This paper identifies problematic elements in the literature on the ivory trade during the late 19th century and proposes an alternate approach that draws on insights from economic anthropology and history.

his focus provides a different perspective on participation in the ivory trade. What follows is an outline of the issues that could be addressed by a broader social history of the ivory trade in late 19th-century East-Central Africa and, based on my research on the Eastern Congo, some of the transformations associated Trade and with the ivory trade in this period

of the Kasai will be found to contain large quantities of ivory. It also, I should judge, from the numerous tracks seen at our haltingplaces, abounds in game, especially elephant and buffalo, while the river swarms with hippopota