La littérature orale des Pygmées Aka est riche en contes et histoires dont la narration rassemble hommes et femmes, jeunes et vieux. Ce moment de détente est aussi et entre autres un temps de transmission et d'ancrage des savoirs traditionnels naturalistes et des valeurs qui fondent la vie sociale. De l'abondante production de contes, seuls seront abordés ici ceux qui concernent le marigot, les espèces animales et végétales qui lui sont inféodées et les activités de récolte (individuelles ou collectives) qui s'y pratiquent. Dans un premier temps sera abordée la transmission des savoirs naturalistes. Les connaissances sur lesquelles les contes focalisent l'intérêt sont comparées à celles dont les Pygmées Aka disposent concernant cet écosystème. Dans un deuxième temps est explorée la transmission des valeurs sociales. Ces contes sont-ils censés imprimer plus fermement dans les jeunes mémoires et rappeler plus efficacement à tous, jeunes et vieux, un message essentiel?Aka Pygmies' oral literature is rich in tales and stories whose narration brings together men and women, the young and the elderly. This recreational time is also, among others, a time for transmitting and for anchoring traditional ecological knowledge as well as core social values. Among this oral literature, will be considered here only tales related to small streams, to their specific animal and plant species, and to the individual or collective harvest practiced in them. First to be analysed is the transmission of Aka's traditional ecological knowledge. The knowledge highlighted in the tales is compared with the Aka Pygmies' general knowledge about small streams. The transmission of social values is then examined. Are these tales supposed to imprint an essential message more firmly in the young people's memories, and to aid its recall more generally across age groups?
Students of regional integration in Europe have found it difficult to identify the nature of the European Union (EU). For some, it is the product of states rationally deciding to belong to an inter-governmental organisation to promote their utilitarian goals. For others, it is a putative supranational polity whose development requires the progressive diminution of state sovereignty. The authors argue that it is more fruitful to see the EU as a unique kind of regional ‘institution’. Its endurance depends upon its ability to reflect and instantiate established social ‘practices’ rather than convergent ‘interests’ among member states.
Les Pygmées bongo sont considérés de façon populaire comme les pygmées emblématiques du territoire gabonais. Cependant leur diversité est extrêmement mal connue tant et si bien que l'on généralise bien souvent à l'ensemble des groupes rassemblés sous ce nom des spécificités qui ne concernent qu'un seul des groupes. Ainsi, il est impossible de déterminer à ce jour si leur appellation est endogène ou exogène et si elle recouvre une origine commune. Cet article propose de traiter de cette diversité des Bongo, répartis en isolats sur le territoire, en abordant la composition de leurs patrimoines musicaux en fonction des paramètres suivants: répertoires, instruments, techniques vocales et procédés polyphoniques. Vivant en relation étroite avec leurs voisins, il s'agit de déterminer de quelle manière des cohabitations successives avec des voisins différents ont pu laisser une empreinte musicale dans la culture des groupes bongo tout comme leur éventuelle origine commune a pu également laisser des indices dans leur activité musicale. Nous verrons également comment ces mêmes paramètres musicaux peuvent témoigner d'un apparentement avec les autres groupes pygmées du Gabon ainsi que les Aka et les Baka qui nous servent de termes de référence dans la comparaison des patrimoines musicaux des différents groupes pygmées.
The purpose or this paper is to analyse four ceramic assemblage sets and discuss the relationship between ceramic investment, environment and strategies of mobility among Late Holocene hunter-gatherers in southern Mendoza. The analysed assemblages come from the areas of Llancanelo, Atuel Medio, Rio Grande, and surface materials from Volcan Overo. Different attributes of the archaeological ceramic like wall thickness, temper size, and surface preparation, enable us to evaluate the residential mobility of local human populations. Trends within each assemblage and among sets can be drawn from the study. Finally, the results point to heterogeneity between the relationship of the concept of investment in each locality and its implications for making inferences about hunter-gatherer mobility.
