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24 - Southernmost Africans, archaeology and the environment during the Holocene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2016

By
Maria H. Schoeman
Edited by
Jasper Knight  and
Stefan W. Grab
Jasper Knight
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Stefan W. Grab
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
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Summary

Abstract

Pre-colonial southernmost Africa underwent substantial changes during the Holocene. These included climate change, as well as population and economic transformations, such as shifting from a hunting and gathering economy to one dominated by herding and crop farming. These changes took place in the context of an environmentally diverse region, which both facilitated and constrained settlement. Hunter-gatherers, herders and farmers, however, developed social strategies to cope with this diversity, as well as the substantial climatic fluctuations that affected the region. This chapter explores elements of the complex relationships between pre-colonial southernmost Africans and the environment during the Holocene.

Type
Chapter
Information
Quaternary Environmental Change in Southern Africa
Physical and Human Dimensions
 , pp. 397 - 411
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

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