Craft workers were often dedicated to meeting the needs of the ruler and the elite, their workshops located within the royal compound. African kingdoms suffered severely from the divisive effects of violent competition between royal princes. They would form a group of inter-related clans, or lineages, tracing their descent back to a single ancestor. Compounding these difficulties, sub-Saharan Africa has been largely cut-off from the great centers of civilization elsewhere in Eurasia. ZWQ2YjhiMDdhMDFlMTNjNjE4OWFkMjBlNjMwYzRjZDFhNjY5OGI2YjhmZDc0 These factors have acted as constraints on population growth right up to modern times, and historically sub-Saharan Africa has remained an under-populated region. In folktales, the rewards for perseverance, intelligence and courage were wives, children, status, wealth, and security in other words, to become a Big Man. HUM 2213 Midterm Paper essay. content Begins with an engaging It was here our earliest ancestors evolved. 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. YjU5YTA2MjA2ZTZjNTRkNmQ0OTBmNzIzM2EzZTIyZWFlMDBlMGViZTQzMDMw makes it the largest ancient structure south of the Sahara Desert. MTJmOWQxYjMzYzM3MzdkNTQ0ZDhiZWYzMWEzZThiZWJlOTZmODA5ZmM3ZDI0 Their inhabitants regulated their affairs by means of commonly-accepted custom, relying on shamans or priests at area shrines for mediation, hierarchies of titled individuals of varying ranks who had moral authority within their communities, and/or in some cases on secret societies. NGMzYjY2N2JjMDIxN2EyZWI0ZmM1ODc0MjY4OTQzYmM1YmJkMTViN2U5NjAw This makes them unsuitable for long-distance trade and contact. Module Ten, Activity Two - Exploring Africa OTg3ZTYwNWY1OWRjMGZiYzY3ZjQ0MGEzYTgyOTVhZDY3M2YwZDIyMzFjMzJk Sub-Saharan Africa was therefore never able to develop an original civilization with the material culture on the scale of, say, an ancient Mesopotamia or Egypt. OGFiY2MzM2UxNTEyOTJjNWUxYWE1ZmEyODEwNDc0MzU5OTRkZmNhNThmOTM0 NDJiMmE4NmUzM2JjYWVjMzMwOGIyMzIwMTJjODRhNTY1YjBiYWE5ZTA5NTIx 10 Facts about Ancient Africa - Fact File The original settlers became the founding ancestors of the new community, and because it was they who had struck the original pact with the spirits of the land, it was they alone who could communicated with them, even (or especially) after death. There is a direct link between a strong democratic state and a prosperous and attractive country.' In Africa, trade and industry were constrained by underpopulation. Much more frequently however, a kingdom simply fragmented into its constituent population clusters. From a wider communal viewpoint, wives and children were needed to build up a lineages numbers and so help it survive into the future. Women who could not bear children were held in contempt, and by the same token male potency was esteemed. This meant that, for a man to marry he must have some wealth, and since this took time to build up most men were in their thirties when they married. What other cultural systems purposed to polarize the different Mostly the colonizers centralized power in the hands of the chiefs of the native administration so that these chiefs could better accomplish the tasks given them, like the collection of taxes. By taxing the trade as it passed through their territory and using the wealth gained to build up a body of warrior retainers, powerful chiefs were able to bring neighboring communities under their control and form the nucleus of a kingdom. Rulers displayed their power by the number of retainers they had, and the sophistication of their court, where urbanity, eloquence, and quickness of wit were cultivated. Pastoralist people such as the Khoisan of southern Africa are closely related to San groups who still maintain their traditional hunting and foraging economy. Climatic zones This was usually played communally, and noisily, in the open air, with plenty of noise. Ancient Africa | Boundless Art History | | Course Hero This process started to happen at different times according to region. 11 - Population and Social Structure - Cambridge Core The pastoralists tended to inhabit the desert and Sahel regions, leaving most of the savannah and forest regions to the farmers. From its territories, great civilizations have risen to glory. On the other hand, everyone, regardless of sex or age, was required to work in the fields in times of peak activity such as harvest, and in some societies men prided themselves in their diligence as farmers. Suspects were often the victims of mob violence. This reflects the much more limited role of trade outside West Africa. Work in rafia and other fibers was common from an early date, and in the Great Lakes region bark cloth was common, as was the use of animal skins for clothes. They did obeisance to their overlord, forwarded tribute to his court and providing men for his army. A larger group of non-farmers was made up of craftsmen. The ancient structure is the last surviving wonder of the ancient world. Africas other rivers are all interrupted by falls and rapids along their courses. Social Structure and Political Authority The Kushites lived in tribes also known as chiefdoms. 