Shifting Sedentism in West Africa

Studies of past mobility in West Africa and beyond have traditionally seen sedentism and mobility as binary opposites, with sedentism as the stable option and mobility as an exception that needs to be explained. Additionally, archaeologists have tended to gravitate toward deeply stratified sites, while flat sites were often neglected, presumed to be ephemeral and of little interest. Since the beginning of the 21st century, however, archaeologists across West Africa have been increasingly documenting a phenomenon that deeply challenges those assumptions: that of populations that are sedentary but whose settlements regularly “shift” or move short distances but keep the name, institutions, and networks of the community intact. Known as “shifting sedentism,” this pattern opens new theoretical and methodological possibilities as it demonstrates that lack of stratification does not necessary entail ephemeral occupations, nor insecurity or lack of social complexity. In fact, over the past few decades, shifting sedentism patterns have been documented archaeologically, historically, and ethnographically in a wide range of societies, from stateless groups to hierarchical empires, from cattle-herders to agriculturalists, and in the most diverse sociopolitical, cultural, and economic settings. Thanks to all these studies, it is now clear that shifting sedentism has been present in societies across West Africa, from Senegal to Cameroon, for centuries, but its importance is only now beginning to be understood.

Shifting sedentism. Mobility. Flat sites. Horizontal stratigraphy. West Africa.