PEOPLES AND CULTURES OF SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Band 298, S. 11-20
ISSN: 0002-7162
The pop is estimated at 150 million native Africans, 3 million Europeans, 750,000 Indians, & a sprinkling of Near Easterners. Racial variations are associated with geographic regions but migrants have resulted in continuous mixture. Diff's in physical type have not signif influenced contact. 6 cultural areas may be distinguished in the Sub-Saharan region & these grouped into 2 econ areas: (1) the eastern group mainly pastoral consists of (a) the East African Cattle Area, (b) Eastern Sudan, (c) parts of the East Horn; & (2) the Western group comprising societies that are basically agricultural consisting of (a) Congo, (b) Guinea Coast, & (c) Western Sudan. In the Pastoral societies the herded animal is the essential element in the prestige system. 'A subsistence econ, clearly distinguished from the prestige system & marked by family self-sufficiency is based on agriculture.' There is no exchange of produce but the exchange of beasts on the occasion of marriage 'provides some of the strongest supports for the total tribal structure.' Specialization takes 2 forms: tribal in West-central Africa, & by craft along the Guinea Coast & to the North. Specialization has had the usual econ consequences. The cliff's between these cultural provinces have been signif in the differential adjustment of their inhabitants to European contact & control. Africans having a pecuniary unit of exchange of their own & a developed commerce have been better able to adapt to European influences. Notwithstanding substantial diff's there are broader unities present in the sub-Saharan area such as: (1) unilateral descent systems, (2) the religious importance of the ancestor & the respect for age, (3) the institution of age grades & the educ'al device of the puberty school, (4) the concept that ownership of the land rests in the community, (5) a pluralistic world view, (6) the decisive role of women in determining att's & shaping tribal policy, (7) the technique of soc control through satire in song & narrative, & (8) the role of magic. D. L. Levine.
