When Europeans arrived in the region, in the 1500s, they found only a small population of hunter-gatherers there. ZWFhZmI1NmY5ZjVhZjJjNjYxYTFjNzUxMjgzZTE4MGZhOWIyODQyZWE4ZGIz book part This wilderness was the abode of wild animals, fatal diseases, violent fugitives, evil spirits and other shadowy dangers which posed a constant threat to settled life. First, the African languages were solidly rooted: three languages (Zulu, Xhosa, and Sotho) are spoken by over two million people each, and the first two are mutually understandable. Yams are a very productive crop, providing a large number of calories per acre harmed. African hospitality can be defined as that extension of generosity, given freely without strings attached (Ekeke & Ekeopora, 2010). With the growing emphasis on cattle herding, infant survival must have profited from increased milk supplies, especially when cattle-keeping enabled their owners to colonize the malaria-free highlands which cover much of eastern and souther Africa. The surrounding bush remained untamed, wild, a source of harm, the abode of dangerous animals and evil spirits. To judge by reports of early European travelers, many Africans had the misfortune to find themselves without kin, and unable to work. Many towns were centers of craft production. These ancestral spirits thus became the channel through which spiritual forces could be accessed. This tradition of West African sculpture arose in a much broader context of mask-making and statuary in wood and ivory, which covered much of sub-Saharan Africa. They also applied a wide range of ointments, and practiced bone setting, surgery and skilled midwifery. In times of external danger such societies could come together to resist attack; however, they were peculiarly vulnerable to slave raiding from predatory states. In river floodplains communities have constructed mounds raised above the flood level from which to take advantage of the rich silt deposited by the river waters. Throughout Africa, bearing and bringing up children was probably the most vital task after brute survival. 7. There were, however, networks of long-distance trade criss-crossing the continent from an early date. ZDQwYTliY2VjMzM2YmIyZDM1ODQ4Zjc4NzY2ZWQ4NWU5YTliYzE4N2FhMTQw 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. Women predominated in small-scale trade as market sellers, which gave those involved considerable economic independence. Taking captives was a major objective in war, with most of the individuals thus enslaved being women or children. The ancient structure is the last surviving wonder of the ancient world. New findings from a study of 12 diverse groups in Africa shed new light on the origin of modern humans, ancient . This caused individuals to be very sensitive to attacks on their personal honor, real or imagined. YWZkYWVmMTM2NzEyZTQ1NTBhOWQ3NWRjZGNiNDQwMTUzN2M1NjlhZjE0NzUx ODRiZmMzYWI1MGJhMTAxYjU4NWIxMzE1YzMyMGYxMGZlMmU4MjZkNjY1ZjVk MWMwNGY0OTc1ZDgwNmQ5YzJkMWE3YWIxNDIwMGUwYWNjY2ZhYThkNTc4OWE4 African ritual experts learnt thousands of verses of religious and wisdom poetry, and expounded the appropriate one to guide kings and ministers as they resolved disputes; Rememberers treasured the traditions and histories of the kingdoms; and traders astonished early European travelers with their powers of recall. Establishing a new settlement was not just about clearing forest or scrub and creating fields for crops; it was about taming the land, seeking the permission of the spiritual forces which controlled a patch to settled on it, and making a contract with them to bless them with protection and fertility. All African towns, with but one or two exceptions such as Jenne in West Africa, were capitals of kingdoms. With distances between centers of population usually large, transport costs were high. 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. This limited the number of children they might have in their child-bearing years, which would have been much more diminished, on average, by the incidence of infant mortality, childhood diseases and the dangers of childbirth. MmYyNjc5MzNiN2Y1ZWY3NWJhMmMyZTBhZGE4YzI0OTI2MjAwZTRmODkwN2M1 This makes them unsuitable for long-distance trade and contact. In East, Central and Southern Africa, the mix of staple crops varied from place to place according to environment, but normally included yams and sorghum, later supplemented by plantain. YmNjNjY4NWM4MWUxYzhlYjFmYzIwMmNiMTBmZTA0OWZlNGQ4ZmI5MzNlNmMz Some states were created by rulers of village clusters who, through military prowess, were able to use their manpower to conquer other clusters. Long experience of these diseases contributed to a remarkably deep medical knowledge amongst Africa peoples. 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. Underpopulation meant that disgruntled people could always seek new land beyond the reach of royal authority. The larger the state the more resources it could commit to defense and expansion. 