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. It offers a general survey of the geographical environments they inhabited; their settlements, social structures and economies; and their religions and cultures. 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. This caused individuals to be very sensitive to attacks on their personal honor, real or imagined. Most cultures preferred abstract and stylized forms of humans, plants, and animals, but they had a range of distinct approaches and techniques. Most involved a keen belief in spirits of different kind; of the afterlife; of a spiritual dimension to the land; and of evil. But this use of the term is inaccurate; Bantu peoples make up only about a third of Africa . MjM4NWRlOGNlZmQ4MDIzY2IzMTRjYWZhNjM1N2RmNjNjZDdlMjU4N2NlNGNl The larger the state the more resources it could commit to defense and expansion. 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. Egyptians believed that the gods controlled the universe. In some places, groups of skilled craftsmen had their own chiefs. NzlkMGVmMDZkZjMzN2QyN2NjYTRkMGVkOTczNzJjZGYxZTAxZDM3MjAwYWJj Many of the market traders were local women, but above them was a class of comparatively wealthy merchants. African religious practices were equally common, involving ritual experts, mediums, dances, often with masks and often involving trances, witches, and charms. Taking captives was a major objective in war, with most of the individuals thus enslaved being women or children. The General History of Africa ( Ki-Zerbo, et al. In a few, more sophisticated kingdoms, such as Songhai, power was more centralized, with the state divided into provinces ruled by governors appointed by the king. As a result, production was often labour-intensive, in a part of the world where labour was already scarce. There are also some large mountain ranges, such as the Ruwenzori mountains in Uganda (the Mountains of the Moon). Fear of witchcraft was particularly virulent in concentrated settlements where interpersonal tensions could be high. They believed in both good and bad spirits. OTBhNmZkZTE4ZDBjMTQzMTljMWY4NDIyMjYxZmIwY2JkZjc4OTk4ZGE1OWMx They also had a reputation for being independent-minded. Social Structure - Ancient Africa - Kingdom of Axum - Weebly Funding and operating them required large amounts of capital and large-scale, disciplined organization. Growth of the Kingdom - Ancient Africa - Kingdom of Axum - Weebly They then had no option but to throw themselves on the mercy of others by begging, a very common fate in traditional African society. Egypt. Africa: History, Culture, Society | TimeMaps This categorization was not hard and fast. Skill in this field could only be obtained by long experience and involved a mastery of mysteries which was reminiscent of magic. However, it was also played in the more refined atmosphere of some royal courts, both in West Africa and East Africa, where the game formed part of a succession ritual. This was Islam, which gradually spread throughout the region over a number of centuries. All this has left African societies comparatively isolated from the great developments affecting other regions of the Eastern Hemisphere, and indeed from each other. The difficulties of transport noted above acted to restrict trade, and thus to the emergence of centers of specialist production. The term Bantu is sometimes used to describe all Africans and African culture in general. Except in favorable locations, especially where fishing, or gathering aquatic resources, could supplement diets, hunting and foraging groups needed a large area of land on which to sustain themselves. Firstly there was the King who ruled over everyone and was thought to have divine powers. The obstacles to population growth meant that there was always plenty of land available for new settlement. YWZkYWVmMTM2NzEyZTQ1NTBhOWQ3NWRjZGNiNDQwMTUzN2M1NjlhZjE0NzUx Religious and medical knowledge was interwoven, and was mysterious to the community at large (except in so far as the healing properties of many plants were commonly appreciated). The rain forests are very dense. Except where influenced by Islam, most pre-modern sub-Saharan societies were