HIST M10A Midterm Sources

Gilbert & Reynolds: Evolutionary perspectives of human origins

• past of scientific racism, craniometry, distinct species

• out of Africa > multiregional hypothesis

Oyebabe: African histiography from eurocentrism to afrocentrism

• discusses how Europeans said that Africans naturally “uncivilized” as justification for colonialism

• local histories: ~colonial period. people sought to write their own histories. less trained. more reliance on oral

• Academic histories: 1960s-1970s as saw inc higher education in Africa. often Marxist and anti-West

• Afrocentricism

Faloyin: Africa is not a country

everything is oversimplification

Falola & Ngom: Facts, Fiction, and Africa's Creative Imaginations

• advocates using indigenous languages to “decolonize” the mind

• neglect of Africans’ role in WWI, WII, Vietnam

Babcock Building Bridges to Afrocentrism, Nearly 30 Years Later:

• Afrocentric Egyptology Building Bridges to Afrocentrism

• Debate abt Afrocentrism (began ~1960s) and Africa’s place in the world isn’t over

Shillington 1

summary of human evolutionary history. ~3 mya Australopithecus. ~2.5 Homo habilis. ~600,000 Homo erectus. 200,000 homo sapiens

Shillington 2

• agriculture arose independently in the Nile (~8000 BCE), W Africa Savanna, Ethiopian Highlands, W African Sahel

• huge impact of settlement

• pyramids and luxor temples. deification of the pharaoh and important figures.

Adekunle Archaeological Interpretations Early History

• evidence of early agriculture in the Nile: irrigation, crafts that supplement (pots)

• Bantu migrations important aspect of spreading iron eastwards

Harms African Firsts in the History of Technology

• Iron spread from central Africa west and northwards. Not from Anatolia Southwards.

  • timeline (vast spread already by 1000 BCE)

  • linguistic evidence

• African iron superior. would buy iron from [Sierra Leone] to trade in [Senegal] for gold and slaves (importance in trade)

Shillington 3

• impact of metalworking (for tools, weapons, agriculture, trade)

• Nok culture: derivative of iron smelting tech

sexual taboos iron Togo

Blooms of Banjeli

Shillington 5

Islamic unity helped in defeated Berber chiefdom. eventual Berber enlistment even spearheaded Spain’s conquest in 711

Shillington 6 Trans-Saharan Trade and the Kingdom of Ancient Ghana

islam allowed for safer travel and expansion of trans-saharan trade in addition to the camel

Shillington 7

• kingdom of Ghana, Mali, Songhai (6,7) rulers’ Muslim. regular contact with Muslim traders

• Islamic Institutions (calendar, writing (Qu’ran), schools)

Shillington 8

• declaration of “jihad” helped sultanate of Adal defeat Ethiopian army

• helped organize in battle.

Rossi. Egyptian Architecture and Mathematics

• Thoth closely tied in reckoning. doesn’t mention Seshat.

• idea of reckoning rather than modern maths

Gaudet: Papyrus and the Pharoah's Treasure

• only grows along Nile. easy, light.

• overview of papyrus

Ahmed

Iretrau. God’s wife of Amun