The Precolonial State in West Africa (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781107040182)

This volume incorporates historical, ethnographic, art historical, and archaeological sources to examine the relationship between the production of space and political order in the West African Kingdom of Dahomey during the tumultuous Atlantic Era. Dahomey, situated in the modern Republic of B nin, emerged in this period as one of the principle agents in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and an exemplar of West African state formation. Drawing from eight years of ethnohistorical and archaeological fieldwork in the Republic of B nin, the central thesis of this volume is that Dahomean kings used spatial tactics to project power and mitigate dissent across their territories. J. Cameron Monroe argues that these tactics enabled kings to economically exploit their subjects, and to promote a sense of the historical and natural inevitability of royal power.

Author: J. Cameron Monroe
ISBN-10: 1107040183
ISBN-13: 9781107040182
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 06/09/2014
Pages: 279
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.75lbs
Size: 10.10h x 7.20w x 0.90d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 03/01/2015 pg. 1208