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Diverse Societies in Africa, lineage, igbo Igbo place of residence, west…
Diverse Societies in Africa
Early Humans Adapt to Their Surroundings
There were two main types of societies, that both differ a lot.
Civilization
Hunter-Gather Society
This society was known to be the oldest form of social organization in the world
Origin
This society was orginiated in Africa from the beggining
This society is still a super small percentile of Africa's population today
Culture.
Hunter-Gatherers Today
The Efe
Known to be one a the hunteing-gathering societes still alive today
They live in the Ituri Forests in the Democratic Republic of Congo
They live in small groups that range from 10-100, and all are related
Each group/family occupies on grass shelter, but this is rarely permanant.
Like any other hunter-gather group, their search for food causes them to be somewhat nomadic.
The Efe collect few possessions and move to new camps as they use up surrounding resources
To what might the Efe attribute their long success as a hunter-gatherer society?
The Efe can give credit to their mastery in both hunting and gathering; The land offer many resources to both aspects also. Another they can attribute is the technique that has been passed down to countless generations.
Scholars in today's time uses these groups to gain knowledge about how hunter-gatherers may have lived in the past
The Roles in This Society
The women
Their role was the "gathering"
They searched for forest goods such as yams, mushrooms and wild seeds
The men and older boys
In charge of the "hunting" aspect
They went in groups and solo too
When they went solo, they used poison-tipped arrows to hunt mammals such as monkeys
Patorial Society
Early Africans eventually learn how to domesticate and raise animals
Were know was herders or pastorialists
These people kept cattle, goats and/or sheep
Millions of moderns Africans are pastorialists today.
The Masai ar eone of them
They still measure their wealth by size of their herds
The Masai diet consists of maily meat, blood and milk
These people live in small band that usually incude up to 12 families
What do each Societies have in common today?
Each band has the freedom to make their own decisions and come and go as they please.
Transition to a Settled Lifestyle
What happened to the pastoralists of the Sahara 8,000 years ago?
The pastorialists were forced to move out of their home lnad and into settled areas
TIme
6000 BC: Experts believe agriculture in Arica starts
Between 6000 & 8000 BC: The Sahara receives rainfalls
By 8000 BC: Sahara is Savanna
But eventually after: Sahara dries up again
Move
Many moved East into the Nile Valley
Others went sount and into West Africa
Others settled on the new Savannas, which was great Agriculture land
The Savannas grew grain excellently.
Many farmers also began to raise cattle
However, in areas with the Tsetse Fly was found, cattle was not able to be raised there.
The Tsetse Fly
For any livestock animal to be bit by this insect, it was deadly
Their bite effected the bloodstream of animals
This was called the
Nagana
disease
How Nagana is Carried by Tsetse Flies
Agriculture drastically changed the way Africans lived
Growing food enables them to build permanent homes and shelters in one location
Settlements expand due to reliable food supplies
This leads to longer, healthier lives and an increased birthrate
The increased food supply also gave villages more freedom to practice activities such as metal, pottery and jewelry
With this life changing lifestyle, it lead to complex settlements
Why would complex settlements require more government than smaller communities?
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Why did this happen?
Their home, The Sahara desert, received so much rainfall it was turned into a Savanna, which did not meet this Nomad's needs. They were forced to move
Migration
The first humans appeared in the Great Rift Valley.
This was the world's 1st migration.
Runs through the floor of the Red Sea
The developed technology and social systems that helped them survive.
A deep gash in Earth's Crust
These developements later helped them alter their surroundings.
West African Iron Age
Invention
The Ancient Nok of the sub-Saharan Africa created a way to smelt iron.
The Nok people were able to make tools and weapons out of the Iron they smelted.
Trade
The weapons and tools they made sometimes they would trade and sell
What weapons/ tools sold the most?
Weapons/ Tools
Civilization
One of the biggest African cities was Djenné-Djeno
Hundreds of Artifacts were found in Ancient Djenné
How do artifacts provide a picture of daily life?
It showed how they lived and what type of culture they had.
What did some of those artifacts look like and what was their meanings?
Artifacts
This is the oldest known city in Africa south of the Sahara.
What are some possible reasons that Djenne-Djeno was abandoned?
They ran out of mines with iron and materials plus if they moved they could learn more and have a better land to farm and mine on.
There was 50,000 residents in Djenné
They lived in round reed huts plastered in mud.
Later they made houses that were plastered with mud so they were enclosed.
They used to fish, raise rice and herd cattle.
Then they started to trade their rice, fish, and pottery for gold, copper, and salt.
It became a big trade route with people along the river but also with overland camel routes.
Migration
Groups from West Africa began to move out of West Africa
Bantu- speaking people brought their iron working technics and culture with them to parts of Eastern and Southern Africa.
Change
What major changes affected societies during Africa’s Iron Age?
They were able to make more money from trade off of the changes in their products.
Stateless Societies
The societies south of the Shara shared common
elements.
The importance of the basic social unit, the family, was very important .
In African societies, families are organized in groups called lineages.
Lineage includes the living members, past generations and future generations.
Many groups south of the Sahara also developed governing based on lineages.
Lineage groups took place of rulers These were known as
sateless societies
BALANCE
Authority was balanced among lineages of equal power, so that no one family had too much control.
Stateless societies did not have a central power.
Th eIgbo People of southern Nigeria lived in a stateless society as early as the nineteenth century.
