Midterm 1 Flashcards
(133 cards)
1
Q
iName the 6 African Regions
A
West Africa, North Africa, East Africa, South Africa, Central Africa, and Madagascar.
2
Q
What is the East African Rift system?
A
The Ethiopian Rift is the main one and the oldest and the Mozambique Rift is the youngest. There are several other rifts, including the Kenyan Rift, Gregory Rift, and Rukwa Rift.
3
Q
Why is there so much diversity regarding African languages?
A
Countless episodes of population and culture fragmentation over long periods of time.
4
Q
What is the oldest linguistic family in the world?
A
The Khoi San. They also have the fewest languages (35).
5
Q
What is the youngest linguistic family in the world?
A
Congo.
6
Q
As of 2016, what is Africa’s population?
A
1,225,080,510
7
Q
What are the major African Rivers?
A
Nile, Congo, Niger, White Nile, Zambezi, Ubangi-Uele, Orange, Lualaba, Limpopo, Blue Nile, and Benue.
8
Q
What are the major African Lakes?
A
Victoria, Nyasa, Tanganyika, Albert, Turkana, Tana, and Chad.
9
Q
Why does the youngest linguistic family (Congo) have the most languages as opposed to the oldest (Khoi San)?
A
There is an inverse relationship between the number of languages spoken today and the age of the family to which they belong.
The Khoi San were more isolated whilst Bantu spread all across the Cone.
10
Q
North Africa: Egyptians
A
Population: 79 million
Location: Egypt
Language Family: Semitic
11
Q
North Africa: Berbers
A
Population: 14 million
Location: Algeria, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Niger
Language Family: Berber
12
Q
North Africa: Taureg
A
Population: 1.2 million
Location: Mali, Niger
Language Family: Berber
13
Q
North Africa: Nubians
A
Population: 873 000
Location: Egypt, Sudan
Language Family: Eastern Sudanic
14
Q
West Africa: Fang
A
Population: 3.3 million
Location: Cameroon, EQ Guinea, Gabon
Language Family: Bantu
15
Q
West Africa: Fulani
A
Population: 13 million
Location: Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal
Language Family: Atlantic
16
Q
West Africa: Bambara
A
Population: 3 million
Location: Mali
Language Family: Mande
17
Q
West Africa: Yoruba
A
Population: 28 million
Location: Nigeria
Language Family: Benue-Congo
18
Q
West Africa: Hausa
A
Population: 25 million
Location: Niger, Nigeria
Language Family: Chadic
19
Q
West Africa: Wolof
A
Population: 5.7 million
Location: Senegal
Language Family: Atlantic
20
Q
West Africa: Igbo
A
Population: 20 million
Location: Nigeria
Language Family: Benue-Congo
21
Q
Central Africa: Kongo
A
Population: 2.2 million
Location: DRC, Congo
Language Family: Bantu
22
Q
Central Africa: Mangbetu
A
Population: 50 000
Location: DRC
Language Family: Central Sudanic
23
Q
Central Africa: Efe, Mbuti, Sua, Aka (Pygmies)
A
Population: 200 000
Location: DRC
Language Family: Central Sudanic
24
Q
East Africa: Kikuyu
A
Population: 5.3 million
Location: Kenya
Language Family: Bantu
25
East Africa: Somali
Population: 13 million
Location: Ethiopia, Somalia
Language Family: Cushitic
26
East Africa: Amhara
Population: 16 million
Location: Ethiopia
Language Family: Semitic
27
East Africa: Baganda
Population: 5.1 million
Location: Uganda
Language Family: Bantu
28
East Africa: Tutsi & Hutu
Population: 18 million
Location: Burundi, Rwanda
Language Family: Bantu
29
East Africa: Masai
Population: 883 000
Location: Kenya, Tanzania
Language Family: Nilotic
30
East Africa: Swahili
Population: 500 000
Location: Kenya, Tanzania
Language Family: Bantu
31
South Africa: Tswana
Population: 4.4 million
Location: Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe
Language Family: Bantu
32
South Africa: San
Population: 80 000
Location: Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa
Language Family: Khoisan
33
South Africa: Zulu
Population: 10 million
Location: South Africa
Language Family: Bantu
34
True or False: Africa has more native cereals than any other continent.
True.
34
True or False: Over the last 2000 years, farmers in Africa have been replacing their own cultivars with foreign crops.
True.
34
South Africa: Shona
Population: 10 million
Location: Mozambique, Zimbabwe
Language Family: Bantu
35
How big is Africa?
30 370 000
36
What countries were under British Colonial Rule?
Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, Seychelles, Mauritius.
