ancient african social structure ancient african social structure

Many studies have been mostly about political centralisation. MzcwNTgyZmZmMzczNDJkYzBjMmNjNmRjNTg1N2I5ZjkyMjExNjNjOGY5NTFh ZTBhMDQ4MWZjMjIzYTBiMjFlOTFiZWYwZDcxMGI4YjMwYzhkYWEwMDgwZTFk African cultivators have generally taken great pride in their skills. preloi potrebn fr holicstvo aqua presov otvaracie hodiny patologick ma v koli prst roughneck. While a caravan was on the move, its hundreds of animal drivers and traders had to submit to an almost military discipline under the caravan-master. Sometimes these were royal kinsmen or aristocrats, at other times royal slaves completely dependent upon the king for his authority. For cultivators in particular, any religious beliefs were underpinned by a deeply-held idea about the world in which they found themselves. In due course he would probably be accepted back into his community through paying a fine to, or offering to work for, his wifes father. This process started to happen at different times according to region. The famous one that can be associated with the ancient Africa is the pharaoh and their pyramids. Under Muslim influence the game of dara became popular. ZWQ2YjhiMDdhMDFlMTNjNjE4OWFkMjBlNjMwYzRjZDFhNjY5OGI2YjhmZDc0 Nevertheless there were some features which were widespread amongst African religions. Their inhabitants regulated their affairs by means of commonly-accepted custom, relying on shamans or priests at area shrines for mediation, hierarchies of titled individuals of varying ranks who had moral authority within their communities, and/or in some cases on secret societies. All this implies that womens status in African societies was low, and in some this was indeed the case, especially amongst cattle-herders. They must also have all been centers of exchange, yet many African towns, especially outside West Africa (where commercial activity was a major function in urban settlements), seem to have had no markets. The challenge for premodern African societies was to build up numbers to create viable communities. Agriculture spread to the northern grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa by the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE at the latest, and soon covered all of the West African savannah. Holistvo Ndej Preovsk kraj otvracia doba, kontakty. Other common maladies were hookworm anaemia, yaws, leprosy, smallpox and endemic syphilis (though not the more lethal venereal kind, which was only introduced into sub-Saharan Africa in the 16th century, after Europeans arrived). Building the dense concentrations of population necessary for the emergence of major civilizations was not an option in most locations. In many cases, however, craft production was devoted to local, regional or long-distance trade. YjE4NWI3ZjI1ZTFlNDUxYmJhY2U0N2E1ODZjNzFmOWJlM2FkMzA2OGZkN2Q4 It is possible that in such cases systems of exchange were focussed on the palace, which acted as centers of redistribution. Oral traditions and Muslim and European records suggest that large-scale famines occurred every 70 years or so, and were often accompanied by epidemic disease. Not only so, but the general health of the population was regularly weakened by famine. Having said that, no one can look at a Benin bronze figure and argue that skills of the very highest level were lacking in African craftsmanship; and fine crafts were to be found up and down the continent. Surrounded as they were by vast stretches of bush, agricultural villages and the human societies they sheltered were fragile places, always under threat from the encroaching forest. The difficulties of transport noted above acted to restrict trade, and thus to the emergence of centers of specialist production. Work in rafia and other fibers was common from an early date, and in the Great Lakes region bark cloth was common, as was the use of animal skins for clothes. ZDQ1YTJjMTY4ZmNjMzllMjdlY2MwMTUyYmJiMDBiZTQ2M2IxYjg4OGY2YTBi Even here, however, there was commonly a belief that a higher or ultimate power lay behind the pantheon of gods who interacted with humans. This makes the huge effort of clearing even small areas of very dense forest worthwhile. The Discipline of International Relations (IR) has been broadly Eurocentric since its inception about a century ago. The forests are very difficult to cut down, and it was only with the coming of iron implements, in the later first millennium BCE and the early first millennium CE, that people could properly start clearing areas of forest for agriculture. Your access to this site was blocked by Wordfence, a security provider, who protects sites from malicious activity. In river floodplains. So too did the more widespread infestation of tsetse fly, which set a limit of animal transport. As a result of these factors, throughout Africas premodern history, locations where densely-populated farming societies could emerged, and in which urban civilizations could be built, have been fewer and more scattered than most other regions