Although the Igbo lived in West Africa, their political structure was similar to stateless societies found in Central Africa.
If a dispute rose in the Igbo Village, respected elders from different lineages would settle the problem.
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How is lineage important to Stateless Societies?
In stateless societies, lineage is used to determine who leads the different groups of people. They're all family, and family is an important asset to the early African societies as well.
Members of a lineage feel strong loyalties to one another.
members of a lineage believe they ar the descendants of a common ancestor.
Tracing Family Descent
PATTERNS
In African Societies, the way a society taxes lineage determines how possessions and prroperty are passed on and what groups individuals belong to.
Members of a
matrilineal
society trace their ancestors through their mothers
Young men from a matrilineal culture inherit land and wealth from their mother's family
Even in a matrilineal society, men typically hold the positions of authority
Members of a
patrilineal
society trace their ancestors through their fathers.
When a son marries, he, his wife, and their children remain a part of his father's extended family.
Inheritance passes from father to son
More on Patrilineal and Matrilineal Inheritance and Kin
Age-Set System
In many african societies, young people form close ties to individuals outside their lineage through the age-set system.
An age set consists of young people within a region who are born during a certain time period.
Each age set passes together through clearly identified life stages, such as warrior or elder.
Ceremonies mark the passage to each new stage
Men and women have different life stages, and each stage has its own duties and importance
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Local Religions
African peopls developed belief systems that helped them understand and organize information about their world.
In most african religions, the supreme god was not involved in humans’ lives.
Other rituals protected people from bad spirits.
This belief led Africans to develop many religious practices, rituals, and ceremonies focused on asking the spirits for health, fertility, and wealth.
African religions generally included elements of animism, a belief system in which spirits are present in animals, plants, and other natural forces.
They also honored spirits of their ancestors
Africans did not separate religion from other areas of life. Spiritual beliefs and practices were integral to all areas of life.
Many of the local religions were polytheistic
More on Polytheism in Early Africa
What were some religious beliefs of many Early Africans?
Most of the local religions were polythiestic. They involved belief in one in one divine creator or supreme god, in addition to several secondary gods, or semi divine spirits. They also believed in animism.
Keeping a History
CULTURE
Few african societies had written languages.Instead, storytellers (
also called griots
) shared orally the history and literature of a culture.
For example, in West Africa, storytellers, or griots, kept his history alive, passing it from parent to child.
Recent discoveries in West Africa have proved how old and extensive the history of this part of Africa is.
Archaeologists believe that early peoples from the north moved into West African as desertification forced them south to find better farmland.
Why were oral traditions important in Early Africa?
Oral traditions were important in early Africa because very few african societies had written languages. Because of this, the storytellers kept history alive, and through stories and talking about it, is how the early Africans kept their traditions alive.
Discoveries in the areas of modern Mali and Nigeria reveal that West Africans developed advanced societies and cities long before outsiders came to the continent.
More on Griots and African story telling
A Land of Geographic Contrasts
Challenging Environments
All African environment has its own challenges.
The deserts in Africa are largely unsuitable for human life. The largest deserts are called the Shara.
The Sahara are in the north and the Kalahari are in the South.
The Sahara covers an area about the size of the United States.
Sand dunes are a very small portion of the Sahara desert. The rest of the Sahara is mostly flat wasteland of rocks and gravel.
Every year the desert takes over more land of the semiarid region in the south edge of the Sahara which is known as the Sahel
Here is more about the comparison between the Sahara and the United States:
https://www.livescience.com/23140-sahara-desert.html
Another part of African environment is the rain forest, it is much different from the deserts. This is also called natures greenhouse.
The mahogany and teak trees grow up to 150 feet tall.
The mahogany leaves and branches form a dense canopy that keeps the sunlight from reaching the forests floors.
The tsetse fly is seen in the rain forest. It prevents Africans from using cattle, donkey, and horses to farm near the rain forests.
The tsetse is a deadly insect that prevents invaders especially Europeans from fly infested territories.
Why is the tsetse fly so deadly?
More about the deadly insect:
https://www.britannica.com/animal/tsetse-fly
Innovation
The Mahogany leaves were used to improve the lives of many by making the shelter.
Why might the rainforest be called “Nature’s Greenhouse”?
-The dense tree leaves make a covered shelter underneath causing it to be like a greenhouse just nature.
How much of Africa does rainforest take up?
What problems might the expansion of the Sahara Cause? - The expansion pushed away people making them crowd into small areas and their food became very limited.
Welcoming Lands
Both the northern and southern tip of Africa have welcoming Mediterranean-type climates and fertile soil.
These coastal areas are so fertile that they are densely populated with farmers and herders.
Most of the people that live in Africa live on the Savannas which are grassy plains.
Africas savannas are not just endless plans they also have mountainous highlands and swampy tropical stretches that are covered with tall grass.
The savannas cover over 40% of the continent.
Dry seasons alternate with rainy seasons often two of each year
Although the topsoil throughout Africa is thin and the heavy rain strip all of the minerals.
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More about the Savannas:
https://www.thoughtco.com/land-biomes-savannas-373494
Culture: The culture in the Savannas is much different from any other place in Africa or the US.
Africa is the second largest continent in the world.
Africa stretches 4,600 miles from east to west and 5,000 miles north to south.
Africa's coastline is shorter than Europes.
Igbo place of residence
