The problem of the transition from hunting and gathering to food production has been approached by examining how economies changed through diffusion and innovation of domesticated plant and animal species and the interactions of hunters and others who were herders/farmers. Many reviews of the origins of domesticated plants and animals in Africa have emphasized on the early and indigenous development of food production, the impact of cattle-borne disease, patterns of indigenous development and diffusion, the role of arid and unpredictable environment, and the evidence of early domesticated plant foods in Africa. Several scholars have compared the ethnographic record of hunter-gatherers and food producers, both from the perspective of understanding the process of the adoption of food production and understanding hunter-gatherer-food producer interaction.
Important cases of food-producer/farmer interaction include that of Eburran and Pastoral Neolithic sites in the Central Rift Valley, that indicates the association of Eburran sites with domestic stock and in lower altitude locations, which presumably reflects interaction with plains pastoralists; the Tsavo case of southeastern Kenya, where hunter-gatherers known as the Waata persisted until the twentieth century by exchanging hunted meat and ivory tusks with Oromo and Wambisha pastoralists; and the case of montane hunter-gatherers variously known as Okiek or ‘Ndorobo’ whose interaction with Maasai and other pastoralists involved exchange of honey and meat for agricultural products and animal secondary products.
See also: Africa, Central: Foragers, Farmers, and Metallurgists; Great Lakes Area; Africa, West: Early Holocene Foragers; Hunter-Gatherers, Ancient.
Kent S (1996) Cultural Diversity among Twentieth Century Foragers: An African Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kuhn S and Stiner M (2001) The antiquity of hunter-gatherers. In: Panter-Brick C, Layton R, and Rowley-Conwy P (eds.) Hunter-Gatherers, An Interdisciplinary Perspective, pp. 99-142. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schrire C (1980) An inquiry into the evolutionary status and apparent identity of San hunter-gatherers. Human Ecology 8: 9-32.
World History
