Ceramic Production Technology and Society: postcolonial approaches to material culture studies in southern Africa - some unanswered questions

Recently we have called for the broadening of the theoretical base in order to understand the social and other contexts of material culture items such as pottery (Pikirayi and Llndahl, 2013). The challenges encountered by archaeologists remain the huge ceramic assemblages, which are however, central in defining group identities in southern African Iron Age studies. but whose analyses Is always relegated lo typology. On the basis of available ethnographic data and archaeological cases studies from Zimbabwe and South Africa, we argue here that pottery provides valuable information on the region’s Iron Age If broader social and technological questions are addressed. Key technological questions include change in the production techniques over time, while social questions may address aspects of meaning beyond function. Our findings are based on pottery produced by rural, 'traditional' potters as well ethnographic data compiled or collected during the 19th and 20th centuries.