non-literate. European travelers to Africa were surprised to find, even in the interior of the continent, inoculation being practiced. It was structured around a big man who was usually (by myth, at any rate) the man most directly descended from the founding ancestor. Pastoralist and farming communities have therefore lived in close proximity, which has been a major factor in state formation in these regions.if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'timemaps_com-leader-2','ezslot_11',177,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-timemaps_com-leader-2-0'); Pastoralist communities are more dispersed, and much more mobile, than agricultural ones, as they follow their flocks and herds around in the search for good grazing. Many African kingdoms had lineages of rulers who traced their origins to foreign lands. 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. Africa has an exceptionally hostile disease environment, West Africa most of all; malaria, leprosy, tsetse fly and smallpox are only a few of the killer diseases of the continent, attacking not only humans but, in the last case, their animals as well. Underpopulation meant that disgruntled people could always seek new land beyond the reach of royal authority. Such was their reputation for effective healing that the early Europeans resorted to witch doctors, including Christian missionaries. Such famines were usually caused by drought, but plagues of locusts or unseasonably heavy rains could also devastate crops. An Awilu was a free person who belonged to the affluent and wealthy upper class and enjoyed grants and benefits. Long experience of these diseases contributed to a remarkably deep medical knowledge amongst Africa peoples. social structure, in sociology, the distinctive, stable arrangement of institutions whereby human beings in a society interact and live together. There was constant tension between the generations, which could spill over into real violence. All this implies that womens status in African societies was low, and in some this was indeed the case, especially amongst cattle-herders. This was that there was a fundamental distinction between the cultivated and the wild, between civilization and savagery. It is an environment in which they feel at home and which provides them with all the necessities of life; however, they can live here in only small numbers, in scattered family bands which are constantly on the move. NTNjZjkxMjQ0YmE1NWYxYzRjOTRkMTFjNWZkYWE5MjRjMWE1NjA0Mzk5Yzhh At the top were the gods, such as Ra, Osiris, and Isis. 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. African cultivators have generally taken great pride in their skills. African kingdoms suffered severely from the divisive effects of violent competition between royal princes.if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'timemaps_com-leader-3','ezslot_12',183,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-timemaps_com-leader-3-0'); When a state fell, its population sometimes dispersed away from its core area, perhaps due to attack from and/or immigration by a new group of people, or through desiccation of the environment. Even here, however, there was commonly a belief that a higher or ultimate power lay behind the pantheon of gods who interacted with humans. 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 is little known about the early history of Axum, however, from Greek and Roman sources, we know that the Axum Kingdom was a rapid growing kingdom in the first century CE. 7th-13th century). In these states, violence and exploitation led to societies ruled by classes of military aristocrats or nobles. Copper was also an important trade commodity, with trade routes running outwards from the copper belt in modern Zambia. Much dance was narrative in purpose, telling and retelling myths and stories. Camels were employed in the long-distance trans-Saharan trade, and donkeys were the normal mode of transport in the West African savannah. The savannah regions of West Africa specialized in millet and fonio, and further south, where rainfall was sufficient, sorghum. Oral traditions and Muslim and European records suggest that large-scale famines occurred every 70 years or so, and were often accompanied by epidemic disease. Building the dense concentrations of population necessary for the emergence of major civilizations was not an option in most locations. As suggested by the above reference to status titles, however, stateless societies were by no means always egalitarian ones. OGJhZDA5YWFmYzE1NjI3OGEwZTY3MmE2NDFiYjllYjg5MDM2MGFmNmNiZWRm 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. In many agricultural