Pastoral Neolithic of East Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 1019-1019
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Pastoral Neolithic

Problems in the interpretation of radiocarbon dates: the Pastoral Neolithic of East Africa

1983 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Collett ◽  
Peter Robertshaw
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Pastoral Neolithic

A New Framework for the Study of Early Pastoral Communities in East Africa

1983 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Robertshaw ◽  
David Collett
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Rift Valley ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Subsistence Strategy ◽  
Pastoral Communities ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Pastoral Neolithic ◽  
Domestic Stock ◽  
New Framework ◽  
Interpretative Framework

This review provides a new interpretative framework for the ‘Neolithic’ in East Africa. A seriation of pottery assemblages is used to delineate several archaeological traditions, the implications of which include rejection of the use of the terms ‘Neolithic’ and ‘Pastoral Neolithic’, and the demise of previous attempts at archaeological—linguistic correlations. Evaluation of the dating evidence brings into question the validity of early dates for domestic stock and cultivated crops in the region. A new model for the development of specialized herd management strategies in the Central Rift Valley is outlined. This model rests upon the definition of pastoralism as an ideological system rather than as a subsistence strategy. Finally, the archaeological evidence for the antecedents of the early pastoral communities of East Africa is examined and the ascription of some of these assemblages to the ‘aquatic civilization of Middle Africa’ is questioned.

The Pastoral Neolithic of East Africa

1991 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Bower
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Pastoral Neolithic

Reconstruction of spatial organization in abandoned Maasai settlements: implications for site structure in the Pastoral Neolithic of East Africa

2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (10) ◽  
pp. 1395-1411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Shahack-Gross ◽  
Fiona Marshall ◽  
Kathleen Ryan ◽  
Steve Weiner
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Site Structure ◽  
Pastoral Neolithic

Archaeology of Early Pastoralism in East Africa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Robertshaw
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Domestic Animals ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
East African ◽  
Lake Turkana ◽  
Northern Tanzania ◽  
Stage Process ◽  
Pastoral Neolithic ◽  
Humid Period ◽  
Demic Diffusion

The first East African pastoralists arrived at the shores of Lake Turkana soon after the end of the African Humid Period, about 5,000 years ago. In the preceding millennia of the Holocene, fishing economies characterized East Africa. The domestic animals of the early pastoralists were not indigenous to East Africa, nor did they spread through the region simultaneously. Early pastoralist archaeological sites around Lake Turkana comprise settlements and remarkable monumental cemeteries. The expansion of pastoralists further south through East Africa was a two-stage process, probably because of the challenges posed by the presence of diseases fatal to livestock. First, caprines spread south and appear to have been integrated into existing forager subsistence systems. Then, starting toward the end of the 2nd millennium bce, specialized pastoralism began to be established across central and southern Kenya and into northern Tanzania. While analysis of lipid residues on potsherds has demonstrated that these Pastoral Neolithic (PN) peoples milked their animals, the question of whether agriculture was also practiced remains unresolved. Analyses of ancient DNA have shown there were at least two episodes of demic diffusion associated with the spread and establishment of the PN in East Africa. Considerable diversity is present in the PN, with three distinct cultures generally recognized across East Africa south of Lake Turkana. Moreover, there is even greater diversity observed in the decoration and shapes of ceramics. However, this cultural diversity is not matched by human genetic diversity, at least among the analyzed skeletons from two of the three cultures—the Elmenteitan and the Savanna Pastoral Neolithic.

Mobility and Subsistence Patterns among Mid-Holocene Pastoralists in East Africa

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel K Ndiema
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Shared Identity ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Subsistence Patterns ◽  
To Come ◽  
Pastoral Neolithic

Pastoralism in eastern Africa was characterized by a form of niche broadening and diversification when viewed within the context of mobility and subsistence patterns. In East Africa, Pastoral Neolithic cultures entail those groups who herded domesticated animals and used stone tools and ceramics as part of their subsistence package. Climatic and demographic pressures after 6,000 bp pushed Neolithic pastoralists living in the Nile River Valley southward toward East Africa, where they encountered savanna habitats that were ideal for herding. Pastoralist mobility and subsistence patterns are reviewed from the perspective of how animal herders occupied distinct niches on the landscape. The development of the Pastoral Neolithic was lengthy and complex. The current state of archaeological evidence for early pastoral cultures in East Africa are examined to evaluate how prehistoric herders may have varied their mobility and subsistence patterns so as to opportunistically exploit specific ecological niches in the landscape. The exchange and mobility networks are also examined on how pastoralist groups in new lands exploited those networks with local foragers so as to acquire familiar resources in unfamiliar landscapes. The role of forgers as active participants in the inception and spread of pastoralism is reviewed. Finally, the social organization and groupings that necessitated these early herders to come together and build megalithic monuments is examined, highlighting how pastoralists had come together in times of severe aridity to build megalithic structures that served as a reminder of their shared identity. The early herders tended to have been less mobile, since resources were plenty and predictable. Later on, as aridity intensified, pastoralists adapted a broad-based subsistence pattern. When placed within the larger paleoenvironmental and cultural context, pastoralists adapted their mobility and subsistence to specific ecosystems based on the potential of the land to provide adequate sustenance for themselves and their livestock. Pastoralists also needed to adjust to several challenges specific to different ecological niches they occupied, such as livestock diseases, predation, as well as severe droughts. In understanding the prehistory of eastern Africa, pastoralism is fundamental: pastoralism formed the foundation of the transition to food production, spread widely, and has persisted as a primary subsistence system in the region over three millennia.

Canoes of East Africa

1918 ◽  
Vol 86 (2228supp) ◽  
pp. 170-170
Keyword(s):  
East Africa

Drawers of Water II: assessing change in domestic water use in East Africa

Waterlines ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Thompson ◽  
Ina Porras ◽  
Munguti Katui-Katua ◽  
Mark Mujwahuzi ◽  
James Tumwine
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Domestic Water
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