ancient african social structure ancient african social structure

In many of the great kingdoms of Africa, administration was carried on entirely orally. On Thursday, scientists shared the discovery of a corridor inside the 4,500-year-old structure at an unveiling ceremony held at the Giza Plateau.. They were usually much younger than their husbands, and were expected to act in a submissive way towards him and his family. Art, literature and culture An Awilu was a free person who belonged to the affluent and wealthy upper class and enjoyed grants and benefits. 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 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. Ancient African Traditional Religions Before Christianity and Islamic In southern Africa the climate becomes temperate and Mediterranean. 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. The majority of townsmen, like villagers, were cultivators. 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. 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. 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. 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. It was not well suited to the milder, temperate climate of South Africa. South of the forest the grasslands resume, having skirted around the Congo Basin; but further south, on the western coast of south-central Africa, lies the Kalahari desert, smaller than the Sahara but perhaps even more arid. Younger men would set out to seduce or rape the young wives of their elders, and their elders would be determined to prevent this. By utilizing this acronym, students can compartmentalize their findings and . Ancient West Africa was characterized by rich culture, agriculture, and trade, composed of stateless societies without organized hierarchy or government. 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. Their impact on West African society, where trade networks were strongest, and along the East African coast, with its maritime links to the Middle East, was enormous. The difficulties of transport noted above acted to restrict trade, and thus to the emergence of centers of specialist production. Many African societies were highly competitive in the pursuit of status and wealth. Pastoralist people such as the Khoisan of southern Africa are closely related to San groups who still maintain their traditional hunting and foraging economy. The Discipline of International Relations (IR) has been broadly Eurocentric since its inception about a century ago. 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). To the south of the Sahara desert is the Savannah zone. OTZhNjdjMmQ4MzVlNTAyODMzY2ZjOTFlOWE3NjJkOGI5NjVmODQ2NGRhN2Y2 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. 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. 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. Culture of North Africa - Wikipedia 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. 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. A larger group of non-farmers was made up of craftsmen. 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. 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. YWZkYWVmMTM2NzEyZTQ1NTBhOWQ3NWRjZGNiNDQwMTUzN2M1NjlhZjE0NzUx 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. Originally, there were two Egyptian kingdoms. The contemporary political history of Africa is marked by imperialism, the expulsion of foreign powers and settler elites, and the post-independence travails of its roughly fifty states. Defence could become more organized, and they could build up their numbers by large raids on neighboring peoples and bring in captives as new (if somewhat disadvantaged) new settlers. 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. From the 17th century onwards, indigenous African crops were supplemented by crops introduced from America, especially maize, cassava, beans and sweet potatoes. Still others were created by nomadic pastoral groups imposing control over a population of farmers, such as the Fulani kingdoms in West Africa. This in turn placed a constraint of technological innovation. The ancient structure is the last surviving wonder of the ancient world. Gender and age differentials This crosses much of the continent from east to west, from the Atlantic coast to the highlands of Ethiopia. Malaria was probably the biggest killer, especially of infants. To have children was essential to an individuals social standing, to their welfare in old age, to their survival as ancestors, and to their lineages existence as an independent group in competitive and often violent societies. There was constant tension between the generations, which could spill over into real violence. The gold miners of West Africa formed a hereditary, and in some ways privileged, group of workers. Society & Culture in Early Africa - Video & Lesson Transcript - Study.com Social Structure - Ancient Africa - Kingdom of Axum Social Structure There was not very much information on this particular topic, but this is what I did find. Genomic study of indigenous Africans paints c | EurekAlert! They include the second largest freshwater lake in the world, Lake Victoria. Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions. Women who could not bear children were held in contempt, and by the same token male potency was esteemed. In fact, we should not think of communities of cultivators or pastoralists concentrating entirely on a single subsistence strategy. 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. The great majority of this area is far too dry for agriculture whether crop cultivation or animal grazing of any kind. When Europeans arrived in the region, in the 1500s, they found only a small population of hunter-gatherers there. 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 pastoralists tended to inhabit the desert and Sahel regions, leaving most of the savannah and forest regions to the farmers. The effects of disease were compounded by diets amongst crop-growing peoples low in animal protein and vitamins, in milk for infants, and, for many places, restricted access to clean fresh water. These have proved vital staging posts on the trade routes which cross the desert, allowing weary travelers to rest, and to water and feed their animals and themselves. The ancient structure is the last surviving wonder of the ancient world. The continent of Africa covers several broad climatic zones. Social Structure in Ancient Egypt - World History Encyclopedia In these, men did the more highly valued work of herding, protecting or raiding cattle, while women did the household chores and cultivated crops a lowly occupation in such societies. MjM4NWRlOGNlZmQ4MDIzY2IzMTRjYWZhNjM1N2RmNjNjZDdlMjU4N2NlNGNl 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. So too did the more widespread infestation of tsetse fly, which set a limit of animal transport. Other states were built around sacred shrines and their custodians, who enjoyed a concentration of religious authority which they were able to convert into political power. For cultivators in particular, any religious beliefs were underpinned by a deeply-held idea about the world in which they found themselves. The most spectacular practitioners of this were kings and chiefs, which gave rulers swarms of sons to contest the succession or fragment the state. In these circumstances the population might grow to a point where the availability of good land grew short. All this implies that womens status in African societies was low, and in some this was indeed the case, especially amongst cattle-herders. Its primary engagement with great-power rivalry, and universalisation of realist ideas of power, order, security, and national interestsprimarily built on Western Christian foundations of state and statecrafthave marginalised the significance of knowledge production in non . State formation Except in favorable locations, especially where fishing, or gathering aquatic resources, could supplement diets, hunting and foraging groups needed a large area of land on which to sustain themselves. In many places herders and cultivators, or cultivators and hunter-gatherers, lived in close proximity with each other, exchanging products on a regular basis. But humans also were traded: it has been estimated that from the mid-second millennium CE perhaps seven thousand captives a year were taken north across the Sahara from the south, to the slave markets of North Africa and the Middle East. 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. Fear of witchcraft was particularly virulent in concentrated settlements where interpersonal tensions could be high. The political history of Africa begins with the emergence of hominids, archaic humans andat least 200,000 years agoanatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens), in East Africa, and continues unbroken into the present as a patchwork of diverse and politically developing nation states. As we have seen, different African peoples specialized in different modes of food production hunter-gathering (and fishing), nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoralism, and cultivation of crops. In the Kingdom of Axum, like many other kingdoms of its time, there was a social structure or hierarchy level. 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. Metalwork held a special place in African culture. Their repertoire involved rituals, spells, dances and trances, as well as more practical applications such as herbs and ointments. Egypt reveals 9-metre long chamber inside Great Pyramid 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 . In times of famine, the people took to foraging, braving the wilderness to do so. This task would be helped by the fact that a defeated ruler had, by definition, been shown to have lost the support of the gods, and the victorious ruler had proved himself to be the more spiritually powerful. Under Muslim influence the game of dara became popular. Some cultivators worshipped a supreme god, particularly when seeking rain. 