peaking generally of the whole sphere of human thought... a correct intuition almost always precedesscientific knowledge, so that a generally correct idea, thoughnot yet supported by adequate evidence, obtains some holdon the minds of men. . . ,"
The world waits for the time when western science can prove eastern religion.
anotheringenious adaptation. O
Is using the word ingenious not romanticizing a normal cultural practice? Almost seems to be assigning values of western importance.
other set of locally recorded indigenoustraditions noted that the Bafour were Jews of the Oued Noun,in southwest Morocco, who had descended into the Adrarregion with other Berber tribes and were eventually integrated into the nomadic clans traversing the Trarza region inMauritania; some of th
Is it not hard to decipher and pull apart the origins since there is so much possibility for change over time and so much cultural diffusion and infusion happening consistently throughout history?
he passage from one medium of communicationto these others can also be seen in indigenous analogies,where the same aura and power surround both: the Dogonpeople of Mali, it was once suggested (albeit more recentlydiscredited), equate the spoken word with weaving, while thenomadic Songhay-speaking weavers in Niger are more specific: "to know how to weave is to read (kiow)" and themythical ancestor of the Tukulor weavers in Senegal is sai
Weaving and these arts were almost the same as reading and writing, since in their essence they are means of communication. This reminds of the importance of weaving to many indigenous people in the US, and how it is used as a way to tell a story, history, or family lineage.
urther, unlike European orEastern art, the historical dimension played a very minor rolein African art studies: sub-Saharan African cultures, lackingthe written word, were presumed to have little or no indigenous tradition of art history other than in the archaeologicalrecord.1
This is the importance of making history an interdisciplinary field, since so much is lost or hidden to us, we must use all possible sources to create a more full history.
Overriding thetraditional dialectic between the desert and the sown, between nomads andfarmers, the etaghas of the Acacus offer promising avenues of interpretation ofthe cultural trajectories in arid lands.
Breaking down the social hierarchy of civilizations argument.
articulate and give formal visibility to the relationshipbetween humans and the landscape.
This is generally important in the study of indigenous people and colonization, as the right and connection to the land has impact over the ownership and use of it. Settler-colonists were not connected to the land, as they sought to own and exploit it rather than live with it.
This raises the issue of how to define a“site” and how to digitally record sets of lines and signs distributed on severaluneven stony surfaces.
How the history is imagined is based on how it is recorded and translated. Any slight methodological difference could make a huge change in how we perceive and understand the history.
It has been suggested that some inscriptions have a “ludique” characterwhose aim was precisely to prevent the comprehension by anyone otherthan the author and the recipient(s) of the message
This sounds like something a stumped linguist would say.
There is a strong need to develop integrated approaches focused onthe study of the indigenous knowledge in arid lands, by the adoption ofarchaeological, geoarchaeological, historical and anthropological tools tounveil the practices of variable resource management by desert communities.
While it may be historically important and interesting, should we not be focusing energy on modern solutions or the power of trans-national trade and state relations to solve these issues rather than trying to uncover how it was done back in the day?
The Garamantian period was associated with sig-nificant changes in the content of the carvings. In thesurvey area, there is an overall reduction in the frequencyof animal engravings, with only 15 % of the total havingno patina
This is very interesting and aligns with the ownership of land, since it seems that animism, nature, and environment are becoming more controlled/controllable and so the focus of the art is shifting to the humans and their powers.
More intensive use of thelandscape may have changed how space was perceivedand demarcated, perhaps placing greater emphasis onthe construction of enduring features and monuments
Almost seems like initial seeds of capitalism, denoting claimed and owned land, and the importance of humans over the environment.
man occupation in this region has been largelymobile up to the present day, and the rock art providesa valuable source of evidence for prehistoric activityin an environment where other archaeological remainsare often scarce.
This makes me think about where to find history. Traditionally, history is located in written documents, and before then was "pre-history," but to say that is to erase half of the story of our world. Rock art shows that history can be found anywhere we look, so long as we give it a voice.
cted southward to hunt these animals with the bowand arrow. The "Ounanian" of Northern Mali, Southern Algeria,Niger, and central Egypt at ca. 10 ka is partly defined by adistinctive type of arrow point (37). These arrowheads are foundin much of the northern Sahara (Fig. 3) and are generally considered to have spread from Northwest Afric
This sort of evidence is incredibly important when trying to understand and record the history and movements of people with little to no written record. It can tell a story just as well as a historical account.
The Peopling of the Sahara During the HoloceneWe hypothesize that the differences in animal resources betweenthe northern and southern Sahara during the early Holoceneinfluenced the way it was peopled by human
The influence of environment on history and human movement is insurmountable. It begs the question of autonomy: to what degree does anyone in history have control over the events that occur, since it all might come down to what hands were dealt and who happened to be at some location in some point of time.
