ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that we may also employ the cultural histories of West Africa as a critical backdrop for addressing a perennial problem in archaeological method and analysisthe study of past ethnic identities and representations. The methodological problems surrounding social identities have already received due attention in African archaeology, especially in the ethnoarchaeological literature. An archaeological study of ethnicity in the historic Saalum benefits from a substantial ethnoarchaeological literature on the social and technical aspects of traditional pottery production. A study of materiality and ethnicity in the Saalum has repercussions for the politics of archaeological research in West Africa, where scholastic agendas have too often mirrored colonial and contemporary political interests in ethnic divisions. According to a practice-based approach to ethnicity, ethnic identities coalesce around a common habitus defined by Bourdieu as the structuring structures' of daily habits and dispositions that are learned, guided, and reproduced through the historical stream of social practices.
