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18128 results in Cambridge Histories

Page 858 of 907

  • 8 - Beginnings of pastoralism and cultivation in north-west Africa and the Sahara: origins of the Berbers

  • Edited by J. Desmond Clark
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Africa
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    25 February 1982, pp 548-623

  • Summary

    Africa is truly Mediterranean only along its northern coastal fringe. During Palaeolithic times, similar or comparable lithic industries are found throughout both the countries of the Maghrib and the regions which today are desert. In North Africa and the immediately adjacent peripheral zone of the Sahara two great cultural traditions, namely Iberomaurusian and Capsian, succeeded one another without, however, occupying identical areas. The oldest phases of the Saharan-Sudanese Neolithic has led to an examination of the origins of agriculture, so that of the pastoral phase, chiefly known from the rock-art style referred to as Bovidian should begin with an analysis of the origins of animal domestication in the Sahara. There are a considerable number of paintings of the pastoral or Bovidian phase in the Tassili n'Ajjer and also in Ennedi, Tibesti and Tefedest in the northern Ahaggar.

  • 4 - The cultures of the Middle Palaeolithic/Middle Stone Age

  • Edited by J. Desmond Clark
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Africa
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    25 February 1982, pp 248-341

  • Summary

    The 'Middle Palaeolithic', or the 'Middle Stone Age', is part of the prehistoric cultural record that follows the Lower Palaeolithic or Earlier Stone Age, and precedes the Upper Palaeolithic or Later Stone Age. The Middle Palaeolithic/Middle Stone Age makes its first appearance more than 100000 years ago during the Last Interglacial, in Africa a time of somewhat increased rainfall, warmer climate, and transgressive sea level. The Middle Palaeolithic of the Maghrib and Sahara is usually divided into two broad complexes, the Mousterian and the Aterian, though at many sites it is not always possible to be certain which of the two is represented. The Middle Stone Age in Ethiopia and the Horn resembles in general, therefore, the typical Mousterian of Levallois facies of Europe though there are, in addition to the Levallois cores, an important percentage of core forms for the production of non-Levallois flakes.

  • 9 - The origins of indigenous African agriculture

    • By Jack R. Harlan, University of Illinois College of Agriculture, Urbana, Illinois
  • Edited by J. Desmond Clark
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Africa
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    25 February 1982, pp 624-657

  • Summary

    This chapter discusses ethnographic, archaeological and linguistic evidences for the origin of indigenous African agriculture, and also the development of indigenous African agriculture in the most general and tenuous terms at the present time. The direct evidence from actual plant remains to date has been very disappointing and contributes little to a solution of the problem. Indirect archaeological evidence is more abundant but always subject to errors or interpretation. The chapter focuses on a theory about plant domestication and agricultural origins, which is based on generalized models. The most characteristic feature of indigenous African agriculture is its adaptation to the savanna. Even the plants grown in the forest are largely of savanna origin, and by far the most important contribution of African crops to the world are plants adapted to the savanna zones. A small group of crops, essentially endemic to Ethiopia, was domesticated in the Ethiopian highlands.

  • 12 - Egypt, 1552–664 BC

  • Edited by J. Desmond Clark
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Africa
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    25 February 1982, pp 830-940

  • Summary

    The history of Egypt between 1552 and 664 BC, as for earlier periods, is conventionally divided up into usually sequential, numbered dynasties. These are derived from later Epitomes of Manetho's history of Egypt and usually do in fact coincide with real breaks, alterations or divisions in the line of dynastic succession. Several major factors contributed to the shaping, sustaining, and social pervasiveness of the Egyptian world-view. Tradition was an extremely important one. The governmental system enjoyed great authority because of its antiquity and supernatural implications. It was adequate to meet the perennial social and economic needs of the population and it was adept at reinforcing and enhancing its own political power. The period between 1552 and 664 BC is conventionally divided into two main phases, the New Kingdom and the Third Intermediate Period. New Kingdom and later relations with Libya, the other main African contact area, are one of the most intriguing and least studied aspects of Egyptian foreign relations.

  • 10 - Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period in Egypt

  • Edited by J. Desmond Clark
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Africa
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    25 February 1982, pp 658-769

  • Summary

    The Old and Middle Kingdoms together represent an important unitary phase in Egypt's political and cultural development. Divine kingship is the most striking feature of Egypt in these periods. In the form of great religious complexes centred on the pyramid tombs its cult was given monumental expression of a grandeur unsurpassed anywhere in the ancient Near East. Kerma in the Second Intermediate Period came to be an African counterpart of Byblos: an independent state beyond Egypt's political frontiers, with a court looking to Egypt as a source of sophisticated court fashion. If one considers the historical developments in Nubia in the Second Intermediate Period and the possibility that the position of Kush in the lists is a tribute to its political importance, then one might conclude that Kush was, from the outset, centred at Kerma. The implication is that Kush had emerged as a kingdom of considerable strength and importance, a counterpart to the Hyksos kingdom of the north.

  • 3 - The earliest archaeological traces

  • Edited by J. Desmond Clark
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Africa
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    25 February 1982, pp 157-247

  • Summary

    This chapter deals with archaeological studies of developing technology and culture from the earliest traces to the end of the Middle Pleistocene. The African sequence of archaeological documents is the longest known Pleistocene record. The energies of Palaeolithic archaeologists were formerly devoted primarily to the detailed study of stone artifacts but, as indicated, emphasis is steadily changing. The chapter reflects contemporary endeavour in African Palaeolithic prehistory by being more concerned with what is known of long-term developments in human ecology, technology and social grouping than with such versions of culture history as those expounded in the classics of African Palaeolithic literature. The excavation of undisturbed archaeological sites provides the crucial evidence for attempts to understand early prehistory in socio-economic and ecological terms. In Africa, prehistoric archaeology has provided an important opportunity for investigating the long-term record of the stages by which the contrast arose.

  • 7 - Political and institutional reform 1901–11

    • By Chuzo Ichiko, Center for Modern Chinese Studies, Toyo Bunko, Tokyo
  • Edited by John K. Fairbank, Kwang-Ching Liu
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of China
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    30 September 1980, pp 375-415

  • Summary

    This chapter reviews the political and institutional reforms made by the Ch'ing government after 1901 with some conspicuous points. First, there were many self-defeating contradictions among the reform plans. For example, while creating the National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies in order to widen the path for the expression of public opinion as part of the preparation for constitutionalism, the government put increasingly strict controls over all expression of thought. Once the Ch'ing had accepted the idea of constitutionalism, Chinese intellectuals began to demand the immediate opening of the parliament. Secondly, all the participants in the reform programmes sought their own interest. The reforms after 1901 were promoted mainly by Jung-lu, a Manchu grand councillor, and Chang Chih-tung, Liu K'un-i and Yuan Shih-k'ai, who were Chinese governors-general. Finally in 1908, when the emperor and the empress dowager both died, and Prince Ch'un became the prince regent, Yuan Shih-k'ai was forced to retire to Honan.

Page 858 of 907