The pattern of pottery decoration among the Sirak Bulahay is exceptional in being most elaborate when least visible in the context of primary use. In this and related cultures of the Mandara Highlands of North Cameroon, pottery decoration is mainly used for reflexive signalling, by the users of the pots to themselves, in the form of communications with the spirit world. Information regarding ethnicity is, however, transmitted by pot morphology or even by patterns of utilization. Passage from the behavioural to the archaeological context is subject to well-defined cultural rules, and is accompanied by major redistributions of ceramic types and attributes such that the pottery that most regularly occurs on potential archaeological ‘sites’ is a subset of that least visible in the behavioural context.
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Judy Sterner (1989) studied this question.