Redeeming the Past: The Story of the Swahili

 

The Gedi Ruins, one of several examples of an ancestral Swahili settlement (Source: MalindiKenya.net)

Swahili is a language spoken across East Africa.  Contemporary Swahili speakers trace descent to the Swahili people, who lived in different cultural contexts than how their descendants do today. The histories of these ancestral populations, however, are narrated by non-Swahili people, which is problematic as this often can and does lead to inaccurate historical narratives about the past.  This is the case in interpreting the Swahili past, wherein either a strictly African or non-African model is emphasized.  While one (the African model) seemingly promotes the Swahili people and the other (the non-African model) does not it is important to share an accurate interpretation of the past rather than one that encourages a specific group’s contemporary sociopolitical goals.

 

Modern archaeological research sought to resolve this matter by using an ethnoarchaeological approach, meaning one that involved descendent populations.  They were consulted throughout the archaeological process by a couple of means.  First, they interviewed about their own interpretations and beliefs concerning their histories, and second they were present and aided in the interpretation of archaeological artifacts.  Systematic survey and excavation methods were also employed to ensure the collection of artifacts and contextual information of the past were preserved.  The artifact assemblages demonstrated a rich trade history wherein locally made goods were used alongside those imported from the Asian continent, demonstrating at a minimum contact and trade among geographically distant groups.

 

As additional means of researching the past were made available scholars employed these new methods, which took shape as ancient DNA analyses.  These methods were employed in hopes of repairing the potentially false narratives of the past, particularly those concerning the ancestral Swahili.  The goal was to see if the DNA results matched archaeological interpretations and contemporary oral histories shared by Swahili descendent populations. Ultimately, these data do not support the accepted histories of the descent populations or contemporary scholars, but they are still important in demystifying the past.

 

A diverse group of scholars, in accordance with the wishes of the descendent Swahili populations, undertook excavations of Swahili ancestors and collected samples for DNA analysis.  DNA was collected, but it was the DNA from 80 elite (ruling class) individuals that was ultimately analyzed.  The results were unexpected.  Instead of demonstrating either a largely African or Asian elite the ancient DNA showed that African elites were mixing/interbreeding with Asian populations around 1000 years ago.  Asian populations included Persians (i.e., Middle Easterners) and Indians (i.e., individuals from the Indian subcontinent), which were both groups that widely traded with the local Swahili populations.  The DNA results also demonstrated that it was Asian males who interbred with local African women.  This evidence supports the Kilwa Chronicle, a historical source that many scholars and the Swahili descendent populations had previously rejected (again, because it did not support a purely African or Asian narrative).

 

These unexpected results required further review since they did not match the dominant and accepted historical narratives about the Swahili past.  Scholars turned to the cultural traditions of the Swahili and related populations to find their answers.  It is known that they were matriarchal, meaning wealth and status was passed down from mother to daughter to granddaughter and so on.  It is hypothesized that Asian men married into elite families and adopted African/Swahili culture in order to secure more power within the African-Asian trade networks. 

 

Ultimately, the notions that have been promoted over time of a strictly African or Asian Swahili population are no longer supportable, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.  As two scholars, Chapurukha Kusimba and David Reich, involved in the ancient DNA project pointed out:  “Objective knowledge about the past has great potential to help marginalized peoples. By making it possible to challenge and overturn narratives imposed from the outside for political or economic ends, scientific research provides a meaningful and underappreciated tool for righting colonial wrongs.”

 

Bibliography

Brielle, E. S., Fleisher, J., Wynne-Jones, S., Sirak, K., Broomandkhoshbacht, N., Callan, K., ... & Kusimba, C. M. (2023). Entwined African and Asian genetic roots of medieval peoples of the Swahili coast. Nature, 615(7954), 866-873.

