Article contents
The Spread of Food Production in Sub-Saharan Africa*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2009
Extract
After the end of the Pleistocene, sub-Saharan Africa seems to have been more receptive of than contributory to cultural progress in the Old World as a whole. By that time favourable localities in the subcontinent—the margins of lakes and watercourses, the sea coasts, the peripheral regions of the equatorial forest—were sometimes supporting nearly, or entirely, sedentary communities of hunting-collecting peoples who were enabled to live in this way due to the permanent presence of one or more staple sources of food: freshwater fish, water animals and plants, and sea foods; and forest foods (the Dioscoreas, Elaeis guineensis, and other oil-bearing plants), either perennial or capable of being stored. Evidence of such occupation is seen in the midden accumulations in both cave and open sites at this time. Populations could thus become more concentrated and an increase in density may be inferred, the limiting factor being the maximum that any one environment could support by intensified collecting methods (fig. I).
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1962
References
1 Clark, J. D., ‘From Food Collecting to Incipient Urbanization in Africa South of the Sahara’. In Braidwood, R. J., Courses Toγards Urban Life (1962), Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology, no. 32. In press.Google Scholar
2 See n. I above.Google Scholar
3 Arkell, A. J., ‘Khartoum's Part in the Development of the Neolithic’, Kush (1957), v, 8–12.Google Scholar
4a Lhote, H. Personal communication.Google Scholar
4b Mori, F., Arte preiltorica del Sahara Libico (De Lucca, Rome, 1960).Google Scholar
5 Cole, S., ‘The Neolithic Revolution’, British Museum (Natural History) (London, 1959), 11.Google Scholar
6 Monod, T., and Mauny, R., ‘Découverte de nouveaux instruments en os dans l'Ouest Africain’. In Clark, J. D., and Sole, S., Proceedings of the 3rd Pan-African Congress on Prehistory, Livingstone, 1955 (Chatto and Windus, London, 1957), 242–7.Google Scholar
7 Vaufrey, R., ‘Le Neolithique paratumbien: une civilisation agricole primitive du Soudan’, La Revue Scientifique (1947), no. 3, 267, 205–32.Google Scholar
8a Davies, O., ‘Neolithic cultures from Ghana’, C.R. 4th Pan-African Congress, Leopoldville, 1959 (1962). In press.Google Scholar
8b Shaw, C. T., ‘Report on excavations carried out in the cave known as “Bosumpra” at Abetifi, Gold Coast Colony’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. (1944), X, 1–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9a Fagg, B. E. B., ‘An outline of the Stone Age of the Plateau Minesfield’, Proc. Int. West African Conference (1949).Google Scholar
9b Willett, F., ‘Investigations at Old Oyo, 1956–7: An Interim Report’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria (1960), II (I), 59–77.Google Scholar
10 Mortelmans, G., ‘La préhistoire du Congo Belge’, Revue de l'Université de Bruxelles (1957), 2–3.Google Scholar
11 See n. 7 above.Google Scholar
12 Deevey, S. E., et al. , ‘Yale natural radiocarbon measurements III’, Science (1957), CXXVI, 908–19.Google Scholar
13 Arkell, A. J., ‘Four occupation sites at Agordat’, Kush (1954), II, 33–62.Google Scholar
14 Clark, J. D., The prehistoric cultures of the Horn of Africa (Cambridge University Press, London, 1954).Google Scholar
15a Leakey, L. S. B., The Stone Age Cultures of Kenya Colony (Cambridge University Press, London, 1931).Google Scholar
15b Leakey, M. D., ‘Report on the excavations at Hyrax Hill, Nakuru, Kenya Colony’, Trans. Roy. Soc. South Africa (1945), XXX, IV, 271–409.Google Scholar
15c Leakey, M. D., and Leakey, L. S. B., Excavations at the Njoro river cave (Oxford University Press, London, 1950).Google Scholar
16 Bailloud, G., ‘La Préhistoire de l'Ethiopie’. In Mer rouge—Afrique orientale. Cahiers de l'Afrique et de l'Asie (Paris, 1959), 15–43.Google Scholar
17 See n. 14 above, 295–315.Google Scholar