37
What countries were under French Colonial Rule?
Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Togo, Benin, Chad, Central African Republic, Gabon, Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Comoros, Madagascar, Tunisia, Dijibouti.
38
What countries were under Italian Colonial Rule?
Libya, Eritrea, Somalia.
39
What countries were under Belgian Colonial Rule?
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi.
40
What countries were under Portuguese Colonial Rule?
Malawi, Angola, Sao Tome and Principe, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau.
41
What country was under German Colonial Rule?
Namibia.
42
What countries were under Spanish Colonial Rule?
Western Sahara and EQ Guinea.
43
What countries were not under colonial rule?
Ethiopia and Liberia.
44
How many language families are there and what are they?
Four: Khoi-San, Nilo-Saharan, Afro-Asiatic, and Kongo-Kordofanian.
45
How many African countries are there?
54 (and two disputed).
46
Why is it impossible to date the Western Branch of the East African Rift System?
There is no volcanic activity, meaning that no absolute dating can be done to determine its age.
47
What are the ten African plants that you should be familiar with?
Red Rice, Pearl & Finger Millet, Sorghum, Tef, Baobab, Horned Melon, Marula, Tamarind, and Watermelon.
48
What are cratons?
An old and stable part of the continental lithosphere; they are geological formations from Pre-Cambrian and Palaeozoic.
Cratons are composed of ancient crystalline basement rock, which may be covered by younger sedimentary rock.
49
Africa has five cratons - what are their names and what part of Africa are they located in?
(1) Kalahari Craton (South Africa)
(2) Tanzanian Craton (East Africa)
(3) Kasai Craton (Central Africa)
(4) West African Craton
(5) Eastern Sahara Craton (North Africa)
50
What are the 8 major African mountain ranges?
(1) Atlas Mountains
(2) Ahaggar Mountains
(3) Tibesti Mountains
(4) Ethiopian Highlands
(5) Mount Kilimanjaro
(6) Virunga & Rwenzori Mountains
(7) Drakensberg Mountains
(8) Cameroon Volcanic Line
51
____ temperatures create ___ ________ areas filled with ________ from two oceans.
high; low pressure; humidity
52
ITCZ stands for?
Intertropical Convergence Zone
53
What is the ITCZ and what is its function?
The ITCZ is a band of low pressure around the Earth that governs seasonality due to winds of the northern and southern hemisphere coming together here, which results in frequent rain and storms.
54
What is the rainfall variation between arid, semi-arid, sub-tropical, temperate, seasonally dry, wet tropical, and non-seasonal climates?
Arid: 1-400 mm
Semi-Arid, Sub-Tropical, Temperate: 400-800 mm
Seasonally Dry: 800-1400 mm
Wet Tropical, Non-Seasonal: >1400 mm
55
Why is the term "savanna" an incorrect way to describe Africa's biomes?
Africa has great variation when it comes to biomes, such as woodlands, forests, grasslands, mangroves, deserts, and more, yet "savanna" is used to incorrectly generalize Africa's ecological regions.
56
What are the 6 "Centers of Endemism" discussed by White?
(1) Guineo-Congolian
(2) Sudano-Zambezian
(3) Somalia-Masai
(4) Cape
(5) Karoo-Namib
(6) Mediterranean
57
Guineo-Congolian (Centre of Endemism)
African Rainforest:
(1) Situated ~5 degrees North & South of the equator.
(2) Stretched from the Atlantic coast to the Rwenzori Mountains.
(3) Canopy is > or equal to 30 m tall
(4) 80% of the species are endemic
(5) 1600-2000 mm rainfall annually
58
Zambezian (Centre of Endemism)
Woodlands:
(1) Richest and most diversified vegetation
(2) Tree coverage never exceeds 40%
(3) Trees are < or equal to 25 mm
(4) Found within the tropical summer rainfall zone
(5) 8500 species of which 54% are endemic
59
Sudanian (Centre of Endemism)
Woodlands:
(1) Narrow belt from the coast of Senegal to the Ethiopian Highlands
(2) Similar rainfall patterns to Zambezian
(3) < or equal to plant species; 1/3 are endemic
60
Somalia-Masai (Centre of Endemism)
(1) Occupies large parts of East Africa
(2) Crosses the Red Sea into southern Arabia
(3) Rainfall is often < or equal to 500 mm per year
(4) Trees rarely exceed 8 m in height
(5) Deciduous bushland and thicket and various types of wooded grasses
61
Cape and Karoo-Namib (Centre of Endemism)
(1) Altitudes between 1000-1500 m, with peaks > or equal to 2000 m
(2) Rainfall from 300-2500 mm, but can reach upward to 5000 mm
(3) Deprived of forest other than small patches of scrub forest
(4) Prevalent vegetation is endemic fynbos shrubland, a 1-3 m tall hard-leaved plant.
