The Emergence, Spread, and Development of the Pastoral

Andrew B. Smith. African Herders: Emergence of Pastoral Traditions. Walnut Creek: Altamira Press, 2005. 251 pp. $88.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-7591-0747-2. Reviewed by Michael Bollig Published on H-SAfrica (October, 2007) Andrew Smith has the great merit to bring to‐ olent and nonviolent intergroup relations. Gender gether archeological and ethnographic informa‐ and age in African pastoral communities are cur‐ tion on herding traditions in Africa. This is a great rently being recognized by anthropologists as key task as archeologists almost more than anthropol‐ categories for analysis. In some detail, Smith ogists stick to their excavations and their immedi‐ treats the relation between foragers and herders. ate surroundings so that a comprehensive idea on Are both lifestyles really antagonistic? Does forag‐ cultural developments does not easily arise from ing prepare for a pastoral lifestyle, or does it run their publications. Smith wants to summarize the against it? From here it is only a short distance to current state of the archeology of pastoral tradi‐ a central question that this small volume not only tions in Africa and at the end of his book gives a poses but also answers concisely: what is domesti‐ considered opinion on where research should cation and where does domestication start? move in the coming years. In chapter 2, Smith attempts to give a summa‐ Smith starts with deconstructing stereotypes ry of pastoral material culture, discussing shel‐ of African pastoralism. Leaning on an approach ters, containers, grinding equipment, and person‐ developed by Edward Said in his seminal decon‐ al attire in some detail and making use of numer‐ struction of Western notions of the Orient, Smith ous photographs. Here he also describes how do‐ points out that the image of the African herder mestication can be traced in the archeological has deep roots in Western thought about Africa. record. It is a great merit of this book that such in‐ African herder societies are conceptualized as tricate questions are dealt with in a way digestible male-biased, warlike, and strongly independent. not only for interested non-archeologists but also Smith uses this section to prepare for a longer probably for undergraduate students as well. The treatise on elements of pastoral traditions that reader becomes acquainted not only with basic archeologists have to look for. Of course, it is ideas on how animals are genetically transformed much harder to discover the remains of mobile under human tutelage, but also gains an under‐ herders than of sedentary village populations; standing of what effects these changes have on hence it is useful to apply a system-orientated ap‐ pastoral resource management. proach identifying central areas of interest before The third chapter takes up the thread devel‐ entering the feld, "as you can only fnd what you oped from a methodological perspective and already know," as archeologists sometimes say. A traces the advent of domestication in the Old good knowledge of pastoral territories and pas‐ World. Smith takes the reader to the Levant, the toral resource use is of importance here, as are vi‐ Zagros Mountains, Mesopotamia, and the Sinai. At H-Net Reviews some length, he deals with precursors to domesti‐ the Beja and Tuareg indicate, as both speak very cation and the advent of village life in the pre-Ne‐ different languages (Berber and Cushitic, respec‐ olithic period. Changes in climatic conditions are tively)? Unfortunately, here the argument jumps seen as prime causes for changing lifestyles and a somewhat from a comparative account (in search turn toward agricultural production. Only in of pre-Islamic traces) of the ritual behavior of Sa‐ chapter 4, when Smith traces early domesticated haran populations to genetic similarities. A more animals in northern Africa, do we reach the frst detailed account of the archeology of subsistence African pastoral people. However, the question of technologies of recent Saharan people would have where these domesticates originated is not an developed closer ties to other chapters. However, easy one to resolve. While it is fairly clear that a strong point of this section is the description of sheep and goats were introduced into Africa from Saharan trade networks. The importance of pre‐ the Near East, there is a longer debate on whether historic exchange networks has apparently been cattle were domesticated locally or introduced grossly underrated in the past, whilst prehistoric from neighboring areas in the Levant. It is only populations of the Sahara may be best conceptual‐ recent DNA analysis of modern cattle that has ized as "traveling cultures." shown that domestication in northeastern Africa Only in chapter 6 do we get to the expansion is very likely. However, independent archeologi‐ of pastoralism to eastern and southern Africa. The cal evidence