18 Simoons, F., ‘Some questions on the economic prehistory of Ethiopia’. Paper read at the Third Conference on African History and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies, July 1961, University of London (1961).Google Scholar
19 Leakey, L. S. B., Annual Report of the Coryndon Museum (Nairobi, 1956).Google Scholar
20 Deevey, E. S., ‘Yale natural radiocarbon measurements, V’, Amer. Journ. of Science (1960), Radiocarbon Supplement II, 58.Google Scholar
21 Arkell, A. J., A History of the Sudan (Athlone Press, London, 1961) 46–54.Google Scholar
22 Monod, Th., ‘Sur quelques Monuments lithiques du Sahara Occidental’, Actas y Memorias de la Sociedad Espanola de Antropologia, Etnografia y Prehistoria (Madrid, 1948), XXIII, nos. 1–4, 12–35.Google Scholar
23a Cole, S., The Prehistory of East Africa (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1954), 225–46.Google Scholar
23b Clark, J. D., The Prehistory of Southern Africa (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1959), 289–93.Google Scholar
24 Briggs, L. C., ‘The living races of the Sahara Desert’, Peabody Museum Papers (Cambridge, Mass., 1958), XXVIII, no. 2, 12–15.Google Scholar
25 Leakey, L. S. B., The Stone Age Races of Kenya (Oxford University Press, London, 1935).Google Scholar
26 Tobias, P. V., ‘New evidence and new views on the evolution of man in Africa’, South African Journal of Science (1961), LVII, no. 2, 25–38.Google Scholar
27 Tobias, P. V., ‘Bushman Hunter-gatherers: A Study in Human Ecology’. In Ecology in South Africa (1960). In press.Google Scholar
28 Portères, R.M, ‘Vieilles agricultures de l'Afrique intertropicale’, L'Agronomie Tropicale (1950), no. 5, 489–507.Google Scholar
29 Murdock, G. P., Africa; its peoples and their culture history (McGraw Hill, New York, 1959).Google Scholar
30 Schell, R., Plantes aliinentires et vie agricole de l'Afrique noire (La Rose, Paris, 1957).Google Scholar
31 Fagan, B. M., ‘Radio-carbon dates for sub-Saharan Africa I’, Journ. Afr. Hist. (1961), II (I) 137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
32 Mitchell, B. L., ‘Ecological aspects of game control measures in African wilderness and forested areas’, Kirkia (1961), I.Google Scholar
33 Mauny, R., ‘Histoire des métaux en Afrique occidentale’, Bull. I.F.A.N. (1952), XIV, no. 2, 546–95.Google Scholar
34 Wainwright, G. A., ‘Iron in the Matapan and Meroitic Ages’, Sudan Notes and Records (1945), 5–36.Google Scholar
35 Leakey, M. D., Owen, W. E., and Leakey, L. S. B., ‘Dimple-based pottery from Central Kavirondo’, Coryndon Museum Occasional Paper, no. 2 (Nairobi, 1948).Google Scholar
36 Hiernaw, J., and Maquet, E., ‘Cultures prehistoriques de l'ge des métaux au Ruanda Urundi et au Kivu, Congo Belge’, Acad. roy. des sciences d'Outre mer; Classe des sciencer nat. et méd., New Series (1960), LX, no. 2, 1–102.Google Scholar
37 Nenquin, J., ‘Dimple-based pots from Kasai, Belgian Congo’, Man (1959), 242.Google Scholar
38 See n. 23b above, 287–9.Google Scholar
39 Summers, R. F. H., ‘The Southern Rhodesian Iron Age’, Journ. Afr. Hist. (1961), II (1), 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
40 Posnansky, M., ‘Pottery types from archaeological sites in East Africa’, Journ. Afr. Hist. (1961), II (2), 177–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
41 See n. 32 above.Google Scholar
42 See n. 39 above.Google Scholar
43 See n. 39 above.Google Scholar
44 Robinson, K. R., ‘An early Iron Age site from the Chibi District, Southern Rhodesia’, S. Afr. Arch. Bull. (1961), xvi, no. 63, 75–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
45 See n. 36 above.Google Scholar
46a Lowe, C. van Riet, ‘The Pleistocene Geology and Archaeology of Uganda, Part II, Prehistory’, Geol. Survey of Uganda Mem. (1952), VI.Google Scholar
46b Gardner, T., Wells, L. H., and Schofield, J. F., ‘The recent archaeology of Gokomere, Southern Rhodesia’, Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Africa (1940), XXVIII, 219–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
47a Tobias, P. V., ‘Skeletal remains from Inyanga’. In Summers, R. F. H., Inyanga (Cambridge University Press, London, 1958), 559–72.Google Scholar
