1. Describe social structures, political organization, and economic production in foraging, pastoralist, and agricultural societies in Africa before 1000 C.E.
2. Identify the four major language families in Africa; describe cultural characteristics associated with speakers of each language family. How can you account for cultural differences and similarities?
3. Describe the basic geographic features of the African continent. How do major geographical features and climate zones shape social and cultural changes?
4. What effect did the development of stone tools have on behavioral changes among human ancestors?
5. What are the implications for family and social structure of the evolution of large brains?
6. Is understanding human origins “just a matter of finding the fossils”? (John Reader, Africa: Biography of a Continent, 31)
7. How do social and political assumptions shape the way knowledge is created?
8. What are your unconscious mental habits?

Skills focus

1. Chronological reasoning: thinking with long time horizons
2. Asking “Research” grade questions
3. Working with historical sources: what are the 4 main types of sources for African history?
4. Constructing a viable thesis statement

Reading questions

Lane, 1996

• What is the perception of “Bushmen” among the general public in the “West”?
• What are the roots of those perceptions?
• What is the role of museums in “western” culture and education?
• What kind of objects were included in Pippa Sktones’ Miscast exhibition? In what ways did these objects confirm widely held stereotypes of Bushmen? In what ways did they challenge these notions?
• What does Lane identify as the major weakness of the exhibition?
• Lane is reporting on a museum exhibition for readers who could not attend, but this piece is also a review—with opinion and argument. What intellectual and political connections does Lane draw on?
• Can you re-frame Lane’s main point as a thesis statement?

Klieman, 2003

• What is the Bantu Migration?
• What does Klieman identify as the Bantu Problem?
• What criteria differentiate humans:
  • According to ancient Greeks?
  • According to Christians?
  • In the view of 20^th + 21^st Century biological sciences?

• Is one set of criteria more useful than another? Why or why not?
• What specific presuppositions inform how we think about foraging societies?

Salopek, 2005

• Summarize Salopek’s description of Mbuti Batwa.
• Compare the sources Klieman and Salopek use to understand Batwa society and culture.
• To what extent does Salopek incorporate perspectives from long-term Batwa history in his investigation/presentation of contemporary life in central Africa?
• What does Salopek present as the most significant context for understanding conflict and social tension in central Africa?

Vocabulary