Baobab: The Hadza of Tanzania and the Baobab as Humanity's Tree of Life

ISBN-13: 9783031264696 / Angielski

John Rashford

Opis

Modern humans, descendants of a founding population that separated from chimpanzees some five to eight million years ago, are today the only living representative of a branching group of African apes called hominins. Because of its extraordinary size and shape, the baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) has long been identified as the most striking tree of Africa’s mosaic savanna, the landscape generally regarded as the environment of hominin evolution. This book makes the case for identifying the baobab as the tree of life in the hunter-gatherer adaptation that was the economic foundation of hominin evolution. The argument is based on the significance of the baobab as a resource-rich environment for the Hadza of northeastern Tanzania, who continue to be successful hunter-gatherers of the African savanna.

Spis treści

Part I: THE BAOBAB

Chapter 1. The distinguishing features of the tree of life and the baobab

Chapter. 2. The Hadza and studies that document their use of the baobab

Part II: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Chapter. 3. Hominin adaptation as the development of a gendered forager division of labor

Chapter. 4. Correlated handiness and bipedality as the outcome of the multidimensional selective pressures of the forager way of life

Part III: MATERIAL CULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY

Chapter. 5. Africa’s premier fiber tree

Chapter. 6. The baobab and container

Chapter. 7. The baobab and fire in hominin evolution

Part IV: ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS

Chapter. 8. The baobab and Hadza acquisition, management and use of water

Chapter. 9. Baobab seasonality

PART V: BAOBAB RESOURCES: FOOD, HEALTH, AND EXCHANGE BENEFITS

Chapter. 10. The Hadza preeminent fruit tree

Chapter. 11. Baobab beverages

Chapter. 12. Africa’s honey tree

Chapter. 13. The baobab and birds

Chapter. 14. The Hadza diet and the baobab as a source of other animal foods

Chapter. 15. The baobab as a hunger-time tree of life

Chapter. 16. The baobab and health

Chapter. 17. The baobab and exchange

Part VI: THE INSPIRATIONAL VALUE OF THE BAOBAB

Chapter. 18. The baobab in Hadza inspirational life

Chapter. 19. The baobab as a fertility tree

Chapter. 20. Other inspirational uses of the baobab

Chapter. 21. The baobab and danger

Chapter. 22. The baobab and death

Part VII. THE HADZA AND BAOBAB REGENERATION

Chapter. 23. The baobab and Hadza central-place residential camps

Chapter. 24. Hadza influence on baobab regeneration

Chapter. 25. The Hadza baobab retreat

Literature cited

Index

O autorze

Prof. Dr. John Rashford is a retired professor emeritus of the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina, who received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the City University of New York.  His research focuses on the ethnobotany of the Caribbean with a particular interest in the cultural importance of trees.