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Diverse Societies in Africa - Coggle Diagram
Diverse Societies in Africa
Early Humans Adapt to Their Environments
Innovation
Learned to domesticate and raise animals for food
Cattle, sheep, goats
More about
Pastoralists
Became Pastoralists
Measured their wealth by how big their herds were
More Info about their daily life
What happened to the pastoralists of the Sahara 8,000 years ago?
The land they lived on dried up, so they either moved to fresh vegetation or died
If they moved, the animals would have food to eat. The farmers would also be able to grow more food with rich soil
Eventually grew their own crops
Created permanent homes
Balance
Hunting-Gathering
10-100 in each group
A respected male elder typically served as the group leader
He didn't give orders, but gave important opinions
Later decided to choose a chief, who had a council under him to help make group decisions
Why would complex settlements require more government than smaller communities?
They would need more people to control the large complex. This would mean that they would have to have more security to make sure no one would go against the clan
Each family was allowed to leave or stay within each group
No formal written laws
Settled arguments with long discussions
Rarely had permanent homes
To what might the Efe attribute their long success as a hunter-gatherer society?
They were successful with their adaption to their environment
Women were gatherers, Men were hunters
Gatherers
Collected yams, mushrooms, roots, and wild seeds
Hunters
Hunted small antelope/duikers and monkeys
Traded honey, wild game, and other forest products for crops grown by farmers nearby
A Land of Geographic Contrasts
Africa is the second largest continent in the world
Coastlines lie on either side of the central plateau
Waterfalls and rapids form as rivers drop down to the coast
Africa's coastline has few harbors, ports, or inlets
Africa's coastline is shorter than that of Europe
The northern coast and southern tip of Africa have Mediterranean-type climates
Most Africans live on the savannas or grassy plains
Savannas cover 40% of the continent
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Savannas are not all plains
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Also have fertile soil
Because of this, they are densely populated with farmers and herders
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This makes navigation impossible to or from the coast
50 to 100 miles
4,600 miles from east to west
5,000 miles from north to south
11.7 millions square miles
Takes up 1/5 of Earth's land surface
The deserts are highly unsuitable for human life
Sahara
Largest desert in northern Africa
Stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea
Only a small part of the Sahara is sand dunes
Most of the Sahara is a flat gray wasteland
Every year the desert takes over more and more of the semiarid region
Covers an area roughly the size of the United States
What problems might the expansion of the Sahara cause?
While the Sahara is currently only taking over the Sahel, a rocky wasteland, it could eventually expand to places with homes and civilians
Kalahari
Largest desert in southern Africa
African rainforests
Sometimes called "nature's greenhouse"
Produces mahogany and teak trees
Why might the rainforest be called "Nature's Greenhouse?
Leaves and branches form a canopy that keeps sunlight from reaching the forest floor
Up to 150 feet tall
Home to the tsetse fly
Prevented the use of cattle, donkeys, and horses to farm
Also prevented invaders from colonizing fly-infested territories
Colonialism
How do artifacts provide a picture of daily life?
They can do this by artifacts such as pottery, charcoal and slag.
Link Title
link to www.google.com
culture
This link shows some of the pottery they would use
What major changes affected societies during Africa’s Iron Age?
iron tools lead to a wider reliance on agriculture and a rise in settled, urban societies. This happened because they skipped over the copper and bronze ages.
Link Title
link to www.google.com
Industrialization
What are some possible reasons that Djenne Djeno was abandoned?
The drought caused famine, and war.
Many people lived in small villages but many small city started to develop between 600 bc and 200 bc.
Many of the new small cities where along rivers this was because river had many resoruses they would use
Djenne was uncovered by archaeologists in 1977 it was located on a river side
Stateless societies
How is lineage important to a stateless society?
Lineage helps balance the power in some stateless societies by powers being spread among more than one lineage. This prevents any one family from having too much control and power.
members of lineage believe they are from a common ancestor
Law and regulation
Lineage includes past generations and future generations
Each village consisted of a lineage group structured around a "big man" who was usually the man most directly descended from the founding ancestor.
Times map
What were some religious beliefs of many early Africans?
beliefs were developed to to help them understand their world.
most religions were polytheistic-one divine creator/supreme god with secondary gods or semi-divine spirits.
Priests cast spells or provide charms to help people. They would tell the future by "magic" or "Casting bones" (throw bones and tell the future by how the bones fell).
Magic
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religion included some animism-beliefs that spirits are present in animals, plants and natural forces
sacrificed small animals like food or drink or larger ones like cattle or humans
Sacrifices
They honored the spirits of their ancestors.
rituals were performed to protect people from bad spirits.
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By honoring their spirits, the believers hoped the spirits would help them or talk to the supreme god on their behalf.
Honoring spirts
Religon
authority balanced among lineages of equal power
Lineage ties determined family loyalties, inheritance, and who they could marry.
Societies use either patrilineal or matrilineal lineage
son, his wife, and their children remain part of father's extended family.
*matrilineal descent is established by tracing descent through females from a founding female ancestors-is less common in society than patrilineality.
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men usually held position of authority
young men inherit land and wealth from mother's family.
Stateless societies were controlled by lineages or age sets. Most of the time the men ruled.
