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1012 social organization: Africa Lineages have often been the basis by which individuals have access to resources and groups In traditional huntergathering bands, lineage determines whether individuals remain with their birth group or migrate to another group When young men leave their parents’ group to find their mates, the culture is called matrilocal; when young women leave their parents’ group to live with their mates’ band, the culture is referred to as patrilocal This kind of social organization serves to diversify the gene pool and keep bands small Bands also might have split in ancient Africa once a critical threshold for population was reached, a threshold possibly created by whether resources were available Although lineage is a type of kinship system, not all kinship systems are necessarily based on genetic descent Hunter-gatherer and later agro-pastoral groups could have also been organized based on more generalized kinship relations not necessarily rooted in blood relations In some kinship systems, subgroups have differential degrees of influence over the entire society All societies have underlying kinship groups, but the degree to which they are the basis of organization and structure varies considerably Early hunter-gatherer groups often are referred to as acephalous societies, meaning they had no centralized, specialized political leader, such as a chief or a king Informal leaders might have emerged based on skill and accomplishment, but these leaders are thought to have had little absolute control and to have led more by group support than coercion, force, or intimidation Decisions might have been made on a consensus basis by all group members or with heads of families having a stronger vote Consensus-based decision making was possible because of the small size of the groups EMERGENCE OF SEDENTARY SOCIETIES At some point in the ancient period human groups began to experiment with domestication of animals and plants in northern Africa The exact dates for the origins of farming and herding are not certain, since many of the early steps toward domestication of animals and plants are not detected in the archaeological record What is detectable in the record is that increased reliance on agriculture led to more sedentary lifestyles, since agriculture requires farmers to remain in one location for at least one crop season Once humans started manipulating the land, they realized the benefits of staying in one spot and were able to improve their ability to grow the food they needed where they needed it One of the earliest examples of sedentary villages is the site of Nabta Playa (western deserts of southern Egypt), some 62 miles west of the Nile River Nabta Playa is the site of a village with permanent houses from as early as 8,000 years ago that were formally organized around a “street.” This village had wells and granaries to store food; although in the beginning the majority of their diet still came from wild animals and plants, evidence of domestic animals appears as early as 7,000 years ago, and agriculture may have been adopted as early as 6,500 years ago There are some who believe that hu- man groups may have experimented with agro-pastoral activities in the Nile Valley prior to the Holocene Although many (but not all) human groups would eventually rely mostly or only on farming or herding, the transition from hunting and gathering to farming and herding was gradual, and there were long periods during which human groups continued to rely on all of these activities simultaneously Changes in climatic conditions were instrumental in the spread and eventual dominance of herding and farming activities Around 4,000 years ago the African continent began to dry out, which forced human groups to migrate out of the increasingly dry Sahara region into the Sahel and the oases around rivers and lakes When people moved out of the desert areas, more and more people were compressed into smaller and smaller areas, which further encouraged development of herding and farming activities as the climate change brought a decrease in wild animals and plants Adoption of herding and farming moved south and east, eventually reaching southern Africa around 2,000 years ago with the mass migration of the Bantu farmers across the continent that started around 1000 b.c.e In general, in the densely forested areas of central Africa, hunting and gathering persisted much longer This change in livelihood strategies had profound effects on the population and organization of human groups When human groups became more sedentary and skilled in herding and farming, populations grew even more, and people had the opportunity to accumulate material objects and build permanent structures The increased importance of a specific area of land led to ownership of property, which in turn led to the development of rules and laws to enforce ownership rights Over time, increases in population densities and accumulation of material possessions led to labor specialization and more and more complex social organization Competition for resources, wealth, and social status started to increase in importance and affect social organization through the dictation of alliances based on a variety of relationships, not just family, lineage, and kinship Anthropologists, using more modern human groups to draw conclusions about ancient cultures, often apply E E Evans-Pritchard’s term segmentary societies (coined in 1940 for his study of groups in southern Sudan) to ancient agricultural human groups This term is commonly used to describe societies that are subdivided into groups based on kinship that are relatively equal in status Segmentary societies are often led by elders, and participation in the collective decisions and activities is accomplished through relationships with these elders Another ancient system of governance and stratification was based on the power an individual was granted as a result of the size of the group loyal to him or her (that is, patronclient relationships) Kinship-based societies might have had this type of organization, which brought more (but not necessarily absolute) power over decisions affecting the entire society to individuals who had larger families or more “clients” that pledged loyalty to them
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