Benjamin Kofi Nutor
  • Assistant Professor
  • Director, Archaeological-Ecology Laboratory
Research Areas
  • Archaeology

Biography

Courses Taught:

  • ANTH 204: The Prehistoric World
  • ANTH 205: Peoples and Cultures of the World
  • ANTH 360: Ancient Civilizations of the World

Research Interests

Specialty:

  • Historical Anthropology and Archaeology of Atlantic Slavery and Colonialism in West Africa
  • Material Culture Studies and Historic Artifacts Analysis
  • Archaeology/Anthropology of African Indigenous Religion
  • Public Archaeology
  • Social Identities

Current Research Projects:

My research falls within the historical anthropology and archaeology of the Atlantic slave trade in West Africa. I aim to understand how the transition from the transatlantic slave trade to the establishment of colonial empires in Africa impacted Indigenous interior communities. I use a wide array of sources, including material culture from archaeological contexts, archival documents, oral traditions, and ethnographic studies, to gain a nuanced understanding of the strategies that local communities developed to manage the entanglements of the transatlantic slave trade.

I am currently working on a series of articles that delve into how the Atlantic mercantile economy, European missionary activities, and colonial encounters influenced the history, daily life, and social identities of the people of Peki, an Ewe community in Eastern Ghana that was a major hub for the Atlantic slave trade from the 17th to the 19th century. This work lies at the intersection of the archaeology and history of Atlantic Africa and the African Diaspora, and it covers various themes such as global encounters, colonialism, power relations, resistance, religious influence, material culture, memory, and social identity formation in the afterlives of slavery.

 

Educational Background

  • Ph.D. in Anthropology, The University of Texas at Austin, 2021

Selected Publications

    • Nutor, Benjamin K. and Kodzo Gavua. 2023. Historical Archeology of the Dente Shrine at Peki, Ghana: Landscapes of Power and Memories of Atlantic Slavery in West Africa. African Archaeological Review: doi.org/10.1007/s10437-023-09550-9.
    • Nutor, Benjamin K. (under review).  “Power, Status, and the Archaeology of the Atlantic slave trade in Peki, Ghana.”  Submitted to the Journal of Field Archaeology.
    • Nutor, Benjamin K. 2020. African “Historians, Are Archaeologists Your Siblings?”: A Critical Appreciation of Toyin Falola’s Contribution to the Archaeology of Africa and the African Diaspora. In Abikal Borah and Mobolanle Sotunsa (ed.), Imagining Vernacular Histories: Essays in Honor of Toyin Falola. Lanham: Rowan and Littlefield, pp. 27–45.
    • Gavua, Kodzo and Benjamin K. Nutor. 2014. Bringing Archaeology to the People. Towards a Viable Public Archaeology in Ghana. In J. Anquandah, B. Kankpeyeng and W. Apoh (ed.), Current Perspectives in the Archaeology of Ghana. Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers, pp. 264–275.
    • Nutor, Benjamin K. 2018. “Material Culture, and African Archaeology – Material Explorations in African Archaeology”. By Timothy Insoll. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2015. Pp. xiv 473. $125.00, hardcover (ISBN 9780199550067). The Journal of African History 59. Cambridge University Press: 318–19.
    • Nutor, Benjamin K. 2018. Crossland, Leonard Brighton. In C. Smith(ed.), Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1.
    • Nutor, Benjamin K. 2018. Anquandah, James. In C. Smith (ed.), Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_2357-2.