Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa: Archaeology, History, Languages, Cultures and Environments.

Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa: Archaeology, History, Languages, Cultures and Environments, ed. Joseph O. Vogel. Walnut Creek: Altamira, 1997. 605pp. ISBN 0-76190-8902-1 cloth.

This is a large and ambitious work, whose "primary function" is to be a "summary of the current state of Africanist archeology" (20). As such, it is successful. The volume also includes limited attempts at including information on languages and cultures. Because they draw almost exclusively on archeological sources, the articles on Cultures or "Lifeways" are less successful. Regrettably, the terms "pre-colonial," "colonialism," "pre-historic," and "Stone-age" are not defined and therefore …