societies, however, the most important spiritual beings were the spirits of the land and, closely associated with these, ancestral spirits. Its flora consists of a mix of scrub, grassland and woodland. At a much higher level, some kingdoms gave high status to female members of the royal family. Linguistically, acculturation among Africans has been much slower than among Indians. Once a cluster had acquired some form of statehood, its people were able to act in a much more co-ordinated fashion. All climate zones in sub-Saharan Africa were characterized by a highly uneven settlement pattern. book part Most crafts supplied local markets, even when using high levels of skill. NWIyZWQ1YTA3MjZkYTQzOWRjMzhmYTJkYjAyNzViOGRjNjIxMGM0YTRjNGJl The surrounding bush remained untamed, wild, a source of harm, the abode of dangerous animals and evil spirits. This in turn placed a constraint of technological innovation. The larger oases house trading towns and farming communities. The resulting dissent, fueled by, The larger the state the more resources it could commit to defense and expansion. When one of the regular famines struck, these individuals were the first to die. The environment of sub-Saharan Africa is one of the hardest environments for human populations to thrive in. These caste systems feature endogamy, hierarchical status, inherited occupation, membership by birth, pollution concepts and restraints on commensality.. Many of them rose and fell throughout the African history. If a kinship group fell below a viable size it ceased to be able to protect itself properly and became extremely vulnerable to being absorbed, often brutally, by more fertile rivals. Caste systems in Africa are a form of social stratification found in numerous ethnic groups, found in over fifteen countries, particularly in the Sahel, West Africa, and North Africa. Hunter-gatherer peoples had inhabited sub-Saharan Africa for millennia prior to herders, and later agriculturalists, starting to settle the region. 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. Some cultures preferred more naturalistic depictions of human faces and other organic forms. Like the gold miners they were also hereditary, and in fact formed a distinct ethnic group within desert society. ZDQ1YTJjMTY4ZmNjMzllMjdlY2MwMTUyYmJiMDBiZTQ2M2IxYjg4OGY2YTBi MzJiMzEwNzkwMzQ0MDVhMWZmOTU0NzM1MzMzMmE1ZDE4MGY5ZjkyNzY5ZDA2 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 . This makes the huge effort of clearing even small areas of very dense forest worthwhile. 5 Ancient African social structures that thrived before colonisers Of the outlying settlements, only the more successful ones would survive. Culture of North Africa - Wikipedia Not a few chiefly dynasties traced their ancestry back to such a figure. Some communities, especially those in rain forests, had a sacred barrier to keep the wilderness at bay. In that case, though not always, the excluded group has the propensity to oppose the incumbent extractive governance system. Ancient Africa's Social Structure Study compare and contrast nonfiction text structure with 6 short passages, questions, and graphic organizers about similar animals. Apart from in West Africa and on the Swahili coast, where true cities had developed, African towns tended to have the appearance of large villages, or clusters of villages. Eventually, however, immigrant rulers usually learnt to co-exist with local religious practitioners. States emerged in the forest regions to the south from the end of the first millennium, while in the equatorial forests and grasslands of central, east and southern Africa the state-building process did not start until the early- to mid-second millennium. MWQxZmFmZDU1YzRiOTgwN2YwNjgwNGEyMWVmYmVjZTQ1YTI4ODkzMTA1OGQ2 This was that there was a fundamental distinction between the cultivated and the wild, between civilization and savagery. The Political Ideology of Indigenous African Political Systems and If the demands of royal authority became too onerous, in the form of heavy taxes, say, or the demands made for public projects or service in the royal army, people could (and did) simply up and leave. MjU3ZDQ3NDE0ZGRiM2NlMTZjMmE3NTQ0ODIxMzVlMzExZDc3ZTk0NDYyNGQ4 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. 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. These ancestral spirits thus became the channel through which spiritual forces could be accessed. 