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North & Central African Societies (Hunting-Gathering Societies …
North & Central African Societies
Hunting-Gathering Societies
Hunting-Gathering Societies
: the oldest form of social organization in the world - began in Africa
These societies still exist in Africa today although they form and extremely low percentage of the population
These groups speaks their own language and use own hunting techniques
By studying these groups, scholars learn clues about how Hunter-Gathers may have lived in the past
Forest Dwellers
The Efe are one of several hunting-gathering societies in Africa
Their home is in the Ituri Forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Modern-day Efe live in small groups between 10 and 100 members, who are all related
Families occupy heir own grass-and-bush shelters but were hardly ever permanent
They are
nomadic
because they search for food
Efe collect few possessions and move to new camps once resources run out
In their society woman are gathers
Searched for food like roots, yams, mushrooms, and wild seeds
Efe men and older brothers do the hunting
Gather in groups to hunt antelope called duikers
What type of animals did the Efe hunt?
Hunters would go solo and use poisoned-tipped arrows to kill mammals such as monkeys
Efe trade honey, wild game, and other forest products
Social Structure
Respected older males such as a father, uncle, or father-in-law typically serves as group leaders
This man did not give orders but people valued his opinion
Each family would make their own decision based on their own opinion and beliefs
Settled argument with long discussion
If they couldn't settle a decision they would move to different hunting bands
Daily life was not for the Efe was not governed by formally written laws
Continuity
Continued on same traditions for generations
Hunted same animals for centuries
Stayed around 10 to 100 members per group
Ran an uninterrupted consistent operation
Like today they would make decisions as a family
Who did the Efe or Hunter-Gathers Trade?
Traded with farming villages
Stateless Societies
In many African societies, families are organized in groups called lineages.
The members of a lineage believed they are descendants of a common ancestor.
Within a linage, a member feel strong loyalties to one another.
South of the Sahara, many African groups developed systems of governing based on linages.
These societies, known as stateless societies system of power.
If a dispute arose within an igbo village, respected elders from different linages, settled the problem.
Tracing Family Descent
In African societies, the way a society traces lineage determines how possessions and property are passed on and what individuals belongs too.
Members of a patrilineal society trace their ancestors through their fathers.
inheritance passes from father to son.
When a son marries, he, his wife, and their children remain part of his fathers extended families.
In a matrilineal society, children trace their ancestors through their mothers.
Age set system
In many African societies, young people form close ties to individuals outside their linage through the age-set system.
An age set consists of young people within a region who are born during a certain time period.
Ceremonies mark the passage to each new stage.
men and women have different life stages, and each stage has its own duties and importance.
How do they determine possessions and properties?
What were the stages that men and women had to do?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Africa
Identity
families believe they were apart of lineages.
They all were apart of groups.
Muslim States
Change
Islam played an important role in North Africa.
Muhammad died in 632.
What role did Islam play in the political history of North Africa?
Muslims swept across the northwestern part of the continent. Many people were converted both peacefully and by force. As Islam spread, some African rulers converted and then based their government on Islamic law. Because Muslims believe that God's law is higher than any human law, rulers often relied on religious scholars as government advisors.
Muslims swept across the northwest part of the continent. They converted many by the sword of conquest and others peacefully.
By 670, Muslims ruled Egypt and had entered the Maghrib, the part of North Africa that is today the Mediterranean coast of Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.
As Islam spread, some African rulers converted to Islam. These African Muslim rulers based their government on Islamic law. Muslims believe that God’s law is a higher authority than any human law. Therefore, Muslim rulers often relied on religious scholars as government advisers.
By 1148 the Almohads controlled most of Morocco and ended Almoravid rule. The new Muslim reformers kept Marrakech as their capital.
By the end of the 12th century, they had conquered much of southern Spain. In Africa, their territory stretched from Marrakech to Tripoli and Tunis on the Mediterranean. The Almohad Empire broke up into individual Muslim dynasties. While the Almohad Empire lasted just over 100 years, it united the Maghrib under one rule for the first time.
Stronger empires were about to emerge. Societies in West Africa created empires that boasted economic and political power and strong links to trade routes.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Almoravids
Values & Beliefs
In Islam, following the law is a religious obligation. Muslims do not separate their personal life from their religious life, and Islamic law regulates almost all areas of human life. Islamic law helped to bring order to Muslim states.
Culture
Were there many ethnic and cultural differences between different Muslim states?
Yes, these states had differing interpretations, and schools, of Islamic law.
Islamic law has been such a significant force in history that some states, especially in North Africa, are still influenced by it today.
Among those who converted to Islam were the Berbers. They accepted Islam as their faith, but many maintained their Berber identities and loyalties.
Two Berber groups, the Almoravids and the Almohads, founded empires that united the Maghrib under Muslim rule.
The Almohads followed the teachings of Ibn Tumart. After a pilgrimage to Mecca, Ibn Tumart criticized the later Almoravid rulers for moving away from the traditional practice of Islam.
He urged his followers to strictly obey the teachings of the Qur’an and Islamic law. The Almohads, led by AbdalMumin, fought to overthrow the Almoravids and remain true to their view of traditional Islamic beliefs.
Interdependence
Muslim reformers founded the living in the western Sahara in what is today Mauritania. The movement began after devout Berber Muslims made a hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca.
Going home, they convinced a Muslim scholar from Morocco named Abd Allah Ibn Yasin to return with them to teach their people about Islam. Ibn Yasin’s teachings soon attracted followers, and he founded a strict religious brotherhood, known as the Almoravids
In the 1050s, Ibn Yasin led the Almoravids in an effort to spread Islam through conquest. After Ibn Yasin’s death in 1059, the Almoravids went on to take Morocco and found Marrakech. It became their capital. They overran the West
African empire of Ghana by 1076. The Almoravids also captured parts of southern Spain, where they were called Moors.
Almohads Take Over In the mid-1100s, the Almohads, another group of Berber Muslim reformers, seized power from the Almoravids. The Almohads began as a religious movement in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/almo/hd_almo.htm
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/what-is-the-hajj-islam-muslims-mecca-saudi-arabia-explainer-a7235961.html
