HIST 460 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Subsistence Agriculture, Polygyny, History Of Africa
HIST 460
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Gender, Politics, and Everyday Life in Ancient Africa
9/11/18
Week 2.1
The Antiquity and Diversity of Human Settlement in Africa
• Our earliest ancestors lived in eastern & southern Africa, 4-6 million years ago
o Anatomically modern humans—homo sapiens—evolved there about 200,000
years ago and slowly began to populate the rest of the world
• Africa’s especially long history of human settlement + vast size = Africa is the world’s
most diverse continent
o Despite tremendous diversity, there are some broad cultural connections rooted
in Africa’s deep history, which we’ll begin to consider
• Today: about 2,000 languages are spoken on the continent
• But there languages are related within a handful of groups
• Similarly, we can identify broader cultural connections in regard to gender—as well as
diversity
• How big is Africa?
o 11.6 million square miles
Deep Cultural Traditions of “Wealth in People”
• Historically, Africa has been rich in land
• But a lot of land in Africa has long been difficult to settle
o Especially true after the huge Sahara Desert formed, around 2500 BC
• And historically, Africa has had a very low population density
• So control over people has long been especially valuable to African leaders
o Leaders need people to work hard, to settle difficult landscapes
o Wars over land and treasure have been more common in European history
o Wars over control over people have been more common in African history
• What might this all have to do with gender?
When Populations Are Low and Lad is Plentiful, but Difficult:
• Fertility becomes extremely valuable
• Both men and women have to work
o How did most societies survive, before agriculture became widespread?
Hunters and Gatherers
• The oldest way to survive—and an enduring way, in the most difficult places (deserts
and rainforests)
• What do we know about what male and female hunter-gatherers did?
Hunter-Gatherers: Least Hierarchical; Most Flexible Gender Roles
• Lived in loosely-connected clans rather than centralized states
• Women did most gathering; men did most hunting
o But while men did big-game hunting, they also gathered
o Women also hunted, especially for smaller animals and birds
o Ethnographic evidence suggests that they shared parenting and other tasks
o Archaeological evidence shows they ate more gathered foods than meat
• Similarly, gender roles were relatively flexible in mobile, pastoralist societies
• How did gender roles differ in settled, farming societies?
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More Centralized Societies, More Gendered Divisions
• Farming societies: developed initially around rivers, using iron tools
• Agriculture became common south of the Sahara after 1000 BC, as cattle-keeping
farmers speaking Bantu languages populated the continent
• More settled households→ centralized states and firmer gender roles
• What new gender roles emerged in farming societies?
Gender Roles in Ancient Farming Societies
• Divisions of labor for clearing and farming land
• Women prepared food and were the primary parents
• Men tended livestock and built and maintained housing
• Men generally made iron tools, while women generally made pottery
• What major transformations were happening in Africa beginning early in the first
millennium AD?
Expansion of Global Trade and World Religions
• By early first millennium AD, traders were crossing the Sahara on camels; dhows,
traveling with monsoon winds, were sailing the Indian Ocean coast
• Christianity became Ethiopia’s state religion in the 4th century
• Islam spread in the North (7th century), and into West and East Africa (8th-13th centuries)
• As global connections grew, wealthier and bigger states formed in medieval Africa, with
new hierarchies and distinctive forms of men’s and women’s power
Men as Political Leaders
• Most leaders of expanding states were men, who secured their power in war or by
gaining wealth in long-distance trade
• But women also took on leadership in medieval African states—how?
Women as Social Leaders
• Women often led religious and educational ceremonies
o Older women and royal women were especially powerful
o Example of girls’ initiation ceremonies at Great Zimbabwe
• Why do you think these gender roles might have come about?
Motherhood as Constraint and Power
• Women were primary caregivers for children, which prevented them from going to war or
on distant trade expeditions (basis of men’s growing power)
• Once they had given birth, women were also seen as “closer to the ancestors” in African
indigenous religions, giving them social and spiritual authority
Gender and the Ancestors in African Indigenous Religions
• African indigenous religions generally believe in one creator-god
o God often described as a mother of creation
• God didn’t meddle in everyday affairs—that’s the role of spirits and your ancestors
o To talk to God, you had to work through your ancestors and spirits
o Near-death experiences like childbirth brought you closer to this other world
o Spirit mediums (male or female) were often called “wives” of their spirit (male or
female)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