 

 

Kusimba, C., & Reich, D. (2023, May 30). Ancient DNA Supports Swahili Oral Traditions. Retrieved from Sapiens: https://www.sapiens.org/biology/ancient-dna-swahili-origins/

New Insights into Inca Quipu (Khipu) Traditions

Figure 1: Late Horizon khipu from the University of St. Andrew Collection (Source: Sabine Hyland)

 

As previously discussed the quipu (herein referred to as khipu) was a long held “writing” tradition employed by various Andean groups, most popularly among those within the Inca Empire (the Late Horizon Period, 1476– 1534).  These knotted cords were mostly made with cotton and animal hair, although some contained human hair.  The inclusion of human hair was interpreted as the khipu maker’s (formally referred to as the khipukamayuqs) signature based on ethnohistorical records.  The khipu were records of numerical data, typically those related to supply inventories, taxation records, and dates. 

 

Due to the loss of many khipus (due to their purposeful destruction by the Spanish Conquistadors) and the loss of contextual data for many that still remain (as they were looted and removed from their original contexts) there remain more questions about the khipu than there are answers.  This also means that it is sometimes difficult to know how to accurately approach the study of khipus to discover more about them.  Sabine Hyland out of the University of St. Andrews, however, has been undeterred by these challenges as she has dedicated years of study of the khipu, and her more recent publication provides us greater insights into the who the khipukamayuqs may have been.

 

According to the Spanish Conquistadors khipukamayuqs were elite males who were trained in Cuzco, the capital of the Inca empire.  They were carefully selected for these important roles, which may have allowed the Inca to maintain better control over their empire and its diverse populations of people.  This came by way of limiting who could record and maintain the economic and historical data of the empire to only those the Inca royalty had a hand in selecting and controlling.  The information provided by the Conquistadors was largely unquestioned despite evidence to the contrary being provided in the Waman Poma, a record of Indigenous life as written by Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala, a Mestizo (an individual of Indigenous and Spanish parentage).  Despite this record being viewed as more accurate of daily life during the Late Horizon and post-Conquest the information concerning the khipukamayuqs was largely ignored because it claimed khipukamayuqs were elderly commoner women, a direct contradiction to what the Conquistadors claimed.

 

Archaeologists believed the easiest way to resolve this matter was to analyze khipus within burial contexts since these artifacts were often buried with their makers.  This was problematic since the khipus that are available for study were without contexts (having been looted), and those that were found within burial contexts were often found in multiple burial situations (as in multiple individuals were entombed with the khipu). 

 

Sabine Hyland took a different approach.  She performed isotopic analyses on the khipu housed at the University of St. Andrews (Figure 1), which contained a cord of human hair.  She hypothesized that by analyzing the diet of the human hair cord, which served as the maker’s signature, she would be able to discern if this was an elite or commoner based on their diet.  Inca elites subsisted on diets primarily made up of meat and maize, whereas commoners ate mostly tubers and vegetables.  These would provide distinctly different isotopic signatures.  She would not be able to discern sex or gender of the maker, however.

 

Ultimately, the isotopic data demonstrated that the khipu in the University of St. Andrew collection was manufactured by a commoner.  This individual’s diet lacked meat or maize, supporting the notion that they were a commoner.  According to ethnohistoric data women were the primary creators of khipus, which was more in line with what the Waman Poma stated.  It is believed that while the Inca may have employed elite males to record their state activities khipu making was far more widespread and commonplace than originally believed.  This is in line with other archaeological evidence that shows khipus were created pre-Inca Empire.  Within the Inca empire commoners may have maintained local records, and this specific khipu may be one of those records.

 

References

Hyland, S., Lee, K., Koon, H., Laukkanen, S., & Spindler, L. (2025). Stable isotope evidence for the participation of commoners in Inka khipu production. Science Advances, 1-6.

Urbanus, J. (2025, November/December). A Knotty Problem. Archaeology Magazine.

 

Not As Dumb As They Look: Another Example of Neanderthal Ingenuity

Figure 1: Example of Neanderthal flaying tool (Dyon et al., 2025)

 

If you have ever heard someone called a Neanderthal then you most likely know that it is not a compliment.  The stigma of Neanderthals as dumb, brutish, and violent entities continues throughout popular culture, but in (biological) anthropological discourse that narrative has shifted.  Recent evidence demonstrate Neanderthals were rather intelligent individuals who created works of art, initiated and participated in complex mortuary rituals, as well as created complex stone tools and shared those creation techniques with Archaic Homo sapiens.  Today’s blog post further supports these shifting perspectives by sharing with you additional information concerning Neanderthal ingenuity: the creation and use of flaying tools (Figure 1).