62
Serengeti Ecosystem (Somali-Masai CoE)
'Savanna':
(1) Grasslands develop anywhere woody
(2) Plants cover < or equal to 10% of the landscape
(3) Grasslands are actually sporadic and have an infrequent distribution
(4) Occur wherever rainfall is 100-250 mm
(5) In areas where rainfall is 250-500 mm, 'wooded grassland' develops.
63
Afromontane (Centre of Endemism)
(1) Confined to high mountains (ferns and mosses are common)
(2) Frosts are common at night and seasonally
(3) 4000 species of flora in the Afromontane regions
(4) Bamboo forests are common in alpine domains
(5) There are giant grasses 2-20 m in height
(6) Grows vigourously as thicket on deep volcanic soils where precipitation exceeds 1250 mm per year.
64
What are the three main African deserts?
Namib, Sahara, and Somalia.
65
What makes African languages unique compared to the English language?
African languages include clicks, tones, nominal classes, declinations, and action particles.
66
What does glottochronology do?
Measures changes in a core vocabulary.
67
What are "resistant words"?
Terms for body parts, numbers, and close relatives.
These words change very slowly.
68
Outside of Africa, at what rate do core vocabularies change?
20% per 1000 years.
69
What does the degree of relatedness between two languages do?
Helps determine how long ago they were one language.
70
How could you calculate the elapsed time since two living languages shared a common ancestor?
Find out what fraction among related words retained its original meaning in a known period of time.
71
Biological diversity results from what 3 processes?
(1) Recombination of genetic materials.
(2) Mutations.
(3) New materials introduced by new people AKA migration.
72
What is natural selection?
Adaptive features are passed down to offspring.
73
What is sexual selection?
More attractive traits are increased in the next generation.
74
What is random selection?
Changes provide people with unprecedented opportunities.
75
True or False: Khoi San genetic variability is greater than the rest of the world combined.
True.
76
What does the Principle Component Analysis of 42 world populations show?
Genetic distance between two given African populations is larger than that between any other two world populations.
77
In the Origins of Material Culture, what were the two hypotheses based off of and what were the key points?
Panger et al.: based on Chimps ~7 million years ago.
Van Schaik et al.: based on Orangutangs ~14 million years ago.
Key Points:
(1) Technology is inherited rather than created.
(2) We didn't split until after technology was developed.
(3) The phylogenetic model is not based on fossil data, making it limited.
78
What are the three reasons as to why cognitive techno-ecological intelligence evolved among non-human primates.
(1) To look for food.
(2) To obtain food stuff.
(3) To process food.
79
Why did Hominin tool use evolve?
(1) To retrieve highly nutritious food.
(2) To access fallback foods.
(3) To diversify diets.
(4) To strengthen social bonds.
80
What are two features that distinguish humans from other apes?
(1) The extent to which culture is used to deal with adaptation.
(2) The high proportion of meat consumption.
81
The study of West African chimps indicates that:
(1) Chimps exploit 5 nut species; on hard kernels Chimps use stone tools exclusively.
(2) Chimps transport stone and nuts to processing locations: anvils.
(3) > 100 nuts per day are cracked = kcal > 3000
(4) Learning to crack nuts takes ~7 years; females crack nuts more than males.
82
What data was collected from the excavation of Panda 100?
(1) Stones collected at different places converged in one site.
(2) Hammers were used to crack nuts open.
(3) Repeated occupation allowed for refuse to build up.
(4) Spatial distribution of refuse indicates "activity areas".
(5) Stone flaking was unintentional.
83
What do chimp sites have in common with early human sites?
(1) Stone sourcing and movement.
(2) Use of local stone sources.
(3) Stone selection.
(4) Raw material, size, and weight.
(5) Re-occupation of focal points.
(6) Site formation.
(7) Activity areas.
84
What are common assumptions made by the government, media, and the general public about Indigenous foragers?
They are static; incapable of making major changes on their own.
They are prisoners of their own conservative values, only affected by external forces.
85
How does anthropology see hunter-gatherers?
Dynamic societies that had to adapt to complex sociopolitical, environmental, and economic conditions (none of which existed in the past).
86
What can the success of African foragers be attributed to?
(1) Their flexibility
(2) Their ability to avoid extensive involvement with states
(3) Their capacity to shift back and forth between foraging and food production.
87
What is the most effective response to environmental, social, political, and economic stress, and why?
Mobility.
