, a narrativa das imagens produzidas pelo antropólogo em campo participa deste jogo de memórias, versando sobre a experiência temporal de uma duração plena de rupturas, lacunas e variações em uma cidade que é vista como um objeto temporal, marcado por processos de aquisição, perda, gentrificação e segregação espacial. / This paper intends to present a report of an ethnographic experience realized in two workin-class neighborhood. In the city of Porto Alegre, the ethnography was made in the Vila dos Industriários, and in Buenos Aires, in the Parque Cornelio Saavedra. The main objective is try to understand how it gives, trought the narrative from a few dwellers, the articulation of a collective project based on the garden-city experience and the individuals projects from this dwellers. Within this interpretation, enter as elements of analysis the social transformations that occur in these cities and the recovery or devaluate process of this proprieties inside of a constant changing, agencied in the memories and remembers of the dwellers of this places. From a ethnography of a duration, the narrative from the images produced by the anthropologist in the research field participate of this memory game, dealing about the temporal experience of a memory full of disruptions, gaps and variations in a city viewed as a temporal object, marked by process of purchase, lost, gentrification and special segregation.

Esta dissertação resulta de um estudo etnográfico realizado junto a um grupo de moradores do bairro Lami, em Porto Alegre. A partir das lembranças dos “antigos” do bairro, o estudo apresenta o cotidiano e as trajetórias sociais desses moradores que conformam uma experiência urbana singular nas formas de habitar a cidade. O Lami situa-se no extremo sul da cidade, sendo conhecido por suas praias balneáveis e cenários de beleza natural. Um território relativamente livre das aglomerações urbanas características das áreas centrais, mas que vem acolhendo um número cada vez maior de moradores nos últimos anos, a medida em que os terrenos vão sendo loteados e vendidos, causando transformações na paisagem e na vida social local. O “progresso” que trouxe a luz elétrica, o asfaltamento das vias de acesso e o incremento no sistema de transportes, traz também as contradições da modernidade. Às imagens de um bairro “rural”, lugar de agricultura, pesca e veraneios, sobrepõe-se a imagem de uma periferia da cidade, cujos moradores são em sua maioria trabalhadores urbanos. Frente às agitações temporais percebidas como “tempos de crise” pelos antigos moradores, vemos um esforço destes em re-atualizar o cotidiano e reencontrar os laços de sociabilidade e solidariedade que ancoram uma “estética comunitária” no bairro, imbuindo-o de uma “ambiência” peculiar na cidade. / This thesis is the result of an ethnographic study, developed in conjunction with a group of local inhabitants from the neighbourhood of Lami, in Porto Alegre. Drawing from the local elders memories, the study represents the routines and the social interactions of such a group that leads to a unique urban experience in inhabiting a city. Lami is located in the most southerly district of the city, renown for its beautiful swimming beaches and amazing landscapes of natural beauty. It is an area free from the crowds which characterizes the more urban areas of the city. However, welcome as they are, it has been accommodating more and more inhabitants over the last few years. Its land have been sold and transformed into gated residential developments, which impact greatly on the landscape as well as the local social environment. This ‘progress’, that has brought the power distribution network, paved road infrastructure and the benefits of a public transportation system, unfortunately also promotes all the illogicalities of the modern world. The image of a rural neighborhood, a rural area perfect for fishing and tourism, conjoined with the city backdrop whose inhabitants, predominately look there for sustainable employment. Facing atemporal conflicts perceived as a “crisis point” by the local elders, there is an urgent need for these people to update their routine and rediscover their ties of sociability and solidarity which will anchor a “communal aesthetics” in the neighbourhood, providing such a distinctive environment within the city.