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In praise of outlaws

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 November 2018

Rachel King
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Abstract

‘Outlaw’ is not a common category of archaeological thought but it is perhaps more useful than meets the eye. ‘Outlaws’ are typically viewed as contingent on legal and capitalist systems; they are, I suggest, also material, affective phenomena that draw our attention to how transgression, dissent and disorder are conceived through archaeological thinking. Here, I outline some ways in which ‘outlaw’ figures are ‘good to think with’, particularly for historical and colonial contexts but also for broader, more global frontier situations. Through three sketches of archetypal ‘outlaws’ in southern Africa's recent past, I consider where these disruptive figures draw attention to how mobility, violence, rebellion and state imagination (and the limits thereof) have been imagined through material misbehaviours.

Keywords

outlawscattle raidersvagrancyrebellionresistancesouthern Africacolonialism
Type
Articles
Information
Archaeological Dialogues , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , December 2018 , pp. 105 - 133
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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