 

These flaying tools were discovered at the Abri du Maras site in France.  This was a summer hunting site that was continually used 105,000 and 132,000 years ago.  Neanderthals butchered reindeer and wild horses at the site, and it was the fragments of a reindeer bone that showed evidence of being repurposed into a flaying tool.  Flaying tools are those that enable the user to carefully remove the hides or skins of an animal without puncturing them.  Scholars employed use wear analyses to analyze the marks left on this bone sherd, leading them to reach their conclusions.  These conclusions were further supported by ethnographic data from Algonquian Nehiyawak and Nakawēk nations of North America.  They use bone sherds that show similar marks, and these bone tools are used in skinning hides off animals.  The scholars also noted that the smoothness of the edges of the Neanderthal bone tool suggest it was repeatedly used, making it an essential part of their tool kit. 

 

As this tool would have minimized perforation of animal hides it suggests that the Neanderthals preferred undamaged hides, but what the purpose of such undamaged hides remains unclear.  They may have been used for various purposes, such as the manufacture of clothing or shelters, but due to preservation bias against animal hides and skins we may never know what specifically the hides were used for.

 

Bibliography

 

Doyon, L., Hernando, J.M., Moncel, MH. et al. A bone tool used by neanderthal for flaying carcasses at the Abri du Maras (France). Sci Rep (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-30264-2

Taub, B. (2025, December 5). Neanderthals Used Reindeer Bones To Skin Animals And Make Leather Clothes. IFL Science.

Applied Anthropologist Profile: Dr. Sylvia Jilal-Gutierrez, Registered Nurse and Professor Emeritus

Dr. Sylvia Jilal-Gutierrez

Today’s blog post is dedicated to discussing the rich career of applied anthropologist, Dr. Sylvia Jilal-Gutierrez.  Dr. Jilal-Gutierrez is a proud Latina-Lebanese woman who is currently enjoying her retirement after a long career that started in one lane but ended in another.  Dr. Jilal-Gutierrez began her career as a registered nurse after she graduated from Boston College in 1975.  For 16 years she worked in various nursing fields, including as a Charge Nurse, Staff Nurse, Community Health Nurse, Utilization Review Nurse.  During that time she also earned a Certificate in Health Care Management from Harvard (in 1987).

 

She took a brief break from professional work, and it was during this period that she began pursuing graduate study in anthropology.  In 1999 she earned her Master of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Connecticut.  From her she moved from private practice to working for non-governmental health care organizations, serving as a Health Research Consultant and then later a Social Science Research Consultant. Dr. Jalil-Gutierrez also served as a Connecticut Health Foundation Health Leadership Fellow in 2008.  She also served as an adjunct faculty member at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU).  In 2016 she earned her PhD in Anthropology from the University of Connecticut.

 

During her tenure as a consultant and academic she focused her research on various topics, many around central themes concerning nursing, health care, access to medical care, equity, racism in the nursing profession, and anti-racist practices within nursing.  She wrote about and spoke on these topics both with the scholarly literature, at conferences, and through various applied anthropological and nursing organizations.  In her dissertation she credited her parents as inspiring her to always ensure to seek equitable treatment of all, which is why they gave her their blessing when she pursued her anthropological studies since this a field that encourages such actions.  

 

Works Cited

Council on Nursing and Anthropology. (2025). Sylvia Jalil-Gutierrez, PhD. Retrieved from Council on Nursing and Anthropology: https://www.conaa.org/

Jilal-Gutierrez, S. (2006). Health care experiences of the uninsured at the dawn of the 21st century (Doctoral Thesis). Storrs: University of Connecticut.

Jilal-Gutierrez, S. (2025). LinkedIn Profile.