On the Margins of Empire: The Archaeology of Social Complexities in Lower Akinyele, Southwest Nigeria Ca. 18th- 20th centuries

Presentation Abstract: My research examines the materiality of everyday life in non-urban spaces between the 18th and 20th centuries. I seek to articulate the nature of social complexities that may have characterized these spaces, with particular attention to the domestic domain. In my study at Lower Akinyele, I aim to investigate how social agents negotiated their daily lives within complex historical processes such as imperial control, conflict, migration, and resettlement, and how these dynamics shape their lived experience and are reflected in the archaeological record over this extended period.

Combining an interdisciplinary approach, my research employs ethnography, archaeological field survey with geospatial analysis, and material science-based analysis. Drawing on theories of agency, practice, and feminist perspectives, I move beyond a monolithic view that privileges urban centers as the primary sites for studying social complexity. Instead, my work advocates for a more nuanced understanding that captures the varied scales of human interactions within these communities.

About the Presenter: Boluwaji Ajayi is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology at UCSC. Ajayi’s research examines the social complexities that shaped the everyday lives of settlements located on the peripheries of early cities and empires in the Yoruba-Edo region of Southwestern Nigeria from the precolonial era to the twentieth century.