Landscape Politics: The Serpent Ditch and the Rainbow in West Africa

• Published in: American anthropologist Vol. 106; no. 1; pp. 98 - 110
• Main Authors: Norman, Neil L., Kelly, Kenneth G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK American Anthropological Association 01-03-2004; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Africa; African cultural groups; African history; Agriculture, land tenure, rural space; Anthropologists; Anthropology; Archaeology; Ceremonies; Cosmology; Cultural landscapes; Dangbe; Deities; Ditches; earthenworks; Economics; Ethnology; Historic artifacts; Historic buildings & sites; Historical archaeology; Landscape; Landscape ecology; landscape politics; Material culture; Morphological source materials; Palaces; Political anthropology; Politics; Processions; Pythons; Rhetorical figures; Terminology; The Material Construction of Social Reality; Vodun; West Africa; West African Archaeology; Century 17-19; Benin; West Africa; Dahomey; South; Archeology; Anthropology; Politics; Landscape; Kingdom
• ISSN: 0002-7294; 1548-1433
• DOI: 10.1525/aa.2004.106.1.98

Anthropologists and archaeologists have long been interested in the intersection of social, political, and religious institutions and landscape features. Recent efforts have been aimed at elucidating the tensions between the perception and description of such features among Western and non-Western groups. This article seeks to contribute to this project through an analysis of a series of massive ditches (c. 17th-19th centuries A.D.) in southern Bénin, West Africa. In their accounts of the region, European travelers described these features through tropes and terminology that ascribe Western military designs and exploits. With insights drawn from archaeological and anthropological data, we argue a different perspective: that groups from the West African kingdoms of Hueda and Dahomey used the built landscape to reference cosmological factors, in attempts to negotiate and shape the political landscape of the region.