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. African cultivators have generally taken great pride in their skills. These colonizing pioneers would clear the forest or scrub, and divide the new fields between themselves as hereditary property. An isolated region Here are eight of Africa's greatest ancient civilizations. They are in a style of idealized naturalism, most representing kings at the height of their powers. The shores of these large bodies of water have been suitable for intensive agriculture, allowing some of Africas most notable kingdoms to flourish. The earlier populations were either absorbed into the incoming populations, or pressed, either further and further south or further and further into the rain forests. Spinning and weaving technologies remained comparatively primitive, and therefore labour intensive, but craftsmen and women produced cloth of high quality and often of great beauty. In the savannah and forest regions of West Africa, an international group of traders grew up named the Dyula, who achieved an impressive scale of organization to handle commercial activities over a very wide area. PDF The Undiluted African Community: Values, The Family, Orphanage and 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. The society of ancient Egypt was strictly divided into a hierarchy with the king at the top and then his vizier, the members of his court, priests and scribes, regional governors (eventually called 'nomarchs'), the generals of the military (after the period of the New Kingdom, c. 1570- c. 1069 BCE), artists and craftspeople, government overseers The first king was king Tenkamenin, and the second king of the Ghana Empire was Kaya Maghan. These ancestral spirits thus became the channel through which spiritual forces could be accessed. makes it the largest ancient structure south of the Sahara Desert. African societies were often fluid from one generation to another, however. The magnificent sculptures of the West African societies of Ife and Benin, for example, depict human figures in an idealized yet deeply moving way, and possess a serene majesty unsurpassed in human art. There is a direct link between a strong democratic state and a prosperous and attractive country.' Many of largest population concentrations in Africa remained entirely stateless, their constituent communities jealously guarding their independence. The larger oases house trading towns and farming communities. Many captives were sold on to other peoples; there was an active slave trade in Africa. 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. African religions. 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. YzM1ZDJjMjdkYTczYjc3ODRiNDdmYThlOTY1N2E1MjViMmVlZDdiZjgxYWYz Most crafts supplied local markets, even when using high levels of skill. A womans standing and access to wealth was entirely dependent upon her husband. These operated as almost military organization, and required large investment to fund. Female slaves were employed as domestic servants or concubines. This crosses the content from its west coast to the east coast. YzZiNWViMjQ5Iiwic2lnbmF0dXJlIjoiNTc2NWJhZDg5MGU4Y2RkZTIxYTFi 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 society was structured like a pyramid. Such famines were usually caused by drought, but plagues of locusts or unseasonably heavy rains could also devastate crops. Even large towns often resembled several villages grouped together, with each lineage group in its own walled sector. New findings from a study of 12 diverse groups in Africa shed new light on the origin of modern humans, ancient . The surrounding bush remained untamed, wild, a source of harm, the abode of dangerous animals and evil spirits. These encompass the worship of gods, ancestors and spirits, and are based on an understanding that the spiritual infuses every aspect of daily life. Here, captives of both sexes were settled in royal estates and set to work there, effectively as serfs. The most spectacular practitioners of this were kings and chiefs, which gave rulers swarms of sons to contest the succession or fragment the state. Social structure | Definition, Examples, Theories, & Facts It has therefore been comparatively isolated from the influences which have cross-fertilized and enriched historical societies elsewhere. MDg2MzFiMDZmODM4NDFlY2UyNjFkYzVlM2U3MWExNTI3ODU4YmEyZTM3NWYx In larger population clusters, each village would be similarly surrounded by rings of fields and outlying woodland separating it from neighboring villages. Having said all this, disease remained common, debilitating and in may cases, fatal. 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. Environment and population, Village society Long-distance trade rested chiefly on high value goods produced only in confined areas. Yet there is still debate about how many species of elephant bird there actually were. Grade 5 - Term 3: An ancient African society: Egypt Several high mountains rise up from the East African plains, most famously Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya. 