1. The narrow Nile corridor was home for one of the greatest and earliest of all human civilizations, ancient Egypt; but south of Egypt a series of impassable rapids severely limits contact with the interior of Africa. They could make the Nile overflow, cause famine, or even bring death. The ancient structure is the last surviving wonder of the ancient world. OWM2MGJhN2I4ZTEwYzE2ZWQ2NDg2N2UzNTJhMWExYjMzMDUxMzM2ZjYzZGU0 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 Discipline of International Relations (IR) has been broadly Eurocentric since its inception about a century ago. In cattle-herding societies, and some crop-growing societies which were in close proximity to them, the young men were grouped into an age set of junior warriors. It has been noted that herding peoples had a stronger tendency to believe in a high god, whilst cultivators were more likely to worship many gods. One of the biggest threats to harmony within society was witchcraft. This task would be helped by the fact that a defeated ruler had, by definition, been shown to have lost the support of the gods, and the victorious ruler had proved himself to be the more spiritually powerful. The more high-status and long-distance traders, however, were men. The most prized qualities were seen as the preserve of males, such as aggression and courage. 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. Even so, until the start of the second millennium they inhabited large areas across the continent, in the wide spaces left vacant by farmers and pastoralists. 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. At the opposite end of the scale, however, women probably made up the majority of slaves, and occupied a powerless and utterly dependent position in society. Social structure is often treated together with the concept of social change, which deals with the forces that change the social structure and the organization of society. In West Africa, a new religious influence began to make itself felt in the later first millennium. He therefore possessed both religious and secular authority within his community. African religious practices were equally common, involving ritual experts, mediums, dances, often with masks and often involving trances, witches, and charms. African Kingdoms arose in a variety of ways. It was they who provided the support and security needed to get by. The salt miners, on the other hand, were a dependent group not much better than slaves. In the grasslands, the hot, dry climate makes for a short growing season. 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. HUM 2213 Midterm Paper essay. MjU3ZDQ3NDE0ZGRiM2NlMTZjMmE3NTQ0ODIxMzVlMzExZDc3ZTk0NDYyNGQ4 There was intense competition for women, and great inequality in access to them. jed asto hovoren bsnici terasove dosky campus Urobit dobre pamta preloi. 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 . As in all pre-modern societies, infants and their mothers, the very groups upon whom the successful growth of population most depended, were most at risk. Facts about Ancient Africa 2: the important civilization Gender and age differentials Other states were built around sacred shrines and their custodians, who enjoyed a concentration of religious authority which they were able to convert into political power. There were also different social. This is most marked in eastern, central and southern Africa during the second millennium CE, at the start of which population levels were at a very low level. He was surrounded by his extended family his wives and children, his brothers and their families, more distant relatives, and unrelated families who had been separated from their own clans for various reasons and who looked to him for protection. Linguistically, acculturation among Africans has been much slower than among Indians. A womans standing and access to wealth was entirely dependent upon her husband. In more densely populated societies a number of such lineages might be clustered together to form a large village or small town. 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. South of the forest the grasslands resume, having skirted around the Congo Basin; but further south, on the western coast of south-central Africa, lies the Kalahari desert, smaller than the Sahara but perhaps even more arid. Rice was grown on particularly well-watered areas such as along the banks of the River Niger. Small, isolated areas of dense population were surrounded by large tracts of sparsely peopled wilderness. This process only reached its completion in South Africa by the end of the 1st millennium CE. 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. One common social structure among ethnic groups in sub-Saharan Africa is segmentary lineage organisation. Its flora consists of a mix of scrub, grassland and woodland. Ancient West Africa was characterized by rich culture, agriculture, and trade, composed of stateless societies without organized hierarchy or government. This makes the huge effort of clearing even small areas of very dense forest worthwhile. Cotton and woolen textiles were probably introduced at the same time, and by the 16th century cotton had become a form of currency amongst some peoples in southern Africa (for example the Shona). Stateless peoples In some societies the wives even retained ownership of their family property after marriage. This in turn placed a constraint of technological innovation. The most notable example is Kemet - the original name of ancient Egypt - which first developed in the Nile valley more than 5,000 years ago and was one of the first . Africa was not just the birthplace of humanity but also the cradle of early civilisations that made an immense contribution to the world and are still marvelled at today. Although they originated in the Indian Ocean, they played no major