Hublin et al (2012) have published a new series of AMS determinations from the site of the Grotte du Renne at Arcy-sur-Cure, one of the key sites in discussions regarding late Neanderthal behavior and adaptation. The site is well known as one of the very few Châtelperronian sites that appear to contain evidence for the range of ornaments and objects that are usually found in sites of the Proto- or Early Aurignacian in Europe, and therefore associated with anatomically modern humans. For this reason it is important that we have an idea of the chronology of the sequence here, so that we may compare it with other contexts where similar cultural horizons have been excavated.Higham et al (2010) published a series of 31 AMS dates from well-selected humanly-modified material from several layers of the site. They found variation in the results that they ascribed to taphonomic influences, which implied strongly that there was some degree of mixing of material within the site. They recommended that caution was ther...
Domesticated maize (Zea mays) was adopted and dispersed across central Argentina by hunter-gatherer communities between c 3000-2500 BP. Primary archaeobotanical evidence for this adoption is derived from two archaeological sites (Quebrada del Real 1, Cruz Chiquita 3) which show the manipulation, processing, and consumption of maize without evidence for other practices of food production. This local case study is integrated into the broader contemporary macro-regional context of southern South America. We analyze and discuss the historical trajectories of hunter-gatherer societies, the dispersion of cultigens including maize, and the mechanisms involved in the expansion of the agricultural frontier.
The Early Middle Palaeolithic (EMP) industries in the Levant (ca 250-160 ka ago) are distinguished by the presence of true laminar technology, alongside Levallois recurrent unidirectional and bidirectional flaking methods. The EMP further differs from the later MP in the composition of the toolkit. It was previously suggested that EMP retouched tool assemblages are characterised by the presence of elongated Mousterian points made on blades, retouched blades and Upper Palaeolithic (UP) tool-types. In contrast, the later MP is characterised by diverse toolkits dominated by side-scrapers, denticulates and UP types and containing only very few retouched points. However, while numerous later MP sites have been subjected to quantitative technological and typological studies, such studies are rare for EMP assemblages. This paper focuses on typological aspects of the EMP assemblage of Misliya Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel, in an attempt to characterise the site toolkit and to assess the differences between the EMP a...
The rhythmic percussion of river water by various body parts is a musical and recreational activity widely diffused among the Baka of Cameroon and Gabon, as well as among other peoples of the Central African rainforest (especially, but not only, hunter-gatherers). These are the so-called 'water drums', occasional performances made by women and female children during expeditions to rivers to wash clothes or bathe. They consist of hitting, squeezing, moving and stirring the water with hands, arms and feet, repeating indefinitely (with micro-variations) and combining together different rhythmic patterns.
Brocket deer constitute a broadly exploited resource for many present and past Neotropical hunter-gatherers.In this paper we present results of a butchery experiment on a Brown Brocket deer (Mazama gouazoubira) individual, which was employed to calculate gross yield indices (MUI, GUI and FUI) and meat return rates for this species.Then, results are compared with available data for larger cervids (caribou, huemul and white-tailed deer) and other artiodactyls <60 kg (impala and sheep) showing strong and positive correlation in all net returns, and similar gross utility frequencies at least for cervids from 18-180 kg live weight.More variability was found among return rates, suggesting interspecific comparison of processing costs is an issue which requires more data gathering.
Colonial representations of |Xam hunter-gatherers in South Africa emphasise their consumption of insects as emblematic of their ‘Bushman’ status; bestial, improvident, slothful, and degraded. More recent ethnographic work confirms the widespread nutritional significance of arthropod resources for hunter-gatherer (and other) populations: this article examines the extent to which the narratives of the Bleek-Lloyd archive can be used to construct an alternative view of |Xam entomophagy to that presented in other forms of colonial literature. The article discusses some of the ways in which the Bleek-Lloyd informants divided up the insect world, and how their interactions with these species were integrated into their wider subsistence practices. The limitations of the Bleek-Lloyd material for reconstructing these practices in detail, and for recovering |Xam representations, are outlined, along with the wider significance of the archive for presenting alternative perspectives on colonial narratives.
