On Food, Pots, Gender, Iron, and Archaeological Theory: Interview with Professor Randi Haaland

Abstract

Professor Randi Haaland is a Norwegian archaeologist with a distinctive anthropological approach and global research interests. In this conversation, Randi Haaland reflects on her extraordinary and multifaceted engagement with archaeology and Africa for over 50 years, from her formative experience as a young woman among the Fur in Sudan in the mid-1960s, through her research between the processual and post-processual paradigms, to the capacity-building programs she initiated with the support of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD). Randi Haaland created her unique path in the archaeology of Africa. This interview shows that it has been the right path towards a novel and in-depth understanding of the human past, especially on food culture, beginnings of food production, gender, and technology.