role in East African trade. Yet there is still debate about how many species of elephant bird there actually were. OGRiMDc3NTM1M2QyZDI3YzBlYjZmZjBhNWFkOWZjYzEzOGRlZDU4ZDc4NDE1 Some cultivators worshipped a supreme god, particularly when seeking rain. This had probably been first introduced to sub-Saharan Africa by Portuguese or Arab visitors, but the fact that it had been picked up by local healers and spread from people to people over hundreds of miles shows how open they were to new approaches. Craft workers were often dedicated to meeting the needs of the ruler and the elite, their workshops located within the royal compound. Herders grew crops as a secondary activity where conditions were suitable, and cultivators also kept animals (outside the forests), fished and hunted hunters were respected, even feared, by other members of the community as they ventured into the hostile wilderness in pursuit of game. This maximizes opportunities for violent clashes with other groups, and their societies tend to be more militaristic. Thus, a comparatively few number of men had access to the majority of women, meaning that the majority of men had little or no access. In the second millennium CE copper crosses served as a form of currency across much of southern and central Africa. As well as the staple crops, cultivators have grown sometimes dozens of other crops to which their locality is suited in an effort to reduce the impact of poor harvests. 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). In agricultural communities the status of women varied greatly. African kingdoms suffered severely from the divisive effects of violent competition between royal princes. MTJmOWQxYjMzYzM3MzdkNTQ0ZDhiZWYzMWEzZThiZWJlOTZmODA5ZmM3ZDI0 This would normally be a cluster of households. Indeed, at times such trading organizations were able to take over large areas and establish small states. In everyday matters, the members of many stateless societies relied upon the threat of violent retaliation to maintain order. Sometimes the growth of these village clusters went unchecked by major famine or disease for a long time. NzA0NTc2MTNjMDFjMzQ0ODY3ODRmNjZhMzc0ZGFjNDExMDIzN2VhMGNhNGE4 Agriculture spread to the northern grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa by the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE at the latest, and soon covered all of the West African savannah. Art, literature and culture Hamilton, et al. The beginning of the Atlantic slave trade in the late 1400s disrupted African societal structure as Europeans infiltrated the West African coastline, drawing people from the center of the continent to be sold into slavery. Secondly there was the nobles, people who fought in the King's army and provided it with weapons. African societies never really ceased to be colonizing societies, and this profoundly influenced all aspects of African culture. In many agricultural societies, however, the most important spiritual beings were the spirits of the land and, closely associated with these, ancestral spirits. These probably belonged mostly to hereditary groups, often closely associated with the monarchy they were sometimes high-status slaves who lived within the palace precinct; in other towns they were members of guild-like organizations under their own chiefs. Even in West Africa, and certainly for Africa as a whole, salt was probably the most traded commodity, being an essential part of peoples diet, especially for those in regions where meat was hard to come by. This was that there was a fundamental distinction between the cultivated and the wild, between civilization and savagery. 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. To survive in these harsh conditions a person needed his kin around him. In times of famine, the people took to foraging, braving the wilderness to do so. However, at the very least these would have had a psychological impact which in many cases would have contributed to the healing process. spracovanie papra podvanie vanika fiat doblo maxi 2015 prebva tunel Alpy. Ancient Africa boasts of the practice of democracy years before Lincoln and well-established governments that were able to expand and last for many centuries. If another man, through skilled farming, plenty of children and a charismatic personality, attracted a following, he could lead his people out into some vacant land and establish his own group. NTlmYTU5OWZlYjIyNzk0NmRkZjAxMGZiMTRhMzBkYWViYTY4ZmNjYjlmNDMz First are the hunter-gatherer societies. Also the leaders were chosen if they were the strongest to beat everyone who opposed them or the smartest as in the most strategic (Adams, 2016). In larger population clusters, each village would be similarly surrounded by rings of fields and outlying woodland separating it from neighboring villages. In folktales, the rewards for perseverance, intelligence and courage were wives, children, status, wealth, and security in other words, to become a Big Man. The absence of roads very labour-intensive for scattered communities to construct and maintain wheeled vehicles such as carts could not be used. The Europeans then made use of existing (African) political structures, which proved themselves not primitive at all, to run the colonies. Establishing a new settlement was not just about clearing forest or scrub and creating fields for crops; it was about taming the land, seeking the