Africa from MIS 6-2

Africa from MIS 6-2 PDF Author: Sacha C. Jones
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9401775206
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 419

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Book Description
Bringing together archaeological, paleoenvironmental, paleontological and genetic data, this book makes a first attempt to reconstruct African population histories from out species' evolution to the Holocene. Africa during Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 6 to 2 (~190-12,000 years ago) witnessed the biological development and behavioral florescence of our species. Modern human population dynamics, which involved multiple population expansions, dispersals, contractions and extinctions, played a central role in our species’ evolutionary trajectory. So far, the demographic processes – modern human population sizes, distributions and movements – that occurred within Africa during this critical period have been consistently under-addressed. The authors of this volume aim at (1) examining the impact of this glacial-interglacial- glacial cycle on human group sizes, movements and distributions throughout Africa; (2) investigating the macro- and micro-evolutionary processes underpinning our species’ anatomical and behavioral evolution; and (3) setting an agenda whereby Africa can benefit from, and eventually contribute to, the increasingly sophisticated theoretical and methodological palaeodemographic frameworks developed on other continents.

Africa from MIS 6-2

Africa from MIS 6-2 PDF Author: Sacha C. Jones
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9401775206
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 419

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Book Description
Bringing together archaeological, paleoenvironmental, paleontological and genetic data, this book makes a first attempt to reconstruct African population histories from out species' evolution to the Holocene. Africa during Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 6 to 2 (~190-12,000 years ago) witnessed the biological development and behavioral florescence of our species. Modern human population dynamics, which involved multiple population expansions, dispersals, contractions and extinctions, played a central role in our species’ evolutionary trajectory. So far, the demographic processes – modern human population sizes, distributions and movements – that occurred within Africa during this critical period have been consistently under-addressed. The authors of this volume aim at (1) examining the impact of this glacial-interglacial- glacial cycle on human group sizes, movements and distributions throughout Africa; (2) investigating the macro- and micro-evolutionary processes underpinning our species’ anatomical and behavioral evolution; and (3) setting an agenda whereby Africa can benefit from, and eventually contribute to, the increasingly sophisticated theoretical and methodological palaeodemographic frameworks developed on other continents.

Africa in Global History

Africa in Global History PDF Author: Toyin Falola
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110678012
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description
This handbook places emphasis on modern/contemporary times, and offers relevant sophisticated and comprehensive overviews. It aims to emphasize the religious, economic, political, cultural and social connections between Africa and the rest of the world and features comparisons as well as an interdisciplinary approach in order to examine the place of Africa in global history. "This book makes an important contribution to the discussion on the place of Africa in the world and of the world in Africa. An outstanding work of scholarship, it powerfully demonstrates that Africa is not marginal to global concerns. Its labor and resources have made our world, and the continent deserves our respect." – Mukhtar Umar Bunza, Professor of Social History, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, and Commissioner for Higher Education, Kebbi State, Nigeria "This is a deep plunge into the critical place of Africa in global history. The handbook blends a rich set of important tapestries and analysis of the conceptual framework of African diaspora histories, imperialism and globalization. By foregrounding the authentic voices of African interpreters of transnational interactions and exchanges, the Handbook demonstrates a genuine commitment to the promotion of decolonized and indigenous knowledge on African continent and its peoples." – Samuel Oloruntoba, Visiting Research Professor, Institute of African Studies, Carleton University

Only in Africa

Only in Africa PDF Author: Norman Owen-Smith
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108963188
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 379

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Book Description
That humans originated from Africa is well-known. However, this is widely regarded as a chance outcome, dependant simply on where our common ancestor shared the land with where the great apes lived. This volume builds on from the 'Out of Africa' theory, and takes the view that it is only in Africa that the evolutionary transitions from a forest-inhabiting frugivore to savanna-dwelling meat-eater could have occurred. This book argues that the ecological circumstances that shaped these transitions are exclusive to Africa. It describes distinctive features of the ecology of Africa, with emphasis on savanna grasslands, and relates them to the evolutionary transitions linking early ape-men to modern humans. It shows how physical features of the continent, especially those derived from plate tectonics, set the foundations. This volume adequately conveys that we are here because of the distinctive features of the ecology of Africa.

Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa

Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa PDF Author: Amanuel Beyin
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031202902
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 2194

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Book Description
This handbook showcases an Africa-wide compendium of Stone Age archaeological sites and methodological advances that have improved our understanding of hominin lifeways and biogeography in the continent. The focal time spans the Pleistocene Epoch (c. 2.5 million–11,700 years ago) during which important human traits, such as obligate bipedalism that freed the hands to engage in creative activities, a large brain relative to body size, language, and social complexity, developed in the general forms that they are found today. The handbook is the first of its kind, and it is expected to play a significant role in human evolutionary research by: ❖ Collating the African Stone Age record, which exists in a fragmented state along the lines of national boundaries and colonial experiences. ❖ Showcasing emerging conceptual and methodological advances in African Pleistocene archaeology. ❖ Providing reference datasets for teaching and researching African prehistory. ❖ Making Africa’s Stone Age record accessible to researchers and students based in Africa who may not have access to journal publications where most new field discoveries are published. The Handbook features 128 chapters, of which 116 are site entries grouped by the host countries and presented in an alphabetical order. A number of those site-related entries examine multiple archaeological localities lumped under specific projects or study areas. The rest of the contributions deal with methodological topics, such as luminescence and radiocarbon dating, field data recovery, lithic analysis, micromorphology, and hominin fossil and zooarchaeological records of Pleistocene Africa. The introductory chapter provides an historical overview of the development of Stone Age (Paleolithic) archaeology in Africa beginning in the mid-19th century, and paleoenvironmental and chronological frameworks commonly used to structure the continent’s Pleistocene record. By making a good amount of African Stone Age literature accessible to researchers and the public, we wish to promote interest in human evolutionary research in the continent and elsewhere.

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Diet

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Diet PDF Author: Julia Lee-Thorp
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191071013
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 785

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Book Description
Humans are unique among animals for the wide diversity of foods and food preparation techniques that are intertwined with regional cultural distinctions around the world. The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Diet explores evidence for human diet from our earliest ancestors through the dispersal of our species across the globe. As populations expanded, people encountered new plants and animals and learned how to exploit them for food and other resources. Today, globalization aside, the results manifest in a wide array of traditional cuisines based on locally available indigenous and domesticated plants and animals. How did this complexity emerge? When did early hominins actively incorporate animal foods into their diets, and later, exploit marine and freshwater resources? What were the effects of reliance on domesticated grains such as maize and rice on past populations and the health of individuals? How did a domesticated plant like maize move from its place of origin to the northernmost regions where it can be grown? Importantly, how do we discover this information, and what can be deduced about human health, biology, and cultural practices in the past and present? Such questions are explored in thirty-three chapters written by leading researchers in the study of human dietary adaptations. The approaches encompass everything from information gleaned from comparisons with our nearest primate relatives, tools used in procuring and preparing foods, skeletal remains, chemical or genetic indicators of diet and genetic variation, and modern or historical ethnographic observations. Examples are drawn from across the globe and information on the research methods used is embedded within each chapter. The Handbook provides a comprehensive reference work for advanced undergraduate and graduate students and for professionals seeking authoritative essays on specific topics about diet in the human past.

The Prehistory of the Sudan

The Prehistory of the Sudan PDF Author: Elena A.A. Garcea
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030471853
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
This volume addresses the Out-of-Africa dispersals of the earliest hominins and early anatomically modern humans, the last semi-sedentary, pottery-bearing hunters-fishers-gatherers, the early food producers and users of domestic plants and animals either local or imported from the Near East, and the presuppositions of the rise of the kingdoms of Kerma, Pharaonic Egypt, and Axum on the basis of the latest available data. Sudan played a crucial role in the development of ancient human behavior and societies and was part of an extensive network encompassing faraway areas of Africa, such as Chad, the Sahara, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Kenya, as well as Asia, namely the Levant, the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, and India. The archaeology of this country has been explored and appreciated since the 1700s and more than 30 national and international research teams are currently active. New remarkable discoveries are unearthed every year, which are analyzed with the most up-to-date scientific techniques, and offer a prominent contribution to the general theoretical and methodological panorama of world archaeology. Beside the Nile Valley, the various geographical regions of Sudan – the deserts, savannas, and other watercourses to the west and east of the main river – are attentively taken into consideration as they formed a regional synergy that equally contributed to the far-reaching influence of Sudan’s inhabitants. This book is particularly addressed to Africanist archaeologists who study other parts of Africa; to prehistorians investigating other parts of the world; to archaeology students and teachers interested in having a global view on human adaptation and behavior in ancient Sudan; to science journalists, and to antiquity admirers and learned tourists who travel to Sudan and Nubia.

