Farming populations have therefore sought out well-watered locations such as river banks, lakesides and moist depressions. The Call Of The Wild Discussion Teaching Resources | TPT These, as elsewhere in the world, had specialist activities ensuring fertility of women and soil, for example, or providing wealth. Ancient West Africa: Bantu Migrations & the Stateless Society MTI3NmM1MDdjZmIyOWJjZjVhMzliNGM1MjA4NTAwNjY3YTI4YzRhMWE4NTM4 Underpopulation, and the difficulties that this created for taxation and control, meant that the kind of bureaucracies which invented literacy in Sumer or Egypt could not emerge in the African context. YWIzMzRhYjk5MGRlMDRiYzhlZmIyMjQ5ZjgwODE5MTIxZjAwNjdhODZiM2Y4 Ancient African Traditional Religions Before Christianity and Islamic Hamilton, et al. In West Africa, the climatic zones aligned in a series of east-to-west belts Sahara desert, desert-grassland margin (the Sahel), savannah grassland and tropical forest. They could make the Nile overflow, cause famine, or even bring death. Malaria was probably the biggest killer, especially of infants. Through history, Africa has had an exceptionally hostile environment in terms of the diseases which could strike humans and their animals; and of the regions, West Africa was probably the most dangerous. MzE2MGQ0NGZjMTczYTA2YjU3ZDY1YWQ3YTRiOTdlZmE5NTQyMTg0NDgwZTYz In most territorial kingdoms, local rulers who had been defeated were not eliminated, but became vassal rulers. The most prized qualities were seen as the preserve of males, such as aggression and courage. Some towns specialized in a particular industry, such as leather-making, bead-making or metal-work, for which they were renowned over a large area. The unequal access to women made for severe tensions between males of different generations the young men felt frustration, envy and anger with the older men for monopolizing the female sex. Ghana- Social, Religious, and Political aspects - Ancient Africa- Ghana These matters touched on the central concern of Africans, the continuity of the community. Growth of the Kingdom - Ancient Africa - Kingdom of Axum - Weebly Popular culture. Upon Africa's soils our prehistoric relatives have walked side by side. Apart from the Nile, all these are blocked by rapids fairly near their mouths, as a result of which seagoing craft have not been able to sail far into the interior of Africa. However, there have been many Ghana was the first empire of ancient Africa. When one society was conquered by another, it was the mediums and priests, as well as others in the community with high religious status such as iron workers and herbalists, who often put up the stoutest resistance to alien rule. ODI0YWEwOGYyOTY5ZGVhNjEzMWUzOTFjMGEzYTA3ZjUzZjNkM2EyNDZhODVk Generated by Wordfence at Sat, 4 Mar 2023 18:37:22 GMT.Your computer's time: document.write(new Date().toUTCString());. Some cultures preferred more naturalistic depictions of human faces and other organic forms. Around the year 3000 BC, agriculture arose independently in Ethiopia with crops like coffee, teff, finger millet, sorghum, barley, and ensete. This reflects the much more limited role of trade outside West Africa. It was structured around a big man who was usually (by myth, at any rate) the man most directly descended from the founding ancestor. Reading Passage Compare And Contrast Teaching Resources | TPT Study compare and contrast nonfiction text structure with 6 short passages, questions, and graphic organizers about similar animals. Your access to this site was blocked by Wordfence, a security provider, who protects sites from malicious activity. These were societies that had no. If they were too old, ill or handicapped to work effectively; or if through misfortune they had no children; or if they had no kinsmen to aid them clear land and tame fields, they were very vulnerable. Population growth, Gods and spirits Africas other rivers are all interrupted by falls and rapids along their courses. Egyptian Social Structure. They have used a wide range of techniques, building up the productivity of the land through manuring, terracing, and digging channels to lead water from stream to field, sometimes across wooden aqueducts. In many societies, the village chief, as the senior descendant of the founding ancestor, was deemed to have a special relationship with the spirit world. (59) $14.99. NDJiMmE4NmUzM2JjYWVjMzMwOGIyMzIwMTJjODRhNTY1YjBiYWE5ZTA5NTIx Keywords population phratries gene citizenship metics slavery Type Chapter Information Similarly, belief that spiritual power came only through dead ancestors was common amongst herding societies. Those suspected of witchcraft were commonly relatives or neighbors who would benefit from a persons misfortune; and especially women whose age, childlessness, deformity or demeanor suggested bitterness. The environment of sub-Saharan Africa is one of the hardest environments for human populations to thrive in. An isolated region It began around 3400 BCE. Sometimes these were royal kinsmen or aristocrats, at other times royal slaves completely dependent upon the king for his authority. Society - Ancient Africa - Kingdom of Kush - Weebly The continent