permission of the spiritual forces which controlled a patch to settled on it, and making a contract with them to bless them with protection and fertility. Further upstream all have their flows interrupted by falls and rapids, making them unsuitable for long-distance trade even in the interior of Africa. Most crafts supplied local markets, even when using high levels of skill. J. Clyde Mitchell, The Yao Village: a Study in the Social Structure of a Malawian Tribe. YWIzMzRhYjk5MGRlMDRiYzhlZmIyMjQ5ZjgwODE5MTIxZjAwNjdhODZiM2Y4 To have children was essential to an individuals social standing, to their welfare in old age, to their survival as ancestors, and to their lineages existence as an independent group in competitive and often violent societies. Circumstances might have been against African societies in the effort to create advanced material cultures, but this did not stop some of them from producing some of the most highly regarded works of art known to man. 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. Social There were six social classes in Ancient Ghana. As warriors they would cultivate a military ethos and be sent out to military outposts to guard the groups cattle and territory. However, state-building was not a straightforward process in African conditions. NzlkMGVmMDZkZjMzN2QyN2NjYTRkMGVkOTczNzJjZGYxZTAxZDM3MjAwYWJj YjE4NWI3ZjI1ZTFlNDUxYmJhY2U0N2E1ODZjNzFmOWJlM2FkMzA2OGZkN2Q4 Some communities, especially those in rain forests, had a sacred barrier to keep the wilderness at bay. They were usually much younger than their husbands, and were expected to act in a submissive way towards him and his family. A further one thousand a year may have been taken each year through the Swahili ports and up the east coast of Africa, destined for the Middle East and South Asia. This meant that they usually lived in small and highly mobile bands, building temporary shelters as they move from place to place. Women of a particular lineage could live together in a close-knit group until long after they were married, while their husbands worked for their (the wifes) father until they had earned the right to take their wives back to their own communities. Social Structure and Political Authority The Kushites lived in tribes also known as chiefdoms. Similarly, belief that spiritual power came only through dead ancestors was common amongst herding societies. Beside having been balkanized into several countries and branched among myriads of ethnic groups each speaking its own language and having its own cultural heritage, West Africa caste system constitutes yet another layer of its social structure. Age sets were the mark of militarized, mobile societies which lived by cattle-keeping, but also by cattle-raiding and territory-taking. It was here our earliest ancestors evolved. Except where influenced by Islam, most pre-modern sub-Saharan societies were non-literate. Slavery was widespread in traditional African societies. In eastern and southern Africa, the folded landscape laid down by tectonic activity millions of years ago means that highland farming areas are interspersed with dry lowlands, suitable only for herding cattle. Younger men would set out to seduce or rape the young wives of their elders, and their elders would be determined to prevent this. Cutting through these landscapes are huge rivers, outstanding amongst which are the Nile, the Niger, the Congo and the Zambezi. Later, they faced competition from Hausa traders, who created an even more far flung network. When one of the regular famines struck, these individuals were the first to die. African cultivators have generally taken great pride in their skills. A man needed wives and children to help him cultivate his fields or keep his cattle, to give him support in old age, and to provide him with descendants whose veneration would aide him in the afterlife. The main structure of the Awilu class people were considered precious in Hammurabi's Code and they were richer than the other two majorclasses in the society. Pastoralist and farming communities have therefore lived in close proximity, which has been a major factor in state formation in these regions. Keywords population phratries gene citizenship metics slavery Type Chapter Information Ironically, this attractive landscape posed a barrier to the spread of traditional farming southward, as sub-Saharan agriculture had adapted itself to tropical conditions. The challenge for premodern African societies was to build up numbers to create viable communities. Despite the obstacles to population growth, there was an extremely slow rise in numbers throughout historical times. In Ghana Mali, and later in Songhai, kings ruled, but there were no queens, as odd as it was. Still others were created by nomadic pastoral groups imposing control over a population of farmers, such as the Fulani kingdoms in West Africa. This arrangement had the double benefit of giving the group as a whole more security and leaving the older men at home in more secure possession of their wives. 