Cotsen Institute Press Publication Wins SAfA Book Prize

Divine Consumption: Sacrifice, Alliance Building, and Making Ancestors in West Africa by Stephen A. Dueppen, published in 2022 by the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology (CIoA) Press, has been named the winner of the 2023 Society of Africanist Archaeologists Book Prize. The award was made “for a book that has been successful in taking African archaeology to a world audience.” The book is number 48 in the CIoA Press Monumenta Archaeologica series.

Stephen Dueppen is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Oregon. His main area of research is the development of social and political complexity in egalitarian societies, and he has concentrated his archaeological work on projects in Burkina Faso and Senegal.

The Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAfA) is an organization of archaeologists, researchers from associated disciplines, and others who share an interest in African archaeology and African societies. Membership is international, with participation from Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Oceania, and is actively involved in research in many African countries. SAfA is an affiliated organization of the Society for American Archaeology and the African Studies Association.

The Book Prize is presented every two years at the SAfA Biennial Meeting to a book that makes an exceptional contribution within one of the following areas, or makes a significant contribution in a number of them: 1) an important theoretical advance in African archaeology; 2) an important methodological advance in African archaeology; 3) a major advance in our knowledge of the African past; 4) success in taking African archaeology to a world audience; 5) success in breaking down disciplinary division in African archaeology, be they temporal, geographic, linguistic, or other; 6) success in championing the value of African archaeology within an African nation or community and 7) success in championing the protection and preservation of Africa’s archaeological heritage.

The SAfA Book Prize is open to books and monographs, including site reports, in all fields of African archaeology, including ethnoarchaeology and the African diaspora, from the beginning of the archaeological record to the present. Single author, multi-author, and edited works are all eligible, and there is no restriction as to language.

Dueppen was featured in the CIoA Press Author Spotlight series on May 24, 2022. View a recording of the event here.