The Pygmies Were Our Compass

The Pygmies Were Our Compass PDF Author: Kairn A. Klieman
Publisher: Greenwood
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Covering more than 2,000 years this important region's history, this book is a groundbreaking contribution to the knowledge of pre-colonial Africa. Covering more than 2,000 years this important region's history, this book is a groundbreaking contribution to the knowledge of pre-colonial Africa. It is the first historical work to reconstruct a Batwa or Pygmy past, thereby questioning Western epistemologies that have long portrayed the Batwa as a quintessential people without history.

The Pygmies Were Our Compass

The Pygmies Were Our Compass PDF Author: Kairn A. Klieman
Publisher: Greenwood
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Get Book Here

Book Description
Covering more than 2,000 years this important region's history, this book is a groundbreaking contribution to the knowledge of pre-colonial Africa. Covering more than 2,000 years this important region's history, this book is a groundbreaking contribution to the knowledge of pre-colonial Africa. It is the first historical work to reconstruct a Batwa or Pygmy past, thereby questioning Western epistemologies that have long portrayed the Batwa as a quintessential people without history.

Our Gigantic Zoo

Our Gigantic Zoo PDF Author: Thomas M. Lekan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190935367
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
How did the Seregenti become an internationally renowned African conservation site and one of the most iconic destinations for a safari? In this book, Thomas M. Lekan illuminates the controversial origins of this national park by examining how Europe's greatest wildlife conservationist, former Frankfurt Zoo director and Oscar-winning documentarian Bernhard Grzimek, popularized it as a global destination. In the 1950s, Grimzek and his son Michael began a quest to save the Serengeti from modernization and "overpopulation" by remaking an imperial game reserve into a gigantic zoo for the earth's last great mammals. Grzimek, well-known to German audiences through his long-running television program, A Place for Animals, used the film Seregenti Shall Not Die to convince ordinary Europeans that they could save nature. Yet their message sidestepped the uncomfortable legacies of German colonial exploitation in the region that had endangered animals and excluded local people. After independence, Grzimek raised funds, brokered diplomatic favors, and convinced German tourists to book travel packages--all to persuade Tanzanian leader Julius Nyerere that wildlife would fuel the young nation's economic development. Grzimek helped Tanzania to create almost a dozen new national parks by 1975, but wooing tourists conflicted with rights of the Maasai and other African communities to inhabit the landscape on their own terms. Grzimek's global priorities eventually clashed with Nyerere's nationalist ones, as a more self-assertive Tanzania resented conservationists' meddling and failed promises. A story that demonstrates the conflicts between international conservation, nature tourism, decolonization, and national sovereignty, Our Gigantic Zoo explores the legacy of the man who portrayed himself as a second Noah, called on a sacred mission to protect the last vestiges of paradise for all humankind.

History and the Testimony of Language

History and the Testimony of Language PDF Author: Christopher Ehret
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520262042
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
This book is about history and the practical power of language to reveal historical change. Christopher Ehret offers a methodological guide to applying language evidence in historical studies. He demonstrates how these methods allow us not only to recover the histories of time periods and places poorly served by written documentation, but also to enrich our understanding of well-documented regions and eras. A leading historian as well as historical linguist of Africa, Ehret provides in-depth examples from the language phyla of Africa, arguing that his comprehensive treatment can be applied by linguistically trained historians and historical linguists working with any language and in any area of the world.

World History through Case Studies

World History through Case Studies PDF Author: David Eaton
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350042625
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
This innovative textbook demystifies the subject of world history through a diverse range of case studies. Each chapter looks at an event, person, or place commonly included in comprehensive textbooks, from prehistory to the present and from across the globe – from the Kennewick Man to gladiators and modern-day soccer and globalization – and digs deeper, examining why historians disagree on the subject and why their debates remain relevant today. By taking the approach of 'unwrapping the textbook,' David Eaton reveals how historians think, making it clear that the past is not nearly as tidy as most textbooks suggest. Provocative questions like whether ancient Greece was shaped by contact with Egypt provide an entry point into how history professors may sharply disagree on even basic narratives, and how historical interpretations can be influenced by contemporary concerns. By illuminating these historiographical debates, and linking them to key skills required by historians, World History through Case Studies shows how the study of history is relevant to a new generation of students and teachers.