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. Pastoralist and farming communities have therefore lived in close proximity, which has been a major factor in state formation in these regions.if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'timemaps_com-leader-2','ezslot_11',177,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-timemaps_com-leader-2-0'); Pastoralist communities are more dispersed, and much more mobile, than agricultural ones, as they follow their flocks and herds around in the search for good grazing. Much religious activity, however, was in the hands of religious specialists adept at making contact with the spirit world in order to influence the forces of nature. Sumer SOCIAL CLASSES - 8 CHARACTERISTICS OF A CIVILIZATION The greater number of people such a community embraced, the better it meant greater security for all, and more labour for the back-breaking work of keeping the bush at bay and clearing more land. Indigenous religions never died out, however, and the two belief-systems lived side by side in uneasy co-existence for a long time (indeed, they still do in parts of West Africa). Although it is generally agreed that the term social structure refers to . NzA0NTc2MTNjMDFjMzQ0ODY3ODRmNjZhMzc0ZGFjNDExMDIzN2VhMGNhNGE4 They required widespread international contacts to be successful. Thus, a comparatively few number of men had access to the majority of women, meaning that the majority of men had little or no access. Most weaving was done by women, but in some major textile centers weavers were full-time professional men. Ancient Africa boasts of the practice of democracy years before Lincoln and well-established governments that were able to expand and last for many centuries. This is most marked in eastern, central and southern Africa during the second millennium CE, at the start of which population levels were at a very low level. In the forests of West Africa and the Congo Basin, yams and plantains were the staple crop. Egypt's Great Pyramid: Everything travellers need to know about Even in West Africa, and certainly for Africa as a whole, salt was probably the most traded commodity, being an essential part of peoples diet, especially for those in regions where meat was hard to come by. OGRiMDc3NTM1M2QyZDI3YzBlYjZmZjBhNWFkOWZjYzEzOGRlZDU4ZDc4NDE1 The specifics of the caste systems in Africa vary among . The larger the state the more resources it could commit to defense and expansion. 2010-2011 provides a reassessment of the history of South Africa in the wake of that country's transition to majority rule. In most patrilineal societies womens status tended to be less favorable. This caused individuals to be very sensitive to attacks on their personal honor, real or imagined. Africa Africa's Great Rift Valley is the largest landform on Earth, and the only one visible from the moon. The Historical development of African societies, 1500-1800 - UNESCO For cultivators in particular, any religious beliefs were underpinned by a deeply-held idea about the world in which they found themselves. Imperialism Africa was among the last regions of the globe to be subject to imperial rule. They did obeisance to their overlord, forwarded tribute to his court and providing men for his army. Sub-Saharan Africa was therefore never able to develop an original civilization with the material culture on the scale of, say, an ancient Mesopotamia or Egypt. 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. In more densely populated societies a number of such lineages might be clustered together to form a large village or small town. Village clusters would be located in areas suitable for intensive crop production river valleys, floodplains, lakesides and other well-watered places. If another man, through skilled farming, plenty of children and a charismatic personality, attracted a following, he could lead his people out into some vacant land and establish his own group. Eventually, however, immigrant rulers usually learnt to co-exist with local religious practitioners. One way in which the older generation could impose its control on the younger was through initiation. OTBhNmZkZTE4ZDBjMTQzMTljMWY4NDIyMjYxZmIwY2JkZjc4OTk4ZGE1OWMx Many African societies therefore experienced considerable social mobility. In these states, violence and exploitation led to societies ruled by classes of military aristocrats or nobles. Nevertheless there were some features which were widespread amongst African religions. This process started to happen at different times according to region. Caste systems in Africa are a form of social stratification found in numerous ethnic groups, found in over fifteen countries, particularly in the Sahel, West Africa, and North Africa. The General History of Africa ( Ki-Zerbo, et al. Conditions in much of sub-Saharan Africa make wresting a secure subsistence from the land a major challenge. Agricultural populations were driven by a need to humanize the landscape, to drive back the forest, where danger lurked, and to make the land productive. Together with freedom it is an important element of the economy, culture and social structure of a country. YWQxYjBmNjljZmEzOTNlOTg4YTZiZmI4M2NkMzZmZTM0MGYzYjRlZmE2Zjk1 Equality was very important in these tribes and all people were treated equally. Funding and operating them required large amounts of capital and large-scale, disciplined organization. The tsetse fly infested many wooded areas, especially along waterways, killing cattle and causing sleeping sickness amongst humans. Genomic study of indigenous Africans paints complex picture of human African cultivators have generally taken great pride in their skills. Around the year 3000 BC, agriculture arose independently in Ethiopia with crops like coffee, teff, finger millet, sorghum, barley, and ensete. FIAT DOBLO (2015-) VANIKA DO KUFRA. Building the dense concentrations of population necessary for the emergence of major civilizations was not an option in most locations.