Kankpeyeng Benjamin W, Nkumbaan Samuel N, Insoll Timothy
Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana.
Anthropol Med. 2011 Aug;18(2):205-16. doi: 10.1080/13648470.2011.591197.
The ancient cultural tradition in the middle belt region of northern Ghana, with its stone circle and house mounds, contains varied material culture. The unique contextual arrangements of the material culture within the stone circle mounds and the diverse ceramic art forms, as well as their ethnographic analogues in West Africa, indicate the mounds' association with past shrines that have multiple functions, including curative purposes. The archaeology of the mounds and ethnographic associations related to past indigenous medical practices is reviewed and discussed. This paper will also consider how some of the figurines through which the Koma tradition has achieved 'fame' possibly functioned as physical representations of disease, perhaps underpinned by intentions of transference from afflicted to image. The notions of protection and healing are also examined with reference to the resorted and disarticulated human remains sometimes recovered from the sites.
加纳北部中部地带的古代文化传统，以其石圈和房屋土堆为特色，包含了多样的物质文化。石圈土堆内物质文化独特的情境布局、多样的陶瓷艺术形式，以及它们在西非的民族志类似物，表明这些土堆与过去具有多种功能（包括治病目的）的神祠有关。本文回顾并讨论了与过去本土医疗实践相关的土堆考古学和民族志关联。本文还将探讨一些使科马传统声名远扬的小雕像可能如何作为疾病的实体表征发挥作用，这或许是基于从患者向雕像转移疾病的意图。同时，还将参照有时从这些遗址中发现的经过整理和肢解的人类遗骸，对保护和治愈的概念进行研究。