Allows for environment regeneration, population size control, conflict resolution, and resistance to political domination.
88
True or False: Cognitive flexibility might be the most important trait that emerged with our species.
True.
89
True or False: Modern human foragers are an appropriate analogue for prehistoric groups.
False.
90
Respectively, what are the distinct environments of the Mbuti, Hadza, and Khoi San?
(1) Guineo-Congolian lowland rainforest.
(2) Somalia-Masai woodlands.
(3) Semi-deserts.
91
Who are the Hadza?
A population of about 750 hunter-gatherers living in Somalia-Masai woodlands from the Eastern Rift, southeast of Lake Eyasi, northern Tanzania.
Camps generally consist of 50 or so individuals; they are smaller in size and fewer in number during the dry season, but larger and more numerous in the wet season.
92
What are the main forms of sustenance for the Hadza?
Tubers, berries, baobab, small and large game.
93
What are 5 important differences between Southern African and Eastern African foragers?
(1) Hadza children collect food for themselves, but !kung do not.
(2) Hadza women are more fertile.
(3) Hadza parents are less responsive.
(4) Hadza do not use traps for hunting.
(5) Gender relations are segregated among the Hadza, but egalitarian among the !kung.
94
True or False: Central African foragers have statures lowest among humans today.
True.
Males: ~4 feet
Females: about one inch shorter than males.
95
True or False: Mbuti cultures are unevenly distributed throughout central and Atlantic central Africa.
True.
96
Name 5 features of Mbuti culture?
(1) > 10 ethno-linguistic groups.
(2) > 4 months spent in lowland forest hunting and gathering.
(3) Strong sense of identity.
(4) Symbiotic relationships with neighbouring farmers, whose language they speak.
(5) Ritual activities around elephant hunts.
97
True or False: There are many Mbuti languages in our present day.
False.
All Mbuti languages were lost as a result of political assimilation.
98
True or False: The Mbuti are bow hunters.
False. They are net hunters.
99
True or False: Dental mutilation, scarification, tattoo, and cranial deformation are common among central African foragers and farmers.
True. It is especially common among women.
100
True or False: The Khoi San use kutse for hunting.
True.
*Kutse is the wooden point at the end of a long pole used to snare springhare and other burrowing animals, such as foxes.
101
What are 4 types of hunting techniques used among hunter-gatherers?
(1) Game pits.
(2) Swamp ambush.
(3) Coastal groups practice intensive shell fishing.
(4) Line hunting.
102
What are the main Oldowan sites that date to ~2.6 million years ago?
(1) Gona, Ethiopia
(2) Hadar, Ethiopia
(3) Lokalelei, Kenya
(4) Koobi Fora, Kenya
(5) Olduvai, Tanzania
(6) Senga, Democratic Rep. of Congo
103
What are the main Oldowan sites that date to ~2 million years ago?
(1) Sterkfontein, South Africa
(2) Swartkrans, South Africa
104
Oldowan cultures temporally overlap with 3 Hominin genera and as many as 8 Hominin species, what are they?
(1) Paranthropus
- P. boisei
- P. robustus
- P. aethiopicus
(2) Australopithecus
- A. garhi
- A. africanus
(3) Homo
- H. habilis
- H. rudolfensis
- H. erectus
105
What is the Oldowan lithic evidence?
Hammerstones, stone cores, sharp stone flakes struck from cores, lots of debris from percussion flaking.
106
What are the Oldowan traits?
1. Oldest set of systematically flaked stone tools, dated 2.6-1.5 Ma
2. Raw material used comes from the surrounding landscape, but manuports travel ~ 10 km
3. Sites display all steps in the reduction chain
4. Good understanding of conchoidal properties of selected rocks.
*conchoidal rock = fracture with smooth, curved surfaces that resemble the interior of a seashell
5. Oldowan lithics associated with faunal remains.
107
True or False: The emergence of the Oldowan follows the evolutionary heels of a successful group of hominins, the Australopithecus.
True.
108
What led to the emergence of Oldowan technology and why did hominids become so dependent on it.
(1) Hominins hunted.
(2) Confrontational scavenging.
(3) Scavenging before carnivores.
(4) Passive scavenging.
(5) A combination of all four.
109
What indicated that ancestral hominins ~2.6 million years ago had begun incorporating meat into their diet?
Evidence of cut-marked fossil bones from Gona and the Middle Awash.
110
What were Oldowan habitat preferences?
(1) Fluvio-lacustrine settings.
(2) Range of habitats.
(3) Riverine forest, and grassy woodland.
111
Home Bases (Isaac, 1978)
(1) Use of a central place from which hominins dispersed and returned to on a daily basis.
