State of Knowledge and Current Debates
The Neolithic period of eastern and southern Africa involved forms of niche fulfillment when viewed within the context of its origins and distribution. In Africa, Neolithic cultures include those groups who herd domesticated animals, use stone tools and ceramics as part of their subsistence package. Climatic and demographic pressures after 6,000 BP pushed Neolithic pastoralists living in the Nile River Valley southward, and the savanna habitats of eastern and southern Africa that these migrants encountered were attractive ecosystems rife for herding. The early Neolithic pastoralists in eastern Africa tended to be less mobile and had a broad-based subsistence compared to later pastoral groups, who colonized southern Africa after 2,000 BP. When placed within the larger paleoenvironmental and cultural backdrop, pastoralists adapted their subsistence to specific ecosystems based on the potential of the land to provide adequate sustenance for...
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Further Reading
Barham, L. & P. M. Mitchell. 2008. The first Africans: African archaeology from the earliest toolmakers to most recent foragers. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press.
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Wright, D. K. 2011. Frontier animal husbandry in the Northeast and East African Neolithic: a multiproxypaleoenvironmental and paleodemographic study. Journal of Anthropological Research 67(2): 213-44.
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Wright, D.K. (2014). East and Southern African Neolithic: Geography and Overview. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1888
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