of Africa covers several broad climatic zones. Such traders were men, and they ranged from single itinerant traders with perhaps a donkey to carry his goods, to those in charge of caravans of donkeys or, in the desert, of camels. Precolonial Political Systems - African Studies - Oxford Bibliographies Their streams water the surrounding areas and allow farming populations to thrive; and their different climate zones at varying altitudes encourage a localized exchange network to develop. A popular form of leisure was a board game called mankala. Some communities, especially those in rain forests, had a sacred barrier to keep the wilderness at bay. In these states, violence and exploitation led to societies ruled by classes of military aristocrats or nobles. Olikenyi (2001) explains that, African hospitality which he contends is a vital aspect of existence in Africa in general, is one of the few facets of ancient African culture that is still intact and strongly Environment and population, Village society Other cultural systems that were intended to create distinct classes of people and uphold a rigid hierarchy of power and control include the feudal system, slavery, Jim Crow laws, and apartheid. Ancient Africa | Boundless Art History | | Course Hero Although the majority of Africans were farmers, at least from the late 1st millennium onwards, large tracts of land were inhabited by nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoralists. African societies were often fluid from one generation to another, however. This would normally be a cluster of households. Ancient African Civilizations: East. Ironically, this attractive landscape posed a barrier to the spread of traditional farming southward, as sub-Saharan agriculture had adapted itself to tropical conditions. One of the biggest threats to harmony within society was witchcraft. In many agricultural societies, however, the most important spiritual beings were the spirits of the land and, closely associated with these, ancestral spirits. M2M4NGNlYzZmM2IzNmFlYTA3OGFjMDcwMWRiZjdmY2UyMzM5ZDg5OTcwNjA1 Explain the social structure, unique aspects, and decline of Great Zimbabwe . Module Ten, Activity Two - Exploring Africa Metalwork held a special place in African culture. The contemporary political history of Africa is marked by imperialism, the expulsion of foreign powers and settler elites, and the post-independence travails of its roughly fifty states. In these, men did the more highly valued work of herding, protecting or raiding cattle, while women did the household chores and cultivated crops a lowly occupation in such societies. Nevertheless there were some features which were widespread amongst African religions. The resulting dissent, fueled by, The larger the state the more resources it could commit to defense and expansion. MzJiMzEwNzkwMzQ0MDVhMWZmOTU0NzM1MzMzMmE1ZDE4MGY5ZjkyNzY5ZDA2 YjE4NWI3ZjI1ZTFlNDUxYmJhY2U0N2E1ODZjNzFmOWJlM2FkMzA2OGZkN2Q4 Africa Africa's Great Rift Valley is the largest landform on Earth, and the only one visible from the moon. In some places, groups of skilled craftsmen had their own chiefs. In folktales, the rewards for perseverance, intelligence and courage were wives, children, status, wealth, and security in other words, to become a Big Man. Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions. Each village consisted of a lineage group, or clan, tracing its origin to a founding ancestor. All these diseases were, despite higher levels of resistance in indigenous populations to foreign ones (West Africa in particular would become known as the The White Mans Grave) were all widespread killers. This was a strategy to counter a shortage of population, embarking on war and raids with the deliberate intention of taking captives to build up a concentration of unfree farmers under direct royal control. They sought to bring shrines and cults under their authority through a mixture of threat and patronage. MTJmOWQxYjMzYzM3MzdkNTQ0ZDhiZWYzMWEzZThiZWJlOTZmODA5ZmM3ZDI0 At a much higher level, some kingdoms gave high status to female members of the royal family. All women married, as early as possible. This was that there was a fundamental distinction between the cultivated and the wild, between civilization and savagery. Prime Minister gives lecture to first-year students - Leiden University In terms of history and culture this zone has been part of the European and Middle Eastern regions, and is therefore not covered by this article. social structure, in sociology, the distinctive, stable arrangement of institutions whereby human beings in a society interact and live together. This is due to a number of factors. Ancient Grains Market Global Research Report 2023 is a comprehensive business study on the current state of industry which analyses innovative strategies for business growth and describes . Although it is generally agreed that the term social structure refers to . Slavery was widespread in traditional African societies. Most crafts supplied local markets, even when using high levels of skill. However, population pressures often forced farmers out onto drier land. The larger the state the more resources it could