Title: Diverse Social Connections and Social Landscapes Across Past Forager Contexts in Southern Africa

By: Dr Benjamin Collins
YouTube Live link: https://youtu.be/AfUgINUDhgw

Abstract:

Creating and maintaining social connections are common and crucial component of people's lives, both past and present. This talk focuses on the social connections and how we understand them in the past from the archaeological record, and specifically from material objects and artefacts that were made, used, and shared by past peoples. Of particular interest are ostrich eggshell beads, and the potential they have, both by themselves and in consideration with other lines of archaeological evidence, for informing the complexity of social connections across southern Africa over the past 15,000 years.

Bio:

Ben is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Archaeology at the University of Manitoba and an Honorary Research Associate with the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town. His research interest focus on understanding past forager social connections, and how and why these connections and networks changed through time. He pursues this research collaboratively across two projects, one based in South Africa and one based in Manitoba, Canada.