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Gabbasov S. From Indonesia to Zanzibar: Traditional Zanzibarian Canoe “Ngalawa” as an Example of the Cross-Cultural Movement of a Technology

Sergey Gabbasov
NGO “Argonautica”
Moscow, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0003-4379-515X
E-mail: gabbasovmusic@gmail.com

 

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ABSTRACT. Technology is an important part of the material culture. Interethnic contacts allowed technological innovations to move between regions and sometimes between continents. There are many such examples — from cultivated plant species, methods of cultivation and irrigation to domesticated animals and hunting and agricultural tools. The transfer of technology made possible to populate and develop new landscapes and transform economic-cultural types. In most cases the speed of such spreading was low due to the inertia of traditional culture and the difficulty of adapting new cultural borrowing. Some technologies were transported not only between continents (for example, the domesticated hunting dog was integrated into the culture of the Australian aborigines), but also across the oceans, which in the prehistoric era was the most difficult example of cross-cultural interaction because of the complexity of ocean sailing. The development of sailboats construction and maritime navigation significantly expanded the horizons of peopling, reaching its apogee in the period of the Great Geographical Discoveries. The emergence and evolution of the Pacific two-outrigger dugout canoe on the East African archipelago Zanzibar is one of the prime examples of the transfer of technologies of shipbuilding across the ocean.

 

KEYWORDS: Zanzibar, Unguja, Tanzania, Kenya, Madagascar, Swahili, East Africa, dhow, nautical technologies

 

FOR CITATION: Gabbasov S. From Indonesia to Zanzibar: Traditional Zanzibarian Canoe “Ngalawa” as an Example of the Cross-Cultural Movement of a Technology. Kunstkamera. 2023. 1(19): 196–204. (In Russian). doi 10.31250/2618-8619-2023-1(19)-196-204  

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8619-2023-1(19)-196-204
УДК 629.52

 

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