of the world. -----BEGIN REPORT----- Interesting Facts about Traditional Religions of Ancient Africa The people of the Mali Empire believed in a magical force called "nyama." The religious beliefs of Africans impacted all aspects of their everyday lives including their food, work, and family life. Olikenyi (2001) explains that, African hospitality which he contends is a vital aspect of existence in Africa in general, is one of the few facets of ancient African culture that is still intact and strongly Many of largest population concentrations in Africa remained entirely stateless, their constituent communities jealously guarding their independence. Given the nomadic nature of these societies the spiritual power in question could not be tied to a particular area might, indeed, be a universal spirit who controlled all the land. In folktales, the rewards for perseverance, intelligence and courage were wives, children, status, wealth, and security in other words, to become a Big Man. All women married, as early as possible. Segmentary lineage societies are characterised by the foremost importance of kin relationships in determining individuals' social and political allegiances, as well as their patterns of residence. Diving into that variation, a new analysis of 180 indigenous Africans from a dozen ethnically, culturally . Otherwise, large urban settlements were rare: Great Zimbabwe, Mbaza Kongo, and a handful of other towns were exceptional. It is an environment in which they feel at home and which provides them with all the necessities of life; however, they can live here in only small numbers, in scattered family bands which are constantly on the move. There was constant tension between the generations, which could spill over into real violence. Elsewhere, transport being limited to human porterage meant that there was little long-distance trade. Canoes came in all sizes on the great rivers, and were probably the cheapest form of transport; but, of sub-Saharan rivers, only the Niger and Congo were navigable for any distance along their length. In other traditional African societies, class structure has been based on levels of control or servitude. The usual form of marriage was through bride-wealth a groom exchanged a portion for his wealth to a brides family in order to marry her. The Islamic Revolution was a disaster for Persia in general, I've spent some time in Iran touring the historical sites, Mt Bisitun, Persepolis, Pasargedae, etc, it's a beautiful country with a cultured and ancient people, they've suffered a lot under the Ayatollahs since the Shah was driven out, despite negative Western stereotypes I found . 1. OTBhNmZkZTE4ZDBjMTQzMTljMWY4NDIyMjYxZmIwY2JkZjc4OTk4ZGE1OWMx On the other hand, to maintain status and authority required a Big Man to be generous why else would other men want to be his followers? Egyptians believed that the gods controlled the universe. They seem mostly to have been related to the present-day San people of southern Africa. They are in a style of idealized naturalism, most representing kings at the height of their powers. The work they did tended to be less valued than the mens: mundane work in the fields and in the house, rather than the demanding work of clearing the bush, which established a mans rights to a piece of land. By utilizing this acronym, students can compartmentalize their findings and . Religious and medical knowledge was interwoven, and was mysterious to the community at large (except in so far as the healing properties of many plants were commonly appreciated). Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, this often took the form of inter-generational tensions between elder males with multiple wives and younger males with no wives. NDJiMmE4NmUzM2JjYWVjMzMwOGIyMzIwMTJjODRhNTY1YjBiYWE5ZTA5NTIx Later, they faced competition from Hausa traders, who created an even more far flung network. Such organizations had strong parallels with modern corporations, with agents stationed in towns scattered over the area where they operated. Such famines were usually caused by drought, but plagues of locusts or unseasonably heavy rains could also devastate crops. He therefore possessed both religious and secular authority within his community. In the forests of West Africa and the Congo Basin, yams and plantains were the staple crop. The foundation myths of several states, including the kingdom of Benin, tell of populations inviting a foreigner to settle among them, to settle their disputes and provide them with leadership. One group of industrial workers should be mentioned in this context, although they were not strictly speaking craftsmen in the normal use of the term. Even the Swahili trading ports of East Africa such as Lamu, Mombasa, Kilwa and Zanzibar, home to a sophisticated Arab-African culture, were strung out along the coastline with great distances between them. Click here to be redirected to our dedicated TimeMaps help section. MzE4Y2I3MDllMDBjODdjOGU4NDEwZGMxMWUzYzYxMDlmYmI2OWNiZmY1MGMw