(2) Groups would have come together at a particular focal point in the landscape for the purpose of various activities.
(3) Implied intentional food sharing, which in turn triggered cooperation, sexual division of labour, and the emergence of home base.
112
Kill Sites (Binford, 1981; O'Connell, 1997)
(1) Early sites were formed by hominids repeatedly transporting carcasses a short distance (~100 m) from nearby acquisition points.
(2) Butchering on site to make transportation easier.
(3) Formed large Plio-Pleistocene accumulations.
113
Stone Caches (Potts, 1983)
(1) As inferior competitors, hominids would have minimized the time spent at sites.
(2) Caches would have been collections of stored lithic material where carcasses would have been transported for quick processing.
(3) Helped to avoid competition with other carnivores and to cut down on energetic costs in faunal processing.
(4) Early sites reflected the manufacture of stone tools and the processing of carcasses.
114
Focal Spots (Schick, 1987)
(1) Point on the landscape to which hominids deliberately and repeatedly transported flaked stone artifacts.
(2) Indicates planned transport of tools or material for tool manufacture to an extent far beyond transport behaviours reported among living apes, event stone hammer-using chimps.
115
Refugia (Blumenschein, 1991)
(1) Safe havens from large predators.
(2) Refugium acted as buffers from environmental changes like severe lake level fluctuations and drought.
(3) Localized areas that offered basic needs of water and food options during eras of strong climate variability.
(4) Protected over the long term from extreme climate fluctuations.
116
Where is the Olduvai Gorge located?
In north-central Tanzania along the East African Rift System AKA the Gregory Rift.
117
What is the name of one of the world's largest calderas?
The Ngorongoro crater.
118
What is the name of Africa's tallest mountain?
Mount Kilimanjaro.
119
What is the Olduvai Gorge?
One of the world's richest palaeoanthropological complexes with countless fossils and stone tools unearthed every field season.
Volcanic uplift created the Olduvai paleo-basin and a small saline lake occupied the basin in the early Pleistocene
Over time, there was increasing aridity and sedimentation occurred. Around 400 Ka, fluvial erosion began which exposed the sediments we see today.
120
Explain Olduvai's main sedimentary units.
Bed I: clay, sand, silt; lacustrine.
Bed II: sandy, brown, fluvial.
Bed III: oxidized (red), high iron concentration.
Bed IV: clay, sand, silt; lacustrine.
*Lacustrine = relating to or associated with lakes.
121
Sediments at Olduvai Gorge span a nearly _ _______-year-old time interval from the Oldowan to historic times.
2 million.
122
When, and by who, was Olduvai Gorge discovered? Who was the first person to excavate Olduvai?
"Discovered" in 1911 by a German entomologist.
Excavated in 1913 by a German geologist named Hans Reck.
123
What shifted people's attention from Asia to Africa as the cradle of humankind?
Discoveries made by different scientists, namely Mary Leakey who discovered Paranthropus boisei fossils in 1959.
124
Olduvai Hominid 1 (OH1)
(1) Discovered in 1913 by Hans Reck, initially believed to date to the Early Pleistocene (Bed II).
(2) Later proven that the bones post-dated Bed II based on comparative analyses of sediment on the bones and the surrounding matrix
(3) Dated to 11,000 years BP in the 1970s
125
Olduvai Gorge Bed I
(1) ~2.04 - 1.8 Ma
(2) Abundance of Oldowan stone tools.
(3) We can hypothesize that one of, or both, P. boisei and H. habilis were responsible for the use of Oldowan stone tools, thought it was most likely the latter.
126
Paranthropus boisei
(1) Defined in 1959
(2) Small brain case
(3) Small sagittal crest
(4) Large molars and thick dental enamel.
127
Homo habilis
(1) Defined in 1961
(2) Large/rounder brain case with forehead
(3) Small face
(4) Small teeth and mandible
128
True or False: Cut-marked bones were not found in association with Oldowan stone tools, indicating that meat was not important during the Oldowan.
False. There is evidence of cut-marked bone in association with Oldowan stone tools, indicating that meat was very important.
129
Oldowan Lithic Technology
(1) Hammerstones: pounding devices to process plant-based foods.
(2) Cores
(3) Flakes
(4) Debris
130
FLK North Site
Palimpsest (something reused or altered) of unrelated animal bones and hominin Oldowan stone tools behavioural residues.
131
What were the stone tools at the FLK North Site like?
(1) Some evidence of stone flaking.
(2) The majority of tools are representative of battering activities not to process meat/bones, but a currently unknown resource - plants?