Governing Africa's Forests in a Globalized World

Governing Africa's Forests in a Globalized World PDF Author: Laura Anne German
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136545514
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 435

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Book Description
Many countries around the world are engaged in decentralization processes, and most African countries face serious problems with forest governance, from benefits sharing to illegality and sustainable forest management. This book summarizes experiences to date on the extent and nature of decentralization and its outcomes - most of which suggest an underperformance of governance reforms - and explores the viability of different governance instruments in the context of weak governance and expanding commercial pressures over forests. Findings are grouped into two thematic areas: decentralization, livelihoods and sustainable forest management; and international trade, finance and forest sector governance reforms. The authors examine diverse forces shaping the forest sector, including the theory and practice of decentralization, usurpation of authority, corruption and illegality, inequitable patterns of benefits capture and expansion of international trade in timber and carbon credits, and discuss related outcomes on livelihoods, forest condition and equity. The book builds on earlier volumes exploring different dimensions of decentralization and perspectives from other world regions, and distills dimensions of forest governance that are both unique to Africa and representative of broader global patterns. The authors ground their analysis in relevant theory while drawing out implications of their findings for policy and practice.

The Cradle of Language

The Cradle of Language PDF Author: Rudolf Botha
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191567671
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
This book is the first to focus on the African origins of human language. It explores the origins of language and culture 250,000-150,000 years ago when modern humans evolved in Africa. Scholars from around the world address the fossil, genetic, and archaeological evidence and critically examine the ways it has been interpreted. The book also considers parallel developments among Europe's Neanderthals and the contrasting outcomes for the two species. Following an extensive introduction contextualizing and linking the book's topics and approaches, fifteen chapters bring together many of the most significant recent findings and developments in modern human origins research. The fields represented by the authors include genetics, biology, behavioural ecology, linguistics, archaeology, cognitive science, and anthropology.

Collecting Food, Cultivating People

Collecting Food, Cultivating People PDF Author: Kathryn Michelle De Luna
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300225164
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
A rich analysis of the complex dynamic between food collection and food production in the farming societies of precolonial south central Africa Engaging new linguistic evidence and reinterpreting published archaeological evidence, this sweeping study explores the place of bushcraft and agriculture in the precolonial history of south central Africa across nearly three millennia. Contrary to popular conceptions that place farming at the heart of political and social change, political innovation in precolonial African farming societies was actually contingent on developments in hunting, fishing, and foraging, as de Luna reveals.

Ancient African Religions

Ancient African Religions PDF Author: Robert M. Baum
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019774706X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
This book examines the history of religions in Africa from the burial practices of the earliest humans to the rise of centralized theocratic kingdoms like ancient Egypt up to the rise of Islam in the Seventh Century.

Historical Dictionary of the Central African Republic

Historical Dictionary of the Central African Republic PDF Author: Richard Bradshaw
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0810879921
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 817

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Book Description
The Central African Republic (CAR) came into existence on 1 December 1958 as a semi-autonomous member state of the Communauté (French Community), meaning that France still controlled its currency, defense, foreign affairs and national security. The history of the CAR can be interpreted in radically different ways. One the one hand the people of Central Africa have suffered enormously at the hands of slave traders, concessionary companies, French colonialists and African rulers, and their country remains largely ‘undeveloped.’ On the other most Central Africans have retained free use of land on which they grow crops and from which they extract numerous valuable resources. Their way of life is in the long run perhaps more sustainable than those of the ‘experts’ who come to assist them. The theme of essential continuity in the history of the CAR is as important, if not more important in the long run, than the themes of violent change, exploitation, and enduring dependence. Deep roots of continuity provide a surprising stability in the face of dramatic and often very painful change on the surface. The Historical Dictionary of the Central African Republic contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 1200 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the Central African Republic.

The Gray Zones of Medicine

The Gray Zones of Medicine PDF Author: Diego Armus
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 0822988437
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
Health practitioners working in gray zones, or between official and unofficial medicines, played a fundamental role in shaping Latin America from the colonial period onward. The Gray Zones of Medicine offers a human, relatable, complex examination of the history of health and healing in Latin America across five centuries. Contributors uncover how biographical narratives of individual actors—outside those of hegemonic biomedical knowledge, careers of successful doctors, public health initiatives, and research and medical institutions—can provide a unique window into larger social, cultural, political, and economic historical changes and continuities in the region. They reveal the power of such stories to illuminate intricacies and resilient features of the history of health and disease, and they demonstrate the importance of escaping analytical constraints posed by binary frameworks of legality/illegality, learned/popular, and orthodoxy/heterodoxy when writing about the past. Through an accessible and story-like format, this book unlocks the potential of historical narratives of healings to understand and give nuance to processes too frequently articulated through intellectual medical histories or the lenses of empires, nation-states, and their institutions.