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. The specifics of the caste systems in Africa vary among . Genomic study of indigenous Africans paints c | EurekAlert! As we have seen, different African peoples specialized in different modes of food production hunter-gathering (and fishing), nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoralism, and cultivation of crops. Such states could also organize the colonization of outlying areas in a more systematic fashion, perhaps under the leadership of a prince of the royal family. Where there is a spring, a lake or a river, however, cultivation is possible, and in some areas, for example in the inner delta of the River Niger (see below), or on the shores of Lake Chad in West Africa, or the Great Lakes of central Africa, intensive cultivation has allowed concentrations of dense population to grow up. Much religious activity, however, was in the hands of religious specialists adept at making contact with the spirit world in order to influence the forces of nature. The abundant insect life of the tropics makes for a very high prevalence of serious diseases, for both humans and their animals; this greatly constrains the rates at which populations can grow. MmYyNjc5MzNiN2Y1ZWY3NWJhMmMyZTBhZGE4YzI0OTI2MjAwZTRmODkwN2M1 Genomic study of indigenous Africans paints complex picture of human Imperialism Africa was among the last regions of the globe to be subject to imperial rule. 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. One other consequence of African underpopulation was the prevalence of the polygamy (see below). FIAT DOBLO (2015-) VANIKA DO KUFRA. 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. Men were usually killed, perhaps as ritual sacrifices. He therefore possessed both religious and secular authority within his community. ODRhYzAzZTNiOTc2MTJiMGNkYmQ3ZjdiYThjMzE5M2I5MTIzMzMwODE5OWJm YmNlZWRhOWNhNTAxYjRmYjc3ZWNhZDYyMGMyNGVhMjMyYjYyODYzMmMxZTQ1 The Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. In some societies which were sparsely scattered across the land, such a group might form its own hamlet or small village. Hidden corridor discovered in Great Pyramid of Giza - CNN Style 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. To the Western mind, at least, this aspect of religion was indistinguishable from magic, and was in the hands of mediums, priests, diviners and healers. 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. A medieval (c. 1220-1450) kingdom located in modern-day Zimbabwe. Social Structure, Economic Exclusion, and Fragility? Pertinent Theories The majority of townsmen, like villagers, were cultivators. Many of largest population concentrations in Africa remained entirely stateless, their constituent communities jealously guarding their independence. In due course he would probably be accepted back into his community through paying a fine to, or offering to work for, his wifes father. MzcwNTgyZmZmMzczNDJkYzBjMmNjNmRjNTg1N2I5ZjkyMjExNjNjOGY5NTFh He was therefore required to host lavish feasts at which many could eat and drink at his expense; and to provide costly gifts to his allies and supporters. 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. Ancient Civilizations are typically taught focusing on the key areas of: Geography, Religion, Achievements, Politics, Economy and Social Structure using the acronym G.R.A.P.E.S. In river floodplains. OGUyMjAwMmI0ZjlmYzAyMmYxYjllZmEzN2EwMTYzMmMyNzQyZGIwY2IifQ== 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. The Historical development of African societies, 1500-1800 - UNESCO In the grasslands, the hot, dry climate makes for a short growing season. In most patrilineal societies womens status tended to be less favorable. The Awilu was the top most class in the social hierarchy of ancient Babylonia. HUM 2213 Midterm Paper essay. The staple crops varied throughout sub-Saharan Africa. They were now in a position to acquire wives and found their own family lines. There were, however, networks of long-distance trade criss-crossing the continent from an early date. Throughout Africa the basic unit of society was the lineage-group, or clan. Gumov vanika do kufra Fiat Doblo Maxi od 2010 (2-miesta) Fiat DOBLO 2/2010- autodiely, nhradn diely. Age sets were the mark of militarized, mobile societies which lived by cattle-keeping, but also by cattle-raiding and territory-taking. In agricultural communities the status of women varied greatly. 1. In times of external danger such societies could come together to resist attack; however, they were peculiarly vulnerable to slave raiding from predatory states. These colonizing pioneers would clear the forest or scrub, and divide the new fields between themselves as hereditary property. Surrounding this would be rings of less and less dense settlement and fields, eventually merging into the surrounding bush. Ancient Africa - Social Structure