47b Tobias, P. V. Unpublished report on skeletal remains from Northern Rhodesian sites.Google Scholar
48 Wells, L. H., ‘Late Stone Age human types in central Africa’, Proc. 3rd Pan-African Congress on Prehistory (1957), Clark, J. D., and Cole, S., 183–5.Google Scholar
49 Clark, J. D., ‘A note on the pre-Bantu inhabitants of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland’, S. Afr.Journ. Sd. (1950), XLVII, no. 3, 42–52.Google Scholar
50a Wells, L. H., ‘Fossil man in Northern Rhodesia’. In Clark, J. D., The Stone Age Cultures of Northern Rhodesia (South African Archaeological Society, Cape Town, 1950).Google Scholar
50b See n. 475 above.Google Scholar
50c Galloway, A. (ed.), ‘Symposium on human skeletal remains from the northern and eastern Transvaal’, S. Afr. Journ. Sci. (1935), XXXII, 616–41.Google Scholar
51 Wells, L. H., ‘The fossil human skull from Singa’. In The Pleistocene Fauna of two Blue Nile sites (1951), British Museum (Nat. Hist.), ‘Fossil Mammals of Africa’, no. 2, 29–42.Google Scholar
52 Galloway, A., The Skeletal Remains from Bambandyanalo (Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg, 1959).Google Scholar
53 See n. 39 above.Google Scholar
54 Cooke, C. K., ‘Rock art in Matabeleland’. In Summers, R. F. H., ed., Rock Art of Central Africa (National Publications Trust, Southern Rhodesia, 1959).Google Scholar
55 Goodall, E., ‘The rock paintings of Mashonaland’. In Summers, R. F. H., ed., Rock Art of Central Africa (National Publications Trust, Southern Rhodesia, 1959).Google Scholar
56 Robinson, K. R., Khami Ruins (Cambridge University Press, London, 1959).Google Scholar
57a O'Brien, T. P., The Prehistory of Uganda Protectorate (Cambridge University Press, London, 1939).Google Scholar
57b See n. 46a above.Google Scholar
57c Posnansky, M., ‘Excavation of a rock shelter at Hippo Bay, Entebbe’. In Brachi, R. M., Uganda Journal (1960), XXVI, 62–7,.Google Scholar
58 Seen. 36 above.Google Scholar
59a Clark, J. D., ‘The newly discovered Nachikufu Culture of Northern Rhodesia and the possible origin of certain elements of the South African Smithfield Culture’, S. Afr. Arch. Bull. (1950), V, no. 19.Google Scholar
59b Fagan, B. M., ‘A Nachikufu site at Kasama cave, Northern Rhodesia’ (n.d.). In press.Google Scholar
60 Cavazzi da Montecuculo, Istoria descrizione de'tre regni Congo, Matamba e Angola (Bologna, 1968), Alamandini, F., ed.Google Scholar
61 Bequaert, M., ‘La préhistoire du Congo Beige’. In Encyclopédie du Congo Beige (Brussels, 1952), 47–9.Google Scholar
62 Vansina, J., ‘Recording the oral history of BaKuba: II, Results’, Journ. Afr. Hut. (1960), I (2), 257–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
63 Nenquin, J., ‘Une collection de céramique Kisalienne au Musée royale du Congo Beige’, Bull. Soc. Roy. Beige, Anthrop. et Fréhist. (1958), LXIX, 151–210.Google Scholar
64 See n. 8b aboveGoogle Scholar
65 van, Reenen W., Diary of a Journey north of the Orange River in 1797. (Van Viebeeck Society Publications, 1935), 317.Google Scholar
66 Clark, J. D., ‘Certain industries of notched and strangulated scrapers in Rhodesia, their time range and possible use’, S. Afr. Arch. Bull. (1958), XIII, 50, 56–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
67 Clark, J. D., ‘Prehistoric cultures of north-east Angola and their significance in tropical Africa’ (1962), Chap. x. In press.Google Scholar
68a Galloway, A., ‘The Nebarara skull’, S. Afr. Jour,. Sci. (1933), XXX, 585–96.Google Scholar
68b Fosbrooke, H. A., ‘Prehistoric wells, rainponds and associated burials in northern Tanganyika’. In Clark, J. D., and Cole, S., Proceedings of the 3rd Pan-African Congress in Prehistory, Livingstone 1955 (Chatto and Windus, London, 1957), 325–35.Google Scholar
69 Wells, L. H., ‘Recent and Fossil Human Types in South Africa’, Roy. Soc. S. Afr. (1948), Robert Broom Commemorative Volume 133–42.Google Scholar
70 See n. 25 above.Google Scholar
71 Boxer, C. R., The tragic history of the sea, 1589–1622, Hakluyt Society (1957), Second Series, CXII.Google Scholar
- 32
- Cited by