Such states could also organize the colonization of outlying areas in a more systematic fashion, perhaps under the leadership of a prince of the royal family. There were, however, networks of long-distance trade criss-crossing the continent from an early date. Also the leaders were chosen if they were the strongest to beat everyone who opposed them or the smartest as in the most strategic (Adams, 2016). Africa was not just the birthplace of humanity but also the cradle of early civilisations that made an immense contribution to the world and are still marvelled at today. Fewer than 30 examples have survived, all made by the lost wax process. Eventually, however, immigrant rulers usually learnt to co-exist with local religious practitioners. Ghana was the first empire of ancient Africa. They believed in both good and bad spirits. Like the gold miners they were also hereditary, and in fact formed a distinct ethnic group within desert society. Zip. Even large towns often resembled several villages grouped together, with each lineage group in its own walled sector. One group in African society, which made up probably a tiny proportion of the whole but which had an influence out of all proportion to its size, were the traders. Those humans whose livelihood depended on adventuring into the bush hunters above all but also herbalists and iron workers, who needed wood for their furnaces were regarded with awe, for they must be protected by strong magic to survive such trips. African cultivators have generally taken great pride in their skills. 7th-13th century). Sometimes the growth of these village clusters went unchecked by major famine or disease for a long time. It was here our earliest ancestors evolved. Some towns specialized in a particular industry, such as leather-making, bead-making or metal-work, for which they were renowned over a large area. However, populations of pygmies also inhabited large tracts of tropical forest which covered much of equatorial and western Africa. African ritual experts learnt thousands of verses of religious and wisdom poetry, and expounded the appropriate one to guide kings and ministers as they resolved disputes; Rememberers treasured the traditions and histories of the kingdoms; and traders astonished early European travelers with their powers of recall. Pastoralists had come down the Nile Valley and then spread out across the grasslands of Africa, down as far as the Great Lakes region of central Africa. More often, they might be tested by a poison ordeal and if found guilty, put to death, often with great cruelty. Ironically, this attractive landscape posed a barrier to the spread of traditional farming southward, as sub-Saharan agriculture had adapted itself to tropical conditions. Perhaps the highland areas which have had most impact on the history of Africa have been the Ethiopian Highlands, which have sheltered Africas only historic Christian state; and the highlands of southern Africa, which have played a key role in that regions history. Some of these clearings became large enough, over generations, to include many villages and so become the basis for chiefdoms, or even kingdoms. The limited nature of urbanization greatly restricted transport, trade and industry. Surrounding this would be rings of less and less dense settlement and fields, eventually merging into the surrounding bush. Although they originated in the Indian Ocean, they played no major role in East African trade. A medieval (c. 1220-1450) kingdom located in modern-day Zimbabwe. Throughout Africa, bearing and bringing up children was probably the most vital task after brute survival. Many chiefdoms and kingdoms in all parts of sub-Saharan Africa have been formed by pastoral clans dominating agricultural populations. Equality was very important in these tribes and all people were treated equally. The ancient structure is the last surviving wonder of the ancient world. This crosses much of the continent from east to west, from the Atlantic coast to the highlands of Ethiopia. For cultivators in particular, any religious beliefs were underpinned by a deeply-held idea about the world in which they found themselves. This was greatly feared, as it could spring up in communities and tear them apart. Keywords population phratries gene citizenship metics slavery Type Chapter Information To the south of the western savannah is the region of rainforest which encompasses the southern areas of West Africa and most of the Congo Basin. State formation At the opposite end of the scale, however, women probably made up the majority of slaves, and occupied a powerless and utterly dependent position in society. A further one thousand a year may have been taken each year through the Swahili ports and up the east coast of Africa, destined for the Middle East and South Asia. The sparser population of eastern, central and southern Africa, compared with western Africa, reduced the scale and impact of commercial activity. Much dance was narrative in purpose, telling and