However, various simulations suggest thatprecipitation changed more gradually, accompanied by vegetation collapse in some modelsbut steadier decline in others (
This bings up the important and ever present topic of what to do with conflicting information or data. The more we seem to uncover, the more seems to contradict with our previous world views, which is part of the beauty of the endless historical threads.
derlying change.However, lake sediments may have uncertain chronologies and are often discontinuousin the drier parts of North Africa. Ocean sediment sequences are often uninterrupted andwell dated, but integrate information from awide area, making it difficult to reconstructregional patterns. Models reconstruct past climate and vegetation patterns with variablesuccess, and model results must be validatedusing the geological rec
Although each individual method of collecting climate history of North Africa has its pitfall, the combination of different types help to create a more holistic and valid image of that history. This can be generalized to history as a whole, where diverse sources and disciplines can help fill in and create a more complete view of the history of a people or place.
he colonizers proposed togovern cheaply by adapting tribal andchiefship institutions into European-style bureaucratic states.
Promoting hierarchies when in power allows those at the top more power. Similar to how confucianism, an extremely bureaucratic and hierarchical religion, was promoted by the mandarins and elites, which helped them maintain power and control.
Stereotypes of primitiveness andconservative backwardness are alsolinked to images of irrationality andsuperstition.
This section seems very western-oriented, since assuming rationality is a good thing and superstition is a bad thing aligns more with western literature and philosophy than the idea of centering accurate African narratives. Rationality is a core of western society, but that doesn't assign any values to it.
Tribe promotes a myth ofprimitive Mrican timelessness,obscuring history and change.
This is similar to much writing about Indigenous people, which often creates a romanticized, mystical view, which is wholly unrepresentative of the people at hand. It strips people of their history, creating an almost inhuman entity that exists in a void. This narrative makes the people that it talks about seem peripheral and unimportant, as there is a lack of details and specifics about them.
It is important to underscore the extent to which the language of flows withits oceanic metaphors may sometimes conceal the fact that oceans historically have actedas barriers to human migration, communication, and exchange.
I find it odd that Lydon views the Sahara from a very progressive approach - a bridge rather than a wall - yet then makes the traditional, and almost antithetical, claim that the ocean is a barrier rather than bridge. While imperial control over oceans may have controlled information flows, oceans do generally act as powerful means to share cultures and information.
Most ofthe historiography deals with societies of littoral North Africa, and research on theSahara – an area constituting most of the landmass of northern countries such as Algeriaand Libya – has been uneven, despite the existence of a sizeable French colonial literature
Perhaps the importance of archives and documentation as a method to control colonial and decolonial narratives will come up in the French colonization and decolonization of West Africa.
Early Muslim geographers from the Middle East dubbed the northern half of north-westAfrica ‘the island of the West’ or ‘place of the sun’s setting’ (jazı ̄rat al-maghrib).
Geographers and borderlining has immense historical power to create political, ethnic, and social peripheries, which allows those in power to promote narratives beneficial to themselves.
This synthetic construct that makes an ab-straction of ‘North Africa’ and relegates Africa to a sub-Saharan part of the continent,is, to borrow from Théophile Obienga, a ‘Eurocentric Africanism’
This reminds me of how settler-colonists attempt to create a stark divide between their culture and that of the indigenous people. Manufacturing social hierarchy and divisions play an important role in maintaining power throughout history.
Yet,notable scholars across the ages have questioned, as did Braudel, this particular paradigm
I am not sure how accurate this account of Braudel's work is. While he attempted to stray away from ethnocentric histories and perhaps in La Méditerranée provided some early view of the sahara as fluid, rather than a barrier, some of his other writing creates a clear divide between "White" and "Black" Africa. He also has no qualms with labelling people or cultures as "backwards" and is very westernized in his perception of progress.
but emptyinside, with no dialogue, no conflicts or resolutions in their stories
Truthful and deep oral histories can provide meaningful context and history. They can provide much more accurate accounts of history and allow readers to not view the people they are reading about as "other" or different.
no past, no history
Leaving out details removes the humanity from any person in any sort of work.
Africa is to be pitied, worshipped ordominated
This is the result of creating a dichotomy between Africa and the west: literature does not view Africa as any other place, rather as one that is romanticized or pitied. The general narrative of African history is told from an ethnocentric viewpoint.
Make sure you show that you are ableto eat such food without flinching, and describe how y ou learn to enjoy it—because you care.
Not only the media, but "academics" too hide their economic motives behind altruistic ones.
word
Similar to "Talking about 'Tribe,'" Wainaina points out these words which are used to generalize and stereotype people in Africa, which confuses rather than clarifies history.
unless that African has won the Nobel Prize.
The media portrays only the most extreme situations to control narratives and for economic benefit (to themselves of course). The writers don't show mundanity or usual life since it doesn't benefit them.