Dissertation Information for Kairn A. Klieman NAME: - Kairn A. Klieman
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- History
SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (1997)
ADVISORS: - Christopher Ehret
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - Edward A. Alpers - Thomas Hinnebusch - Susanna B. Hecht
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: Hunters and farmers of the western equatorial rainforest: Economy and society, 3000 B.C. to A.D. 1880
Abstract: This dissertation provides a history of social and economic contacts between hunter-gatherer "pygmy" populations and their Bantu agriculturalist neighbors over a 4900-year span. The reconstruction of this history is based on methods of historical comparative linguistics, supplemented by comparative ethnography, archeology, and written and oral documentation. A central thesis of the dissertation is that the economies and social relations of central African hunter-gatherers as observed by westerners over the past 150 years do not reflect historical realities of the pre-mercantilist, pre-slave trade era.
Accordingly, the dissertation provides a new periodization for the history of this region and discusses the nature of agriculturalist/hunter-gatherer contacts characteristic to each. These periods are: (1) 5000-3000 B.C., the era of initial Bantu expansion out ot northwestern Cameroon and earliest contacts with hunter-gatherers. The archeological record for this era is reassessed in light of linguistic evidence, allowing for alternative interpretation of what are generally considered Neolithic sites. (2) 3000-600 B.C., a period of widespread dispersal of Bantu-speaking peoples throughout the forest and the adoption of Bantu languages by hunter-gatherers; (3) 600 B.C. to 1000 A.D., characterized by a "settling-in" trend on the part of agriculturalists, with societal divergences taking place strictly In situ, most likely conditioned by the introduction of iron. This latter development is shown to have greatly affected the economic pursuits and trade patterns of both agriculturalist and hunter-gatherer alike; and (4) the period from 1000 to 1880 A.D., which saw the full development of long-distance trade networks and the formation of centralized states (in the southern regions) and increasing penetration of Atlantic economies after c. 1450 A.D. For this period, as well as those preceding, evidence is laid which illustrates the central finding of the study, namely, that hunter-gatherer populations were involved in and affected by the major historical developments of each era.
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MPACT Scores for Kairn A. Klieman A = 0
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calculated 2008-10-14 05:54:56
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