commit to defense and expansion. Many chiefdoms and kingdoms in all parts of sub-Saharan Africa have been formed by pastoral clans dominating agricultural populations. Its primary engagement with great-power rivalry, and universalisation of realist ideas of power, order, security, and national interestsprimarily built on Western Christian foundations of state and statecrafthave marginalised the significance of knowledge production in non . It was not until the coming of iron technology that large-scale settlement of the West African and Equatorial regions, and of eastern, central and southern Africa, was able to begin. The mysteriousness of such knowledge might be reinforced in societies where secret associations had a monopoly of spiritual activity. The Historical development of African societies, 1500-1800 - UNESCO In the savannah and forest regions of West Africa, an international group of traders grew up named the Dyula, who achieved an impressive scale of organization to handle commercial activities over a very wide area. OWM2MGJhN2I4ZTEwYzE2ZWQ2NDg2N2UzNTJhMWExYjMzMDUxMzM2ZjYzZGU0 Like all pre-modern medicinal practitioners, they also used traditional methods less appealing to the modern Western mind, such as bleeding, purgatives, magic and exorcism. While a caravan was on the move, its hundreds of animal drivers and traders had to submit to an almost military discipline under the caravan-master. Once a cluster had acquired some form of statehood, its people were able to act in a much more co-ordinated fashion. The majority of townsmen, like villagers, were cultivators. Together, these might kill one third to one half of an affected population, nullifying the hard come by demographic gains of a generation. Such was their reputation for effective healing that the early Europeans resorted to witch doctors, including Christian missionaries. This bred a society in which extra-marital sex was common and accepted, and young men adopted an attitude of machismo and insolence towards their elders. Much craft work in Africa, as in all pre-modern societies, was done on a part-time basis by farmers, particularly women. In times of famine, the people took to foraging, braving the wilderness to do so. Having said that, no one can look at a Benin bronze figure and argue that skills of the very highest level were lacking in African craftsmanship; and fine crafts were to be found up and down the continent. However, state-building was not a straightforward process in African conditions. In more densely populated societies a number of such lineages might be clustered together to form a large village or small town. An Awilu was a free person who belonged to the affluent and wealthy upper class and enjoyed grants and benefits. Genomic study of indigenous Africans paints complex picture of human In agricultural communities the status of women varied greatly. Indeed, they even went on strike when a neighboring ruler attempted to convert them to Islam. Africa before Transatlantic Enslavement - Black History Month 2023 Climatic zones Indeed, at times such trading organizations were able to take over large areas and establish small states. All climate zones in sub-Saharan Africa were characterized by a highly uneven settlement pattern. NmQ3NzU3NWZiNGRmMjNjOWYyMzgyNGI5NTRhMWYxMDU4YzQ3NDY5ZWFiYmU3 Social Structure and Political Authority The Kushites lived in tribes also known as chiefdoms. A hard environment The effects of disease were compounded by diets amongst crop-growing peoples low in animal protein and vitamins, in milk for infants, and, for many places, restricted access to clean fresh water. It was only with the spread of the Fulani herdsmen across West Africa in the 2nd millennium that pastoralists would begin to live in areas between agricultural clusters, a development which would have a major impact on the history of this region in the 18th and 19th centuries. This maximizes opportunities for violent clashes with other groups, and their societies tend to be more militaristic. Other common maladies were hookworm anaemia, yaws, leprosy, smallpox and endemic syphilis (though not the more lethal venereal kind, which was only introduced into sub-Saharan Africa in the 16th century, after Europeans arrived). They required widespread international contacts to be successful. So too did the more widespread infestation of tsetse fly, which set a limit of animal transport. Oratory, debate, story-telling, poetry and conversation were all held in high esteem, and were developed into a highly sophisticated art at the royal courts of African kingdoms and chiefdoms. What were the social classes in ancient Africa? Their repertoire involved rituals, spells, dances and trances, as well as more practical applications such as herbs and ointments. Built on the orders of the pharaohs thousands of years ago, the Great Pyramid of Giza continues to reveal its secrets. Many studies have been mostly about political centralisation. Many of them rose and fell throughout the African history. Its capital, Great Zimbabwe, is the largest stone structure in precolonial Southern Africa. He therefore possessed both religious and secular authority