This paper presents an overview of major trends and contributions of faunal studies to our understanding of Neanderthal and anatomically modern human lifeways and adaptations in the Near East. Prior to the 1980s, Near Eastern Middle Palaeolithic zooarchaeology served primarily as an adjunct discipline, a largely palaeontological means of reconstructing palaeoenvironments and as a tool for determining the relative age of sites. Faunal reports were often exceedingly brief, not uncommonly amounting to little more than species lists, and often relegated to an appendix. This technical and largely supportive role, though important and one that continues to make valuable contributions today, began to broaden in scope in the 1980s and 1990s, largely in response to Lewis Binford's provocative ideas about scavenging by early hominins at Olduvai Gorge, together with the infusion of taphonomic approaches and methodologies, also pioneered in sub-Saharan Africa, by CK Brain, Kay Behrensmeyer, Richard Klein, Henry Bunn,...
In this article, I critique two prevailing models of ‘Pygmy’ peoples of equatorial Africa – Pygmies-as-isolated-‘hunter-gatherers’ and Pygmies-as-victims-of-the-powerful – and present an alternative model of Pygmy identity which is based on a set of enduring cultural principles, pays full attention to their relations with wider regional frameworks, and emphasises the agency of social actors. After outlining the cultural principles on which the model is based, I examine how they inform the relation of Baka Pygmies to a contemporary development project in Cameroon. In particular, I explore how local Baka make use of the resources provided by the project to create their own vision of the future. I then present historical evidence from across the region to show that these same cultural principles have informed how Pygmies have made history over the longue duree. Drawing on the insights provided by this ethnographic and historical material, I discuss the implications they have for efforts to create indigenous ...
This paper presents evidence for a high degree of variability in symbolic representation at the multi-component, Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherer encampment at Wadi Mataha in the Petra Basin of southern Jordan. Twelve sandstone, siltstone, basalt and flint objects were recovered from Geometric Kebaran and Early and Late Natufian occupations of the site during excavations in 1999 and 2001 and subsequently examined using both optical and scanning electron microscopy techniques. A number of these artefacts show clear iconographic links and similarities in patterning and form to art objects from the Mount Carmel, western Galilee and central Negev regions, and demonstrate that the full range of Natufian material culture covers a much broader geographic range than has been previously observed. However, the variability in the symbolic practices evident at Wadi Mataha also raises a number of questions concerning the ‘emerging territoriality’ among Natufian communities as has been argued by Ofer Bar-Yosef and Anna ...
Archaeologists have become increasingly interested in understanding the conditions under which resource intensification occurs. In the case of vegetal foods, the process often ends with the adoption of agriculture. In this article we explore wild plant resource intensification using archaeobotanical information from three sites located in the upper Diamante river basin, Mendoza province, Argentina. The area was populated by humans ca 8000 BP and the first evidence of wild plant exploitation in the regional archaeological record appears ca 3000 BP. Resource intensification is evaluated using return rates for plants recovered from the sites in the study area. The results show the exclusive use of high ranked plants during the beginning of the occupation with an increase in diet breadth over time. In addition, a comparison of the return rates of wild plants and domesticates indicates that agriculture appears in the study region coincidently with the initiation of low return (low rank) plant exploitation.
The Baka's ritual expressions take place within a system based on fluidity, flexibility and malleability. In spite of certain common cultural resources throughout the Baka territory, one may observe an important variability on a regional level due to different modalities of innovation. This leads to regional variants of the rituals, but also to a fragmentation of the patrimony through the creation of new local associations or the borrowing from the non-Baka neighbours. Such diversification processes of the Baka's ritual system have been described in the domain of religious anthropology (Joiris 1996, 1997-98; Tsuru 1998, 2001). Our paper will focus on the musical aspects of ritual creation and situate this type of innovation in the Baka's ritual and musical patrimony as a whole. It has been proven that all innovation processes converge on a system which is characterised by a patchwork of stable elements. In the musical field, the polyrhythmic formulæ which characterise the ritual associations are composed with a very reduced stock of basic rhythms, whereas the songs make use of general, widespread features of Baka singing.
