Amanda Logan – Introduction to Archaeology

Eva Larson, Laine Fine, Quinn Granfelt, Claudia Novas Rivera

Introduction

Dr. Amanda Logan is a paleoethnobotany archaeologist specializing in West Africa during the last millennium. In 2022, she was named a Carnegie Fellow to support her analytical focuses and is a Professor at Northwestern University in the Department of Anthropology. Dr. Logan has been working in Banda, Ghana since 2007 as a graduate student.

Photograph: Northwestern University

Research Interests

Amanda Logan’s main research interests include analytically looking at archaeological plant remains providing a critical source of empirical data that can illuminate past foodways and build new narratives about food security that challenge present-day assumptions of West Africa (e.g., Ghana, Nigeria). She is interested in how food traditions changed over time, especially alongside political and environmental shifts. Aside from teaching students, Dr. Logan pursues her research findings by directly leading archaeological fieldwork in West Ghana.

Amanda Logan (right) and Amy Groleau (left), members of the Banda Research Team, draw an excavation map at the Ngre Kataa site. — “Banda Research Project team members Amanda Logan (right) and Amy Groleau (left) draw a plan map of units 44N 4W and 44N 6W, Mound 6, Ngre Kataa.” Photo taken by: Dr. Ann B. Stahl. University of Victoria Libraries, https://exhibits.library.uvic.ca/spotlight/iaff/catalog/17-17603

She is most well-known for her publications on her research on food security in Ghana. Her book The Scarcity Slot: Excavating Histories of Food Security in Ghana is the first to critically examine West Africa’s past food security. Dr. Logan’s book reveals that people thrived during a severe, centuries-long drought just as Europeans arrived on the coast, with a major decline in food security emerging only recently. This insight challenges how we think about previous African foodways with implications for the future of food insecurity. In 2021, the Scarcity Slot was recognized with the “First Book Award from the Association for the Study of Food and Society” (Northeastern).

Education

BA, Archaeology, Simon Fraser University

MA, Anthropology, University of Missouri

PhD, Anthropology, University of Michigan

Publications of Interest

A.C. D’Andrea, S. Kahlheber, , A.L. Logan, and, and D.J. Watson

2007 Early domesticated cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) from Central Ghana. DOI:doi:10.1017/S0003598X00095661.

Illustrations of early domesticated cowpeas, front, side, and back.

Gokee, Cameron, and Logan, Amanda

2014 Comparing Craft and Culinary Practice in Africa: Themes and Perspectives. African Archaeological Review. DOI 10.1007/s10437-014-9162-7. https://www.academia.edu/7315277/Comparing_Craft_and_Culinary_P

Map illustrating phases of food insecurity (1-5) across countries of West Africa.

Logan, Amanda

2016 “Why Can’t People Feed Themselves?”: Archeology as Alternative Archive of Food Security in Banda, Ghana. American Anthropologist 118(3):508-524

Bar graphs of grain crop ubiquity and frequency.

Logan, Amanda, and M. Dores Cruz.

2014. Gendered Taskscapes: Food, Farming, and Craft Production in Banda, Ghana in the Eighteenth to Twenty-first Centuries. African Archaeological Review 31(2):203–231. DOI:10.1007/s10437-014-9155-6.

Map of various plant remains and landmarks at Makala Kataa, Mound 5.

Trowelblazing

Amanda Logan can be considered a TrowelBlazer because of her activist approach to uncovering and interpreting Africa’s food histories. Her research demonstrates a fuller picture of African history that departs from typical colonial views and debunks these colonial narratives that depict the continent as dependent or underdeveloped.

By integrating archeological plant remains, oral histories, and ethnographic studies, Dr. Logan reconstructs vibrant histories of food systems that sustained communities for centuries. Her work not only challenges outdated assumptions but also provides actionable insights for addressing modern issues like climate change and food insecurity.

Through her collaborations with local communities and scholars, Dr. Logan emphasizes the importance of African voices in shaping historical narratives, bridging past and future, and redefining archeology as a tool for social justice and sustainable development. In her own words,

“If we’re really committed to solve ‘the problem of African food insecurity,’ we have to deal with the way those unequal economic systems benefit many of us in the Global North,”
Amanda Logan

Location of archaeological sites and their associated occupational phases in the Banda Traditional Area, Bono Region, Ghana — Archaeological sites and their associated occupational phases in the Banda Traditional Area, Bono Region, Ghana.
Desmond Roessingh/CC BY-SA 4.0/University of Victoria Libraries

Map of Banda, Ghana, and surrounding villages that were used as the focus of Logan and Cruz’s ethnographic study in Gendered Taskscapes. — Archaeological sites and their associated occupational phases in the Banda Traditional Area, Bono Region, Ghana.
Desmond Roessingh/CC BY-SA 4.0/University of Victoria Libraries

Sources

Carnegie Corporation of New York

2022 2022 Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program Amanda Logan. Electronic document, https://www.carnegie.org/awards/honoree/amanda-logan/, accessed November 20, 2024

Gruber, Anya

2024 How Colonialism Invented Food Insecurity in West Africa. Electronic document, https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/food-insecurity-west-africa-origins-colonialism/, accessed November 20, 2024.

Northwestern Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences

2024 Amanda Logan. Electronic document, https://anthropology.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/logan.html, accessed November 20, 2024