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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Savanna farmers on the Sandveldt: patterns of land-use and organisational behaviour of some shifting cultivators in south-central Africa
Author:Vogel, Joseph O.
Year:1989
Periodical:Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa (ISSN 1945-5534)
Volume:24
Pages:38-50
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:Zambia
Subsaharan Africa
Africa
Subjects:agricultural history
shifting cultivation
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
Development and Technology
Anthropology and Archaeology
Agriculture, Agronomy, Forestry
land use
Sandveldt area (Zambia)
External link:https://doi.org/10.1080/00672708909511396
Abstract:Shifting cultivation remains a highly successful means of environmental interaction throughout sub-Saharan Africa where it forms the economic basis for many societies in the southern subcontinent. This paper reconstructs a series of prehistoric ecosystems from the evidence of archaeological remains on the Sandveldt along the Zambezi in southern Zambia. It goes beyond the mere description of field systems and technologies in order to demonstrate the social adhesives of these production systems. The author shows that early shifting cultivators in southwestern Zambia utilized effective strategies for initiating and continuing organized social activities on patches of marginal sandy soil. They used shifting cultivation from the very beginning and displayed adroitness at modifying this practice over time in order to maintain a stable and sustained yield. The transformation from a pioneering slash-and-burn ecosystem to residentially stable cyclical swiddening displays socially arranged adaptation. The savanna farmers began repertoires of culturally ordered regulation rather than technoeconomic innovation. Bibliogr., notes.
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