Culture History and Convergent Evolution

Culture History and Convergent Evolution PDF Author: Huw S. Groucutt
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030461262
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
This volume brings together diverse contributions from leading archaeologists and paleoanthropologists, covering various spatial and temporal periods to distinguish convergent evolution from cultural transmission in order to see if we can discover ancient human populations. With a focus on lithic technology, the book analyzes ancient materials and cultures to systematically explore the theoretical and physical aspects of culture, convergence, and populations in human evolution and prehistory. The book will be of interest to academics, students and researchers in archaeology, paleoanthropology, genetics, and paleontology. The book begins by addressing early prehistory, discussing the convergent evolution of behaviors and the diverse ecological conditions driving the success of different evolutionary paths. Chapters discuss these topics and technology in the context of the Lower Paleolithic/Earlier Stone age and Middle Paleolithic/Middle Stone Age. The book then moves towards a focus on the prehistory of our species over the last 40,000 years. Topics covered include the human evolutionary and dispersal consequences of the Middle-Upper Paleolithic Transition in Western Eurasia. Readers will also learn about the cultural convergences, and divergences, that occurred during the Terminal Pleistocene and Holocene, such as the budding of human societies in the Americas. The book concludes by integrating these various perspectives and theories, and explores different methods of analysis to link technological developments and cultural convergence.

Climate Changes in the Holocene:

Climate Changes in the Holocene: PDF Author: Eustathios Chiotis
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1351260227
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 658

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Book Description
This book highlights climate as a complex physical, chemical, biological, and geological system, in perpetual change, under astronomical, predominantly, solar control. It has been shaped to some degree through the past glaciation cycles repeated in the last three million years. The Holocene, the current interglacial epoch which started ca. 11,700 years ago, marks the transition from the Stone Age to the unprecedented cultural evolution of our civilization. Significant climate changes have been recorded in natural archives during the Holocene, including the rapid waning of ice sheets, millennial shifting of the monsoonal fringe in the northern hemisphere, and abrupt centennial events. A typical case of severe environmental change is the greening of Sahara in the Early Holocene and the gradual desertification again since the fifth millennium before present. Climate Changes in the Holocene: Impact, Adaptation, and Resilience investigates the impact of natural climate changes on humans and civilization through case studies from various places, periods, and climates. Earth and human society are approached as a complex system, thereby emphasizing the necessity to improve adaptive capacity in view of the anthropogenic global warming and ecosystem degradation. Features: Written by distinguished experts, the book presents the fundamentals of the climate system, the unparalleled progress achieved in the last decade in the fields of intensified research for improved understanding of the carbon cycle, climate components, and their interaction. Presents the application of paleoclimatology and modeling in climate reconstruction. Examines the new era of satellite-based climate monitoring and the prospects of reduced carbon dioxide emissions.

The Church of Scotland Home and Foreign Mission Record

The Church of Scotland Home and Foreign Mission Record PDF Author: Church of Scotland
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Missions, Scottish
Languages : en
Pages : 808

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Book Description


Hofmeyr

Hofmeyr PDF Author: Frederick E. Grine
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031074262
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
This edited volume provides the historical and geological background, as well as the details pertaining to the morphology and morphometric assessments, of a singular human cranial specimen from the Late Pleistocene discovered in Hofmeyr, South Africa. The chapters are divided into 4 main sections. Section 1 discusses the discovery and historical context of the skull, while section 2 addresses its geological and geochronological contexts through dating and stable isotope analyses. Section 3 details the general morphological and morphometric analyses (description, 3-D reconstruction, morphological comparisons), and section 4 details the specific morphological analyses performed (inner ear, dentition, endocranial morphology and size). The volume will be of interest to professional and student paleoanthropologists interested in the later phases of human evolution.