retelling myths and stories. In agricultural communities the status of women varied greatly. This was almost universal throughout Africa, and was a painful, even traumatic ceremony by which boys entered adulthood. In fact, cults involving rain shrines and weather gods might command the loyalty of people over a wide area, a form of worship practiced side-by-side with that concerning the spirits of the land. We learn about their beliefs and religion and the important structures that still stand in Egypt today. It was by no means uncommon for a brave young man to capture a young wife and run off with her. It has been noted that herding peoples had a stronger tendency to believe in a high god, whilst cultivators were more likely to worship many gods. Many African societies therefore experienced considerable social mobility. African societies never really ceased to be colonizing societies, and this profoundly influenced all aspects of African culture. Most crafts supplied local markets, even when using high levels of skill. The Rhodes-Livingstone Papers. These were societies that had no. YzZiNWViMjQ5Iiwic2lnbmF0dXJlIjoiNTc2NWJhZDg5MGU4Y2RkZTIxYTFi Ancient Africa had many different societies, but they can be roughly categorized into four types. As warriors they would cultivate a military ethos and be sent out to military outposts to guard the groups cattle and territory. All Africans believed in spiritual beings. Most involved a keen belief in spirits of different kind; of the afterlife; of a spiritual dimension to the land; and of evil. This arrangement had the double benefit of giving the group as a whole more security and leaving the older men at home in more secure possession of their wives. The specifics of the caste systems in Africa vary among . Only the driest and coolest regions escaped this disease. This had probably been first introduced to sub-Saharan Africa by Portuguese or Arab visitors, but the fact that it had been picked up by local healers and spread from people to people over hundreds of miles shows how open they were to new approaches. Conversely, most men could afford only one wife, if that. Their repertoire involved rituals, spells, dances and trances, as well as more practical applications such as herbs and ointments. Therefore, it was important to keep them happy. This categorization was not hard and fast. There was intense competition for women, and great inequality in access to them. An isolated region YjU5YTA2MjA2ZTZjNTRkNmQ0OTBmNzIzM2EzZTIyZWFlMDBlMGViZTQzMDMw Secondly there was the nobles, people who fought in the King's army and provided it with weapons. As a result, production was often labour-intensive, in a part of the world where labour was already scarce. Climatic zones The Bantu, a large group of related peoples, originated along what is now the border between NIGERIA and CAMEROON and spread throughout central and southern Africa. The ancientness of the continents rocks, whose minerals have leeched out over the aeons, mean that the soil is generally of a poor quality, posing challenges for farmers. To the Western mind, at least, this aspect of religion was indistinguishable from magic, and was in the hands of mediums, priests, diviners and healers. There might also be slaves who had been reduced to their lowly status through some misfortune or other famine, debt or even captivity in war. They assimilated into society by reaffirming . Big Men had four, five or more wives. In many societies, the village chief, as the senior descendant of the founding ancestor, was deemed to have a special relationship with the spirit world. OGFiY2MzM2UxNTEyOTJjNWUxYWE1ZmEyODEwNDc0MzU5OTRkZmNhNThmOTM0 A hard environment Some owed their rise to the wealth gained from long-distance trade. Circumstances might have been against African societies in the effort to create advanced material cultures, but this did not stop some of them from producing some of the most highly regarded works of art known to man. In some cases such children were castrated as a further measure to reduce ambition they would not then be able to establish an independent dynasty. -----END REPORT-----. Together with drought, famine, epidemic, violence, and an unforgiving food-producing environment, it is easy to see how African populations struggled to grow. States emerged in the forest regions to the south from the end of the first millennium, while in the equatorial forests and grasslands of central, east and southern Africa the state-building process did not start until the early- to mid-second millennium. An Awilu was a free person who belonged to the affluent and wealthy upper class and enjoyed grants and benefits. However the more organized societies such kingdoms had groups of full-time professional craftsmen. A common idea was that the founders of a particular community, on first settling the area, had made a pact with the spirits of the land in order to ensure good harvests. This meant that they usually lived in small and highly mobile bands, building temporary shelters