within his community. Africa: Class Structure and Caste - Geography The geography of Sub-Saharan Africa poses severe challenges to the rise and spread of pre-modern civilization. Male children could be trained up to become administrators in the royal service, and in some states filled the most responsible positions at court: their lowly social status was thought to act as a check to their ambitions and a guarantee of their loyalty (though a chief slave may have usurped the Mali throne in 1357). The difficulties of transport noted above acted to restrict trade, and thus to the emergence of centers of specialist production. The diet in most parts of Africa meant that many did not reach sexual maturity until their late teens or early twenties. MzE4Y2I3MDllMDBjODdjOGU4NDEwZGMxMWUzYzYxMDlmYmI2OWNiZmY1MGMw The Europeans then made use of existing (African) political structures, which proved themselves not primitive at all, to run the colonies. Throughout Africa, bearing and bringing up children was probably the most vital task after brute survival. ZDQ1YTJjMTY4ZmNjMzllMjdlY2MwMTUyYmJiMDBiZTQ2M2IxYjg4OGY2YTBi -----BEGIN REPORT----- MzcwNTgyZmZmMzczNDJkYzBjMmNjNmRjNTg1N2I5ZjkyMjExNjNjOGY5NTFh Africa [ushistory.org] Perhaps the highland areas which have had most impact on the history of Africa have been the Ethiopian Highlands, which have sheltered Africas only historic Christian state; and the highlands of southern Africa, which have played a key role in that regions history. Defence could become more organized, and they could build up their numbers by large raids on neighboring peoples and bring in captives as new (if somewhat disadvantaged) new settlers. To survive in these harsh conditions a person needed his kin around him. Women predominated in small-scale trade as market sellers, which gave those involved considerable economic independence. One group in African society, which made up probably a tiny proportion of the whole but which had an influence out of all proportion to its size, were the traders. They believed in both good and bad spirits. 2010-2011 provides a reassessment of the history of South Africa in the wake of that country's transition to majority rule. The earliest kingdoms we know of in West Africa, such as Ghana and Mali, were located at strategic points in the trans-Saharan trade network. The Rhodes-Livingstone Papers. This crosses the content from its west coast to the east coast. In contrast to all this, anthropologists found that the pygmies who inhabited the deep forests, and who relied for their survival on its produce, regarded the forests as innately good, and the lands surrounding it as fearful. Great Zimbabwe | World Civilization - Lumen Learning Segmentary lineage societies are characterised by the foremost importance of kin relationships in determining individuals' social and political allegiances, as well as their patterns of residence. Many African societies therefore experienced considerable social mobility. In : General history of Africa, V: Africa from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, 5, p. 895-905 Language : English Also available in : Also available in : Franais Also available in : Portugus Year of publication : 1992 Licence type : CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. 1981-1988) is a collection of historical studies by a diverse group of historians. The histories and cultures of Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia and North Africa are covered elsewhere. It offers a general survey of the geographical environments they inhabited; their settlements, social structures and economies; and their religions and cultures. The magnificent sculptures of the West African societies of Ife and Benin, for example, depict human figures in an idealized yet deeply moving way, and possess a serene majesty unsurpassed in human art. In the Kingdom of Axum, like many other kingdoms of its time, there was a social structure or hierarchy level. Compounding these difficulties, sub-Saharan Africa has been largely cut-off from the great centers of civilization elsewhere in Eurasia. In southern Africa the climate becomes temperate and Mediterranean. In some kingdoms, such as Songhai and the Hausa states in West Africa, and Kongo and Luba in Equatorial Africa, slave labour was on a larger scale than in other places. MmYyNjc5MzNiN2Y1ZWY3NWJhMmMyZTBhZGE4YzI0OTI2MjAwZTRmODkwN2M1 Iron was also an important regional trade commodity, as major smelting areas were only to be found in locations where abundant wood for the furnaces was available. Even the Swahili trading ports of East Africa such as Lamu, Mombasa, Kilwa and Zanzibar, home to a sophisticated Arab-African culture, were strung out along the coastline with great distances between them. There are also some large mountain ranges, such as the Ruwenzori mountains in Uganda (the Mountains of the Moon). What other cultural systems purposed to polarize the different Social Structure - Ancient Africa - Kingdom of Axum Social Structure There was not very much information on this particular topic, but this is what I did find. Stateless peoples

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