Debating great Zimbabwe

dc.contributor.authorPikirayi, Innocent
dc.contributor.authorChirikure, Shadreck
dc.contributor.emailinnocent.pikirayi@up.ac.zaen_US
dc.date.accessioned2011-10-14T06:25:26Z
dc.date.available2012-08-31T22:10:03Z
dc.date.issued2011
dc.description.abstractWe are humbled by Huffman’s acknowledgement of our contribution to the archaeology of Great Zimbabwe (Chirikure and Pikirayi 2008) and his spirit of constructive debate (Huffman 2010). Any reasonable scholar cannot deny the positive influence that his research has had on the archaeology of Great Zimbabwe. However, research is not just about reaffirming what has been done; it is more about reinterrogating the data even if it means swinging the pendulum of knowledge violently to push back the frontiers of knowledge. Often, some scholars seem reluctant to accept new thinking that contradicts what they believed earlier. As Martin Hall (1996, 6) once remarked, ‘facts like kings are no longer absolute, they cannot sustain themselves forever’. Hall was implying that without a detailed interrogation of both old and new data, there is really no point in doing research. With Great Zimbabwe the extremes would be that cognitive structuralism has explained everything so we do not need to study the site at all or that we should close our minds to new insights that put strong dents in the dominant interpretative reconstructions.en_US
dc.description.urihttp://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/razaen_US
dc.identifier.citationPikirayi, I & Chirikure, S 2011, 'Debating great Zimbabwe', Azania, vol. 46, no.2, pp.221-230.en_US
dc.identifier.issn0067-270x (print)
dc.identifier.issn1945-5534 (online)
dc.identifier.other10.1080/0067270X.2011.580149
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/17448
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherRoutledgeen_US
dc.rights© 2011 Taylor & Francis. This is an electronic version of an article published in Azania, vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 221-230, 2011. Azania is available online at: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/raza. This article is embargoed by the publisher until August 2012.en_US
dc.subjectGreat Zimbabween_US
dc.subjectArchaeologyen_US
dc.subjectPositive influenceen_US
dc.subject.lcshGreat Zimbabwe (Extinct city) -- Chronologyen
dc.subject.lcshArchaeological datingen
dc.subject.lcshExcavations (Archaeology)en
dc.titleDebating great Zimbabween_US
dc.typePostprint Articleen_US

Files

Original bundle

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Pikirayi_Debating(2011).pdf
Size:
427.46 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Postprint Article

License bundle

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.71 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description: