ancient african social structure

This would exacerbate the already existing social fault-lines which afflicted all such societies. OTE0MDljOTVhZWU3M2Q2ZmQ2ZGFhNWZmOTE2N2FmZWM0MGJhM2I5YzYxZjZm Egyptian society was structured like a pyramid. These requirements imposed a considerable constraint on the ability of Big Men to accumulate material wealth; and in many cases his status was precarious. Each passage features one paragraph of informational text and 4 multiple-choice questions. This close concentration of dwellings formed the core of the villages. The obstacles to population growth meant that there was always plenty of land available for new settlement. The Sahara desert forms a major barrier to contacts between the cities and states of the Mediterranean region and the peoples to its south. The main structure of the Awilu class people were considered precious in Hammurabi's Code and they were richer than the other two majorclasses in the society. On the whole, though, anthropologist have emphasized the rational, experimental nature of African medicine. From the 17th century onwards, indigenous African crops were supplemented by crops introduced from America, especially maize, cassava, beans and sweet potatoes. The advancements made in the ancient world continue to influence our societies today. First adopted by Western scholars, the notion of caste in West Africa refers to a form of hierarchical social classification of individuals into . By then, however, a countervailing force was at work on the continent, which would put a stop to any expansion in population for two hundred years. If the demands of royal authority became too onerous, in the form of heavy taxes, say, or the demands made for public projects or service in the royal army, people could (and did) simply up and leave. The histories and cultures of Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia and North Africa are covered elsewhere. In some kingdoms, such as Songhai and the Hausa states in West Africa, and Kongo and Luba in Equatorial Africa, slave labour was on a larger scale than in other places. 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. An isolated region Even so, until the start of the second millennium they inhabited large areas across the continent, in the wide spaces left vacant by farmers and pastoralists. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1969) p.33 Lucy P. Mair, "African Marriage and Social Change," in Survey of African Marriage and Family Life, Edited by Arthur Phillips, (London: Oxford University Press, 1953). To survive in these harsh conditions a person needed his kin around him. Cotton and woolen textiles were probably introduced at the same time, and by the 16th century cotton had become a form of currency amongst some peoples in southern Africa (for example the Shona). This was greatly feared, as it could spring up in communities and tear them apart. European travelers to Africa were surprised to find, even in the interior of the continent, inoculation being practiced. 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. -----BEGIN REPORT----- The Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. OTIxY2QzNGMwMmQ0OGI0YWIzNDFhOThjNGU4ZTVhM2IzYjQyOTkzYjMwZmNk This process started to happen at different times according to region. The surviving examples re terracotta, though there may well have been a much more substantial tradition of wood carving which lay behind these. As warriors they would cultivate a military ethos and be sent out to military outposts to guard the groups cattle and territory. This was Islam, which gradually spread throughout the region over a number of centuries. These West African trade systems were facilitated by an international currency based on cowrie shells, whose distinctive appearance, durability, and limited supply made them very suitable for such a role. However, every tribe needs some sort of hierarchy. In large settlements religion and healing was in the hands of professionals, whose interests naturally lay in keeping such matters out of the reach of the general populace. Egyptian culture has six thousand years of recorded history. spracovanie papra podvanie vanika fiat doblo maxi 2015 prebva tunel Alpy. Farming populations have therefore sought out well-watered locations such as river banks, lakesides and moist depressions. Over the millennia they have become highly adapted to life in an ecosystem which is fiercely hostile to other peoples. Women predominated in small-scale trade as market sellers, which gave those involved considerable economic independence. The narrow Nile corridor was home for one of the greatest and earliest of all human civilizations, ancient Egypt; but south of Egypt a series of impassable rapids severely limits contact with the interior of Africa. NmQ3NzU3NWZiNGRmMjNjOWYyMzgyNGI5NTRhMWYxMDU4YzQ3NDY5ZWFiYmU3 YjU5YTA2MjA2ZTZjNTRkNmQ0OTBmNzIzM2EzZTIyZWFlMDBlMGViZTQzMDMw Rulers displayed their power by the number of retainers they had, and the sophistication of their court, where urbanity, eloquence, and quickness of wit were cultivated. 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. NzA0NTc2MTNjMDFjMzQ0ODY3ODRmNjZhMzc0ZGFjNDExMDIzN2VhMGNhNGE4 These probably belonged mostly to hereditary groups, often closely associated with the monarchy they were sometimes high-status slaves who lived within the palace precinct; in other towns they were members of guild-like organizations under their own chiefs. The gold miners of West Africa formed a hereditary, and in some ways privileged, group of workers. The absence of roads very labour-intensive for scattered communities to construct and maintain wheeled vehicles such as carts could not be used. Pastoralist and farming communities have therefore lived in close proximity, which has been a major factor in state formation in these regions. Camels were employed in the long-distance trans-Saharan trade, and donkeys were the normal mode of transport in the West African savannah. The surrounding bush remained untamed, wild, a source of harm, the abode of dangerous animals and evil spirits. 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.if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'timemaps_com-leader-4','ezslot_13',198,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-timemaps_com-leader-4-0');if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'timemaps_com-leader-4','ezslot_14',198,'0','1'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-timemaps_com-leader-4-0_1'); .leader-4-multi-198{border:none !important;display:block !important;float:none !important;line-height:0px;margin-bottom:15px !important;margin-left:auto !important;margin-right:auto !important;margin-top:15px !important;max-width:100% !important;min-height:250px;min-width:250px;padding:0;text-align:center !important;}. Underpopulation, and the difficulties that this created for taxation and control, meant that the kind of bureaucracies which invented literacy in Sumer or Egypt could not emerge in the African context. Social mobility It offers a general survey of the geographical environments they inhabited; their settlements, social structures and economies; and their religions and cultures. Egypt and Nubia were both complex civilizations ruled by a monarchy and the leader was often considered the god on Earth In Africa it has become clear that characteristics depend on economic development. Ancient Civilizations are typically taught focusing on the key areas of: Geography, Religion, Achievements, Politics, Economy and Social Structure using the acronym G.R.A.P.E.S. MzcwNTgyZmZmMzczNDJkYzBjMmNjNmRjNTg1N2I5ZjkyMjExNjNjOGY5NTFh These factors have acted as constraints on population growth right up to modern times, and historically sub-Saharan Africa has remained an under-populated region. Compounding these difficulties, sub-Saharan Africa has been largely cut-off from the great centers of civilization elsewhere in Eurasia. Equality was very important in these tribes and all people were treated equally. There were many African societies which have been classified by political historians as stateless or de-centralized. It was only with the spread of the Fulani herdsmen across West Africa in the 2nd millennium that pastoralists would begin to live in areas between agricultural clusters, a development which would have a major impact on the history of this region in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the Kingdom of Axum, like many other kingdoms of its time, there was a social structure or hierarchy level. An Awilu was a free person who belonged to the affluent and wealthy upper class and enjoyed grants and benefits. This was a strategy to counter a shortage of population, embarking on war and raids with the deliberate intention of taking captives to build up a concentration of unfree farmers under direct royal control. 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 sculptural tradition in West Africa goes back to the terracotta figures of the Nok culture of the early first millennia BCE and CE, and began to reach a peak in the 13th and14th centuries in Ife, in Yorubaland (in modern day Nigeria). There was constant tension between the generations, which could spill over into real violence. A large number of top officials in Hausaland, in West Africa, were eunuchs. 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. Further south a huge, well-nigh impenetrable swamp, the Sud, acts as a further major barrier. Where there is a spring, a lake or a river, however, cultivation is possible, and in some areas, for example in the inner delta of the River Niger (see below), or on the shores of Lake Chad in West Africa, or the Great Lakes of central Africa, intensive cultivation has allowed concentrations of dense population to grow up. MDg2MzFiMDZmODM4NDFlY2UyNjFkYzVlM2U3MWExNTI3ODU4YmEyZTM3NWYx The original settlers became the founding ancestors of the new community, and because it was they who had struck the original pact with the spirits of the land, it was they alone who could communicated with them, even (or especially) after death. Apart from the Nile, all these are blocked by rapids fairly near their mouths, as a result of which seagoing craft have not been able to sail far into the interior of Africa. With the evolving of African settlements into bigger towns and cities, the Caste system slowly began to take shape and become a distinctive social structure. Suspects were often the victims of mob violence. Some owed their rise to the wealth gained from long-distance trade. They also had a reputation for being independent-minded. Connected with this, feats of memory were a key part of African religious, political and commercial life. There is a direct link between a strong democratic state and a prosperous and attractive country.' He therefore possessed both religious and secular authority within his community. The specifics of the caste systems in Africa vary among . There was intense competition for women, and great inequality in access to them. MjM4NWRlOGNlZmQ4MDIzY2IzMTRjYWZhNjM1N2RmNjNjZDdlMjU4N2NlNGNl MzJiMzEwNzkwMzQ0MDVhMWZmOTU0NzM1MzMzMmE1ZDE4MGY5ZjkyNzY5ZDA2 Only the driest and coolest regions escaped this disease. The limited nature of urbanization greatly restricted transport, trade and industry. One way in which the older generation could impose its control on the younger was through initiation. 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. Oratory, debate, story-telling, poetry and conversation were all held in high esteem, and were developed into a highly sophisticated art at the royal courts of African kingdoms and chiefdoms. MzVjNDBhYTk5MTk1YTUxYzM0ODRjOTE3MGZiNmNiNjg5MWQ5NGYxNDBiNDdm Dance was the most important African cultural form, central to communal festivals, religious ceremonies and masquerades. These encompass the worship of gods, ancestors and spirits, and are based on an understanding that the spiritual infuses every aspect of daily life. Not a few chiefly dynasties traced their ancestry back to such a figure. With the growing emphasis on cattle herding, infant survival must have profited from increased milk supplies, especially when cattle-keeping enabled their owners to colonize the malaria-free highlands which cover much of eastern and souther Africa. The rain forests are very dense. As in other parts of the world, textile crafts were widespread. 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. Village clusters would be located in areas suitable for intensive crop production river valleys, floodplains, lakesides and other well-watered places. The trans-Saharan trade was carried in caravans made up of sometimes hundreds of camels. By the time they reached modern South Africa the dominant peoples were all pastoralists. Conversely, most men could afford only one wife, if that. The same eye for beauty and spirit, along with a zest for color and pattern, was revealed in countless textile works from all over the continent. Ancient Africa had many different societies, but they can be roughly categorized into four types. This reflects the much more limited role of trade outside West Africa. The abundant insect life of the tropics makes for a very high prevalence of serious diseases, for both humans and their animals; this greatly constrains the rates at which populations can grow. This situation was exacerbated by the extreme competitiveness which members of such societies displayed, in a situation where ones status was not inherited but was down to ones own abilities and cunning. Surrounding this would be rings of less and less dense settlement and fields, eventually merging into the surrounding bush. However, state-building was not a straightforward process in African conditions. A patchy record. They then had no option but to throw themselves on the mercy of others by begging, a very common fate in traditional African society. 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. In eastern and southern Africa, the folded landscape laid down by tectonic activity millions of years ago means that highland farming areas are interspersed with dry lowlands, suitable only for herding cattle. In the rest of Africa towns were few and far between. Linguistically, acculturation among Africans has been much slower than among Indians. Many of largest population concentrations in Africa remained entirely stateless, their constituent communities jealously guarding their independence. Secondly there was the nobles, people who fought in the King's army and provided it with weapons. In Ghana Mali, and later in Songhai, kings ruled, but there were no queens, as odd as it was. A man needed wives and children to help him cultivate his fields or keep his cattle, to give him support in old age, and to provide him with descendants whose veneration would aide him in the afterlife. If the demands of royal authority became too onerous, in the form of heavy taxes, say, or the demands made for public projects or service in the royal army, people could (and did) simply up and leave en masse. The art of ancient African was just as diverse as its cultures, languages, and political structures. makes it the largest ancient structure south of the Sahara Desert. State formation As one should expect for such a vast region as sub-Saharan Africa, with its thousands of societies and cultures, religious beliefs and practices varied enormously. The General History of Africa ( Ki-Zerbo, et al. Yet there is still debate about how many species of elephant bird there actually were. Their repertoire involved rituals, spells, dances and trances, as well as more practical applications such as herbs and ointments. To judge by reports of early European travelers, many Africans had the misfortune to find themselves without kin, and unable to work. 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. 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. 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. In some societies the wives even retained ownership of their family property after marriage. In : General history of Africa, V: Africa from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, 5, p. 895-905 Language : English Also available in : Also available in : Franais Also available in : Portugus Year of publication : 1992 Licence type : CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. M2M4NGNlYzZmM2IzNmFlYTA3OGFjMDcwMWRiZjdmY2UyMzM5ZDg5OTcwNjA1 The staple crops varied throughout sub-Saharan Africa. preskmanie poter pomocnk plavaren zatvor hodiny figra Menagerry vodivos. Begins with an engaging introduction, including an original thesis of the essay's main point Identifies three (3) civilizations introduced in the first half of the class Compares and contrasts the values and beliefs of each civilization Provides specific evidence, including well-integrated, appropriate . What are Mali traditions? There were, however, networks of long-distance trade criss-crossing the continent from an early date. They did obeisance to their overlord, forwarded tribute to his court and providing men for his army. They also applied a wide range of ointments, and practiced bone setting, surgery and skilled midwifery. Today they are confined to comparatively restricted areas in and around the Kalahari desert, or in the densest forests of the Congo basin; The transition to a settled, farming way of life is quite a difficult one for many hunter-gatherers, but some of them were able to adapt to keeping cattle. Female slaves were employed as domestic servants or concubines. The Europeans then made use of existing (African) political structures, which proved themselves not primitive at all, to run the colonies. Gradually, the hunter-gatherers were squeezed off the best lands by the incoming pastoralists and cultivators, who were able to live in larger groups. When one of the regular famines struck, these individuals were the first to die. At a much higher level, some kingdoms gave high status to female members of the royal family. NGMzYjY2N2JjMDIxN2EyZWI0ZmM1ODc0MjY4OTQzYmM1YmJkMTViN2U5NjAw It is inhabited by the San hunter-gatherer people who have adapted their lifestyle to this forbidding environment over 20,000 years. At an individual and family level, dealing with the challenge to build up numbers manifested itself in the supreme importance attached to the production of children. All African towns, with but one or two exceptions such as Jenne in West Africa, were capitals of kingdoms. Metalwork held a special place in African culture. The savannah regions of West Africa specialized in millet and fonio, and further south, where rainfall was sufficient, sorghum. In eastern and southern Africa, the folded landscape laid down by tectonic activity millions of years ago means that highland farming areas are interspersed with dry lowlands, suitable only for herding cattle. The difficulties of transport noted above acted to restrict trade, and thus to the emergence of centers of specialist production. The salt miners, on the other hand, were a dependent group not much better than slaves. Much craft work in Africa, as in all pre-modern societies, was done on a part-time basis by farmers, particularly women. This is due to a number of factors. 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. The sparser population of eastern, central and southern Africa, compared with western Africa, reduced the scale and impact of commercial activity. 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. In West Africa, a new religious influence began to make itself felt in the later first millennium. HUM 2213 Midterm Paper essay. ZDQ1YTJjMTY4ZmNjMzllMjdlY2MwMTUyYmJiMDBiZTQ2M2IxYjg4OGY2YTBi Indeed, at times such trading organizations were able to take over large areas and establish small states. 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. 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. The environment of sub-Saharan Africa is one of the hardest environments for human populations to thrive in. The tsetse fly infested many wooded areas, especially along waterways, killing cattle and causing sleeping sickness amongst humans. In other traditional African societies, class structure has been based on levels of control or servitude. The caste system in India is not the only cultural institution designed to create divisions between social classes. However springs or small lakes allow oases of vegetation to flourish at scattered spots, sometimes hundreds of miles apart. By utilizing this acronym, students can compartmentalize their findings and . Establishing a new settlement was not just about clearing forest or scrub and creating fields for crops; it was about taming the land, seeking the permission of the spiritual forces which controlled a patch to settled on it, and making a contract with them to bless them with protection and fertility.

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