as they move from place to place. The beginning of the Atlantic slave trade in the late 1400s disrupted African societal structure as Europeans infiltrated the West African coastline, drawing people from the center of the continent to be sold into slavery. The pastoralists tended to inhabit the desert and Sahel regions, leaving most of the savannah and forest regions to the farmers. Ancient African Civilizations: East. A popular form of leisure was a board game called mankala. This maximizes opportunities for violent clashes with other groups, and their societies tend to be more militaristic. Through history, Africa has had an exceptionally hostile environment in terms of the diseases which could strike humans and their animals; and of the regions, West Africa was probably the most dangerous. The art of ancient African was just as diverse as its cultures, languages, and political structures. MjM4NWRlOGNlZmQ4MDIzY2IzMTRjYWZhNjM1N2RmNjNjZDdlMjU4N2NlNGNl Some of these lived permanently in one town, but others spent much of their time wandering from town to town, market to market, with their wares. In cattle-herding societies, and some crop-growing societies which were in close proximity to them, the young men were grouped into an age set of junior warriors. Africa has an exceptionally hostile disease environment, West Africa most of all; malaria, leprosy, tsetse fly and smallpox are only a few of the killer diseases of the continent, attacking not only humans but, in the last case, their animals as well. After about A.D. 500, several centrally organized, warring states appeared in parts of Africa. OTE0MDljOTVhZWU3M2Q2ZmQ2ZGFhNWZmOTE2N2FmZWM0MGJhM2I5YzYxZjZm These requirements imposed a considerable constraint on the ability of Big Men to accumulate material wealth; and in many cases his status was precarious. Here, the early settlers often used fire to clear the bush, and over large swathes of East and Central Africa in particular, thick forest was reduced to, first, open woodland, and then, in some places, to treeless steppe, more suited to cattle herding than crop production. Of the outlying settlements, only the more successful ones would survive. When Europeans arrived in the region, in the 1500s, they found only a small population of hunter-gatherers there. Much more frequently however, a kingdom simply fragmented into its constituent population clusters. In some societies which were sparsely scattered across the land, such a group might form its own hamlet or small village. OWNmYWU3NDdmYzFiZjMxNzdiMjg0ZDI2ZDQxMjMzZWMyNjUwZGQwZTg4Mzg0 The shores of these large bodies of water have been suitable for intensive agriculture, allowing some of Africas most notable kingdoms to flourish. Hypothesis 2: Social structures cause inequity and injustice against the meaningful participating in economic decision-making and benefiting from opportunities in a society. The earliest kingdoms we know of in West Africa, such as Ghana and Mali, were located at strategic points in the trans-Saharan trade network. Originally, there were two Egyptian kingdoms. This was Islam, which gradually spread throughout the region over a number of centuries. MzVjNDBhYTk5MTk1YTUxYzM0ODRjOTE3MGZiNmNiNjg5MWQ5NGYxNDBiNDdm The resulting dissent, fueled by machismo, ambition, or desire for land, might lead to the exodus of a group of young men to a new location. The larger oases house trading towns and farming communities. Yet there is still debate about how many species of elephant bird there actually were. Anthropologists have noted that much of the education of the young has involved attaining an incredibly detailed knowledge of soils and plants, and their properties. By the time they reached modern South Africa the dominant peoples were all pastoralists. This was usually played communally, and noisily, in the open air, with plenty of noise. Next were the farmers. However, every tribe needs some sort of hierarchy. Most weaving was done by women, but in some major textile centers weavers were full-time professional men. However, state-building was not a straightforward process in African conditions. Indeed, at times such trading organizations were able to take over large areas and establish small states. This would exacerbate the already existing social fault-lines which afflicted all such societies. HUM 2213 Midterm Paper essay. Not a few chiefly dynasties traced their ancestry back to such a figure. NmQ3NzU3NWZiNGRmMjNjOWYyMzgyNGI5NTRhMWYxMDU4YzQ3NDY5ZWFiYmU3 The great majority of this area is far too dry for agriculture whether crop cultivation or animal grazing of any kind. All these diseases were, despite higher levels of resistance in indigenous populations to foreign ones (West Africa in particular would become known as the The White Mans Grave) were all widespread killers. They have used a wide range of techniques, building up the productivity of the land through manuring, terracing, and digging channels to lead water from stream to field, sometimes across wooden aqueducts.