Lineages have oft en been the basis by which individuals
have access to resources and groups. In traditional hunter-
gathering bands, lineage determines whether individuals
remain with their birth group or migrate to another group.
When young men leave their parents’ group to fi nd their
mates, the culture is called matrilocal; when young women
leave their parents’ group to live with their mates’ band, the
culture is referred to as patrilocal. Th is kind of social organi-
zation serves to diversify the gene pool and keep bands small.
Bands also might have split in ancient Africa once a critical
threshold for population was reached, a threshold possibly
created by whether resources were available.
Although lineage is a type of kinship system, not all
kinship systems are necessarily based on genetic descent.
Hunter-gatherer and later agro-pastoral groups could have
also been organized based on more generalized kinship rela-
tions not necessarily rooted in blood relations. In some kin-
ship systems, subgroups have diff erential degrees of infl uence
over the entire society. All societies have underlying kinship
groups, but the degree to which they are the basis of organiza-
tion and structure varies considerably.
Early hunter-gatherer groups oft en are referred to as
acephalous societies, meaning they had no centralized, spe-
cialized political leader, such as a chief or a king. Informal
leaders might have emerged based on skill and accomplish-
ment, but these leaders are thought to have had little absolute
control and to have led more by group support than coercion,
force, or intimidation. Decisions might have been made on a
consensus basis by all group members or with heads of fami-
lies having a stronger vote. Consensus-based decision mak-
ing was possible because of the small size of the groups.EMERGENCE OF SEDENTARY SOCIETIES
At some point in the ancient period human groups began
to experiment with domestication of animals and plants in
northern Africa. Th e exact dates for the origins of farming
and herding are not certain, since many of the early steps to-
ward domestication of animals and plants are not detected in
the archaeological record. What is detectable in the record is
that increased reliance on agriculture led to more sedentary
lifestyles, since agriculture requires farmers to remain in one
location for at least one crop season. Once humans started
manipulating the land, they realized the benefi ts of staying
in one spot and were able to improve their ability to grow the
food they needed where they needed it.
One of the earliest examples of sedentary villages is the
site of Nabta Playa (western deserts of southern Egypt), some
62 miles west of the Nile River. Nabta Playa is the site of a vil-
lage with permanent houses from as early as 8,000 years ago
that were formally organized around a “street.” Th is village
had wells and granaries to store food; although in the begin-
ning the majority of their diet still came from wild animals
and plants, evidence of domestic animals appears as early as
7,000 years ago, and agriculture may have been adopted as
early as 6,500 years ago. Th ere are some who believe that hu-man groups may have experimented with agro-pastoral ac-
tivities in the Nile Valley prior to the Holocene.
Although many (but not all) human groups would even-
tually rely mostly or only on farming or herding, the transi-
tion from hunting and gathering to farming and herding was
gradual, and there were long periods during which human
groups continued to rely on all of these activities simultane-
ously. Changes in climatic conditions were instrumental in
the spread and eventual dominance of herding and farming
activities. Around 4,000 years ago the African continent be-
gan to dry out, which forced human groups to migrate out
of the increasingly dry Sahara region into the Sahel and the
oases around rivers and lakes. When people moved out of the
desert areas, more and more people were compressed into
smaller and smaller areas, which further encouraged de-
velopment of herding and farming activities as the climate
change brought a decrease in wild animals and plants. Adop-
tion of herding and farming moved south and east, eventu-
ally reaching southern Africa around 2,000 years ago with
the mass migration of the Bantu farmers across the continent
that started around 1000 b.c.e. In general, in the densely for-
ested areas of central Africa, hunting and gathering persisted
much longer.
Th is change in livelihood strategies had profound eff ects
on the population and organization of human groups. When
human groups became more sedentary and skilled in herding
and farming, populations grew even more, and people had the
opportunity to accumulate material objects and build perma-
nent structures. Th e increased importance of a specifi c area
of land led to ownership of property, which in turn led to the
development of rules and laws to enforce ownership rights.
Over time, increases in population densities and accumula-
tion of material possessions led to labor specialization and
more and more complex social organization. Competition for
resources, wealth, and social status started to increase in im-
portance and aff ect social organization through the dictation
of alliances based on a variety of relationships, not just fam-
ily, lineage, and kinship.
Anthropologists, using more modern human groups to
draw conclusions about ancient cultures, oft en apply E. E.
Evans-Pritchard’s term segmentary societies (coined in 1940 for
his study of groups in southern Sudan) to ancient agricultural
human groups. Th is term is commonly used to describe societ-
ies that are subdivided into groups based on kinship that are
relatively equal in status. Segmentary societies are oft en led by
elders, and participation in the collective decisions and activi-
ties is accomplished through relationships with these elders.
Another ancient system of governance and stratifi cation
was based on the power an individual was granted as a result
of the size of the group loyal to him or her (that is, patron-
client relationships). Kinship-based societies might have had
this type of organization, which brought more (but not neces-
sarily absolute) power over decisions aff ecting the entire so-
ciety to individuals who had larger families or more “clients”
that pledged loyalty to them.1012 social organization: Africa0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1012 1012 10/10/07 2:30:45 PM