Encyclopedia of society and culture in the ancient world ( PDFDrive ) 623

572 hunting, fishing, and gathering: Africa AFRICA BY MARK ANTHONY PHELPS Hunting, fishing, and gathering activities are collectively known as foraging Foraging was the only economic option for all humans prior to the Neolithic Revolution (ca 9000 b.c.e.) Given that Homo sapiens sapiens appeared around 40,000 years ago, the bulk of human existence has been spent foraging The primary sources for Africa from antiquity are sparse Written sources, aside from the Nile Valley and its immediate cultural neighbors, are foreign and are unconcerned with recording the lives of foragers Oral sources rarely extend back beyond the 18th century c.e One is thus left with archaeological evidence to reconstruct this aspect of human history, along with models based upon historical foraging groups The advent of the Neolithic Revolution is manifested in the archaeological record in the form of domesticated plants, domesticated animals, the beginnings of a sedentary lifestyle, and the appearance of ceramics as a means of storing domesticated products However, the African evidence does not correspond neatly with this model In Africa there is evidence of ceramics before domestication There is also evidence of hunting, gathering, and fishing among settled groups as well as evidence of pastoralism side by side with gathering The Nile Valley provides the earliest evidence for sedentarization At the delta site of Merimda Beni Salama, by 8000 b.c.e foragers were living in houses with hearths and had large pottery vessels for water storage In the Faiyûm there is evidence of a settlement on a shrinking lake from the seventh millennium b.c.e Foragers lived in this settlement, with silos built to store excess food Farther south, around Khartoum, there is evidence from around 7000 b.c.e of a foraging society with ceramics, silos, and net weights for fishing Evidence of a number of hunting and fishing camps has been found in modern-day Sudan Throughout the Nile Valley the dominant fish species harvested were the Nile perch and catfish With the development of the harpoon around 8500 b.c.e (appearing first in Sudan), deepwater fish were exploited as well A wide variety of species was hunted, including aurochs, hippopotamuses, crocodiles, and a number of smaller species Birds were also harvested Tubers seem to have been the dominant flora food source Domestication reached the Nile Valley in the fift h millennium b.c.e Ceramics had appeared throughout the Sahara by 6000 b.c.e The Sahara supported plant life until around 4500 b.c.e., when a prolonged desertification process began; through this process the basic climatic patterning of today emerged around 2500 b.c.e During the wetter period permanent streams as well as a number of lakes were found in the Sahara The faunal representation was more Sahel-like, with many types of wild grasses Herding was being practiced at Ti-n-Torha (Libya) by 7000 b.c.e It is not confirmed in the western reaches of the Sahara until the third millennium b.c.e As the Sahara dried, the herders apparently moved south into western Africa Their influence is discernible all over the region from the second millennium, as herding became a staple They also brought domesticated millet and sorghum with them The date of the domestication of the latter two is not known but is fi xed at no later than around 1800 b.c.e., evidenced by African species that are present in India Along the Niger yam cultivation may have begun as early as 4000 b.c.e., based upon the presence of a new type of hoe, though paleobotanical evidence is lacking However, INSULTING THE MEAT Although meat accounts for a relatively small proportion of the caloric intake of the Bushmen (estimated between 15 and 30 percent), it is still the prestige food item produced by foragers Meat distribution is among the most important issues that occupy the attention of foragers A !Kung woman stated that the primary gender status gap appears because men are “masters of the meat.” The anthropologist Richard Lee experienced a social leveling mechanism in the course of purchasing a bull to be slaughtered for a Christmas feast for the band of !Kung he was researching Once word of the particular bull chosen became known to the members of the band, the men began to complain to the anthropologist of his repulsive choice of animal Thoroughly depressed by the continuous complaining concerning his choice, Lee watched the killing of the bull and the unmistakable joy the animal brought the crowd The animal’s flesh appeared to be in perfect accord with what he had been told was the ideal Confused, he was told by an informant that he had experienced the mechanism of “insulting the meat.” For the !Kung, there is a fear that a good hunter could become vain, begin to hoard meat, and try to assert his will upon others Thus, when an animal is killed, those who go with the hunter to retrieve the carcass will complain about investing so much work for a useless “bag of bones.” The hunter will apologize profusely Likewise, when a hunter announces that he has had no real luck but may have injured a little animal, the rest of the band knows to get excited, as a large animal must have been hurt Hunters engage in self-deprecation when announcing their luck In an environment in which death is a constant threat, bands must take care that all their members freely share risks and resources It is impossible to assert that such was the case among ancient African foragers, but the logic behind the mechanism probably was at work in these societies as well