The discovery of new small Late Natufian sites around Nahal Oren is discussed in this paper. The central site, Nahal Oren, comprises a cave and a terrace of which the latter served mainly as a large Late Natufian graveyard. The common denominator of the central site, the new satellite sites and Usba cave (another nearby previously tested site), are the stone mortars. At the Nahal Oren central site they are a prominent feature in the graveyard. Here is the highest density of boulder mortars reported for any Natufian site and the largest number of pierced boulder mortars. In all the surrounding sites, bedrock mortars are present, either in the cave or on the associated terrace (and in one case in both). We thus explore the possibility that at the area of Lower Nahal Oren there was a complex landscape use during the Late Natufian, so far not reported for any set of Natufian sites in the Mediterranean Levant. It consisted of a central site that was used for burial and social events, surrounded by smaller sites that may be interpreted in several ways reflecting past social behaviour.
The Congo Basin contains a stunning array of cultural and biotic diversity housed in some of the largest undeveloped tracts of rain forest in the world. Although the origins of these unique environments and their populations are a topic of great interest, palaeoenvironmental and archaeological records from the central forest block are underrepresented in the academic literature. This dearth of evidence limits our ability to evaluate the influence of prehistoric populations on Guineo-Congolian forest structure and composition. Understanding prehistoric human-environment dynamics may yield important clues about the process of prehistoric cultural and demographic changes in the region, as changes in technology and subsistence may be linked with shifts in vegetation cover visible in palaeoenvironmental records. Analysis of pollen, microscopic charcoal, and carbon isotopes from two Late Holocene sedimentary records collected in the Ngotto Forest Reserve, Central African Republic shows clear shifts in Late Holocene climates and human impacts. This record is unique because it captures a fine-grained record of Late Holocene environmental change and complements archaeological survey in the region. Documenting forest change through the Holocene provides a crucial context for understanding long-term ecological responses to climate change in addition to clarifying hypotheses regarding population and culture change in the Congo Basin.
Department of Social Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Gipsy Lane Site, Headington Campus, Oxford OX30BP, United KingdomL.S.Basell@soton.ac.ukZilhao et al emphasise the primacy of stratigraphy intheir reply. Our Bayesian modelling incorporates thesame stratigraphic information in the form of ‘priors’,but the approach also allows us crucially to test theagreement between the radiometric data and the se-quence. Bayesian modelling is the only robust way todo this (see the extensive references in our initial re-sponse for the basis of the method). Viewinguncalibrated or calibrated data by eye is not sufficientlygood to produce reliable conclusions. Zilhao et alsuggest that our priors are the problem, despite thefact that they are based on the same stratigraphicsequence that they have argued is not prone to wide-spread mixing (eg, D’Errico et al 1998; 2003). Theythink that substantial modifications are required toour prior modelling, including treating all of theChâtelperronian levels as a single phase within athree phase model: Aurignacian, Châtelperronian andMousterian. This approach does not reflect the ar-chaeological reality at the site, the sequence ofstratigraphic units that they themselves have pub-lished on widely and accept as being intact, and wetherefore reject this suggestion.They ask whether assigning different prior outlierprobabilities to some samples, such as OxA-X-2222-21 (which is an obvious outlier due its extremely youngage) would be a good idea. In fact assigning a higheroutlier probability to this result would have no effectsince the model already shows it be to be 100% likelyto be an outlier, even with a 5% outlier prior. Zilhao etal also state that if we assign outlier priors of 40%instead of 5%, ‘outlier-ness’ disappears. We testedthis and found the exact same numbers of significantoutliers were detected as in our original publicationdata (Higham et al 2010) (we show these data intable 1). We recommend that prior outlier probabili-ties be assigned prior to, rather than after modelling,if we have case-specific information that a determi-nation is likely to be more problematic than normal. Inthe case of the OxA-X-2222-21 determination we didnot, but as stated, the point is entirely moot anyway;the result is 100% likely to be an outlier.Zilhao et al suggest that modern and ancient car-bon could equally easily be taken up in the sampleswe dated, but provide no evidence for it. They repeattheir claim that the samples we dated were, in fact