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. They were much more likely to have to go and live in their husbands familys village after marriage, which put them in a comparatively powerless position. These matters touched on the central concern of Africans, the continuity of the community. The geography of Sub-Saharan Africa poses severe challenges to the rise and spread of pre-modern civilization. So too did the more widespread infestation of tsetse fly, which set a limit of animal transport. There was a strongly felt urge to claim new land for future generations by burying their dead in it. The trans-Saharan trade was carried in caravans made up of sometimes hundreds of camels. As the years went by they (or in some societies their entire age set) would move up the rungs to senior warrior, and then when they were thirty or so, to elder-hood. Some groups of Iron Age farmers from West Africa, moving into the Great Lakes region at the end of the first millennium BCE and then moving down towards central and southern Africa, adopted a cattle-keeping way of life. The Sahara desert forms a major barrier to contacts between the cities and states of the Mediterranean region and the peoples to its south. As such it was essentially a form of theatre. The main city, Adulis, at the time was a very important port. At the top were the gods, such as Ra, Osiris, and Isis. They assimilated into society by reaffirming . As a result, production was often labour-intensive, in a part of the world where labour was already scarce. They are in a style of idealized naturalism, most representing kings at the height of their powers. The donkeys also were domesticated independently in the Ethiopian and Somalian region, but the majority of the domesticated animals came there from the regions around . 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. The advancements made in the ancient world continue to influence our societies today. social structure, in sociology, the distinctive, stable arrangement of institutions whereby human beings in a society interact and live together. 2010-2011 provides a reassessment of the history of South Africa in the wake of that country's transition to majority rule. Such pragmatism made for an open attitude to ideas and practices from outside: if something worked it was acceptable, wherever it came from. NjhkMjY1MGEwZGFkNGU1MTkyY2ZlMDdlNWEwMTIxZGI5YjQwNzljMmRjOWI2 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. Ancient Egypt was among the earliest civilizations.For millennia, Egypt maintained a strikingly complex and stable culture that influenced later cultures of Europe, the Middle East and Africa.After the Pharaonic era, Egypt itself came under the influence of Hellenism, for a time Christianity, and later, Arab and Islamic culture. They then had no option but to throw themselves on the mercy of others by begging, a very common fate in traditional African society. However, all African cities were to some extent religious centers, as rulers were closely associated with local shrines and rituals. YzM1ZDJjMjdkYTczYjc3ODRiNDdmYThlOTY1N2E1MjViMmVlZDdiZjgxYWYz There were high levels of polygamy throughout Africa in some societies perhaps two-thirds of women were in polygamous marriages. Ancient Egypt is arguably the most well-known of Africa's ancient civilizations. Skill in this field could only be obtained by long experience and involved a mastery of mysteries which was reminiscent of magic. After about A.D. 500, several centrally organized, warring states appeared in parts of Africa. -----BEGIN REPORT----- Africa has some giant lakes, including a number strung out down the spine of the continent, from Lake Turkana in northern Kenya to Lake Malawi in south-east Africa. They seem mostly to have been related to the present-day San people of southern Africa. OTBhNmZkZTE4ZDBjMTQzMTljMWY4NDIyMjYxZmIwY2JkZjc4OTk4ZGE1OWMx From the 17th century, European contact have brought new crops from America, such as maize, cassava and sweet potatoes, and these were beginning to provide additional nutrition and a significant boost to numbers all over Africa. In some cases such children were castrated as a further measure to reduce ambition they would not then be able to establish an independent dynasty. Egyptian Social Structure. Pastoralist people such as the Khoisan of southern Africa are closely related to San groups who still maintain their traditional hunting and foraging economy. Cleverness, bravery, charm, charisma and aggression could provide the success to bring high status and abundant wealth in many circumstances. Ghana was the first empire of ancient Africa. These West African trade systems were facilitated by an international currency based on cowrie shells, whose distinctive appearance, durability, and limited supply made them very suitable for such a role. - social STRUCTURE are sometimes defined by GOVERNMENTS all over africa. In the social pyramid of ancient Egypt . 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). That said, African oral culture was exceptionally rich, with an enormous store of myths, stories, poems and aphorisms. In general, work was divided equally among all people (other than slaves). 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. 7th-13th century). They include the second largest freshwater lake in the world, Lake Victoria. This process started to happen at different times according to region. 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. In fact, we should not think of communities of cultivators or pastoralists concentrating entirely on a single subsistence strategy. 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. Many African societies were highly competitive in the pursuit of status and wealth. A hard environment