Droughts, Food and Culture

by Hassan, Fekri A.

• ISBN13: 9780306467554
• ISBN10: 0306467550
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-03-01
• Publisher: Plenum Pub Corp

Summary

Recent droughts in Africa and elsewhere in the world, from China to Peru, have serious implications for food security and grave consequences for local and international politics. The issues do not just concern the plight of African peoples, but also our global ecological future. Global climatic changes become manifest initially in regions that are marginal or unstable. Africa's Sahel zone is one of the most sensitive climatic regions in the world and the events that have gripped that region beginning in the 1970's were the first indicator of a significant shift in global climatic conditions. This work aims to bring archaeology with the domain on contemporary human affairs and to forge a new methodology for coping with environmental problems from an archaeological perspective. Using the later prehistory of Africa as a comparison, the utility of this methodological strategy in interpreting culture change and assessing long-term response to current, global climatic fluctuations is examined and understood.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	xiii
List of Tables	xvii
Introduction	1	(10)
F.A. Hassan
Palaeoclimate, Food and Culture Change in Africa: An Overview	11	(16)
F.A. Hassan
Section I: Climatic Change	27	(78)
Rapid Holocene Climate Changes in the Eastern Mediterranean	35	(12)
E. J. Rohling
J. Casford
R. Abu-Zied
S. Cooke
D. Mercone
J. Thomson
I. Croudace
F. J. Jorissen
H. Brinkhuis
J. Kallmeyer
G. Wefer
Climate During the Late Holocene in the Sahara and the Sahel: Evolution and Consequences on Human Settlement	47	(18)
R. Vernet
Late Pleistocene and Holocene Climatic Changes in the Central Sahara: The Case Study of the Southwestern Fezzan, Libya	65	(18)
M. Cremaschi
Late Holocene Climatic Fluctuations and Historical Records of Famine in Ethiopia	83	(12)
M.U. Mohammed
R. Bonnefille
Environmental and Human Responses to Climatic Events in West and West Central Africa During the Late Holocene	95	(10)
M.A. Sowunmi
Section II: Plant Cultivation	105	(84)
Regional Pathways to Agriculture in Northeast Africa	111	(12)
H.N. Barakat
From Hunter and Gatherers to Food Producers: New Archaeological and Archaeobotanical Evidence from the West African Sahel	123	(34)
P. Breunig
K. Neumann
Holocene Climatic Changes in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Spread of Food Production from Southwest Asia to Egypt	157	(14)
M. Rossignol-Strick
Sustainable Agriculture in a Harsh Environment: An Ethiopian Perspective	171	(18)
A. Butler
Section III: Pastoralism	189	(146)
The Evidence for the Earliest Livestock in North Africa: Or Adventures with Large Bovids, Ovicaprids, Dogs and Pigs	195	(14)
A. Gautier
Cultural Responses to Climatic Changes in North Africa: Beginning and Spread of Pastoralism in the Sahara	209	(16)
B.E. Barich
Dry Climatic Events and Cultural Trajectories: Adjusting Middle Holocene Pastoral Economy of the Libyan Sahara	225	(26)
S. di Lernia
Food Security in Western and Central Africa During the Late Holocene: The Role of Domestic Stock Keeping, Hunting and Fishing	251	(24)
W. Van Neer
Bovines in Egyptian Predynastic and Early Dynastic Iconography	275	(46)
S. Hendrickx
Conclusion
Ecological Changes and Food Security in the Later Prehistory of North Africa: Looking Forward	321	(14)
F. A. Hassan
Index	335