is still lacking and we know little passage on East Africa is short indeed but it gives about the socioeconomic processes involved in a concise account of the advent of pastoralism in the domestication process. About 7,800 to 6,400 that region: domesticated stock arrived there years ago, we fnd an early pastoral period well around 4000 years ago and by 3300 years ago developed in large areas of northern Africa. Smith there was already significant cultural diversity in discusses the economy of these early herders but pastoral East Africa. In the remainder of this also deals with their cultural orientation. He gives chapter, Smith follows the traces of pastoralism to evidence of cattle cults and draws from Saharan southern Africa. While pastoral societies clearly rock art and funerary monuments in the Sahara a emerged in East Africa, in southern Africa the his‐ great deal of interesting data on early pastoral‐ tory of herding is more ambivalent and there are ism. a number of conflicting theories on the emer‐ By the end of this early pastoral period we gence of pastoralism in that region. Again, the re‐ find the Sahara a fully developed desert, a parallel lation between herders and foragers is crucial: outmigration from this inhospitable environment, did herding populations introduce livestock to and the emergence of larger villages in the areas southern Africa, or was livestock herding adopted adjoining the desert in the south by about 4000 BP by foragers and disseminated into southern Africa and the spread of pastoralism towards the Sahel. through pastro-foragers? In a fne interdiscipli‐ Chapter 5 is a highly interesting effort to develop nary treatise, Smith juxtaposes archeological, lin‐ a second perspective on the emergence of pas‐ guistic, and ethnographic arguments and devotes toral traditions: instead of going back to the ori‐ an entire section to the interpretation of rock art. gins, Smith tries to trace the prehistory of contem‐ The short seventh chapter attempts to high‐ porary Saharan herder populations such as the light the role of cattle in ritual in a comparative Tuareg, the Tubu, and the Beja. In a highly inter‐ manner, combining material from the eastern esting way he combines information from ethnog‐ Mediterranean, East Africa, and South Africa. This raphy, history, archeology, and genetics. His ac‐ chapter adds to our understanding of a prehis‐ count is meant to raise new questions: for exam‐ toric pastoral past that perhaps too often is only ple, what do the close genetic relations between 2 H-Net Reviews seen from the perspective of subsistence herding. The fnal eighth chapter is devoted to an outline of the future of African herder societies and sketches perspectives for future archeological re‐ search on African pastoral populations. The fu‐ ture of African herders is described in a highly pessimistic manner citing the loss of lands, vio‐ lence, and the cultural hegemony of sedentary populations. In stark contrast, the future for archeologists is much brighter: interdisciplinary efforts, especially the great potential that DNA analysis offers archeologists for new insights into the pastoral past. The northern African region re‐ quires a closer consideration of links between the Nile Valley and the Saharan hinterlands and a reevaluation of central Saharan rock art. For East Africa, an extension of archeological work into Uganda, southern Ethiopia, and southern Sudan is a major challenge as much of evidence on the pas‐ toral past today rests on data obtained from exca‐ vations in Kenya. Interregional relations may be‐ come a new focus for research both for East Africa, where Arabian-East African relations may shed new light on the expansion of pastoral tradi‐ tions, and for southern Africa, where links be‐ tween southern African pastoralism and East African pastoralism have yet to be explored. Smith's small volume is a highly readable in‐ troduction to the prehistoric past of Africa's herder tradition. It successfully synthesizes new information on the pastoral past that was not con‐ sidered in Smith's previous book, Pastoralism in Africa: Origins and Ecological Development (1992). Smith condenses a great amount of infor‐ mation and summarizes very recent research re‐ sults. The book successfully tries to portray a pas‐ toral past in a holistic fashion, as not only past subsistence patterns but also a pastoral culture are reconstructed. The book is especially recom‐ mended for course work and as an introduction to prehistoric herding lifestyles for non-archeolo‐ gists. 3 H-Net Reviews If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-safrica Citation: Michael Bollig. Review of Smith, Andrew B. African Herders: Emergence of Pastoral Traditions. H-SAfrica, H-Net Reviews. October, 2007. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=13724 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 4.

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