Changes In Sub-Saharan African Societies

In about the year 1400, there were many distinct characteristics within traditional European society and West African society, in which they were both similar, yet different. They were similar in their religious beliefs; however, they had developed different motives within rituals. In addition, they also structured their political system different. Their religious beliefs are also similar to Native American’s beliefs. However, Native Americans structured their political system and kept society in order differently.

The early civilizations of Africa were different in many of their cultural traits. One common trait they did have in common was the importance of trade in their society. Although trade was good for the African civilizations, there was consequences that followed trading. I will be using documents B, F, and D to support how early African civilizations had consequences from trading. In document B it states that, “The door of the pavilion is guarded by dogs on an excellent breed… who wear collars of gold and silver,” this quote helps support the idea that Ghana had lots of gold and wealth.

Interregional trade in Africa between 600 BCE and 1200 CE caused the fall of some civilizations and the diffusion of cultural aspects, such as language and religion, throughout the continent. Trading resulted in a high demand for limited resources, which led to the downfall of some societies in Africa and more interaction between different people, which allowed for the diffusion of language and religion.

During the period 1750-1900, people made many changes in their societies and countries but there were some things that did not change since 1750. The relations between the human and the environment changed the living environments of people, for example, patterns of settlement, where people moved from the suburbs to urban areas in Europe; however, not all of them experienced this, for example, Africans did not. After the Industrial Revolution, there were many developments of different cultures with technological advancements and new belief systems, but no new ‘major’ cultures, such as religions, were created. The social structures within many countries changed as economic ‘gaps’ among countries were widened following the Industrial Revolution,

There are a multitude of common elements of religion as practiced by the West Africans. Five of these elements include community, ancestors, a high God, Tricksters, and animal sacrifice. Community kept everyone together both physically and religiously, with no one left alone. The West Africans also believed that their ancestors were still present and watching over them. The ancestors were placed between God and the community, and sometimes they held all the power. Furthermore, a high God had developed everything in existence and the West Africans could not be without him. There were also multiple tricksters that blended the boundaries of sacred and ordinary. The chaos brought on by these tricksters, such as a hare or spider, would lead to order. Another element is animal sacrifice, where these rituals were done to praise the Gods.

civilization in the region at the time. They had developed political, religious, and social systems

Women's lives, roles, and statuses changed over various early world history eras and culture areas in many ways. Ancient Persia, Paleolithic, Athens, Mesopotamian and Roman eras were all different in very unique ways. The Paleolithic era treated women fairly and were treated equally. During the Neolithic era women were not treated fairly. She was the daughter of her father or the wife of her husband. Women rarely acted as individuals outside the context of their families. Those who did so were usually royalty or the wives of men who had power and status.” (oi.uchicago.edu, 2010) Athenian women were not treated fairly

After the Neolithic Revolution, both civilizations in Southwest Asia and South Asia saw change and development in the social structures that propelled the successes of these societies. The development of gender roles and social and economic class structures is the foundation of a prosperous and well-functioning civilization.

On the one hand the basic cultural assumption was that women were inferior to men and should obey their husbands or fathers. On the other hand, the glimpses of women’s lives that the scattered evidence allows show women engaged in commerce, heading households, and influencing politics, both with and without their husband’s participation Scholars who read these texts as products of their culture make interpretive decisions about how to understand this contradictory picture, and how to situate the texts within it. Women were expected to exhibit the virtues of modesty, industry and loyalty to family. However, these virtues did not exist as a whole, but were negotiated and embodied differently by different women under changing

Gender equality is an aspect of everyday life all societies in the world deals within their own way. It is the concept that men and women are equal to each other. In many places across the globe, women are seen as inferrer to men. Places in the Westerner world still have the ideology of how men are the superior and women are submissive to them. However, this is very untrue for the San society in Africa. It becomes evident that the ancient and long-lasting San society had gender equality when places in the world today are still struggling for the same results. The San society is the oldest and longest lasting hunter/gathering society in Africa. The book Nisa: The Life and Words of !Kung Women written by Marjorie Shostak is the life story of Nisa, women who grew up in the San society. Over the course of the book, her life story begins to unravel. Shostak goes into great detail about Nisa’s childhood, marriages and life thereafter. This gives the reader a clear insight into what it was like growing up and being apart of a gender-equal community that was the San society. Nisa is willing to share her story with the world so others could what it was truly like being apart of a community like the San.

A key issue in relation to female potters is their place in the typical potter wife-smith husband relationship. Women who pot are more often than not the wives of metalsmiths in West Africa, as this is a customary pairing that has echoed over many years throughout numerous cultures. The pairing itself is not the issue, but rather the aforementioned overshadowing that takes place. Whether facing underappreciation in their own communities or in the art historical world at length, the imbalance is present in numerous ways. In Adria LaViolette’s essay included in Status and Identity in West Africa she examines the social barriers amongst the nyamakalaw, a word identifying Mande specialists such as bards, leatherworks, metalsmiths, and occasionally

Women and men have had certain roles in society that were understood amongst them to be specified for their particular gender. Males were known to have the leading role as head of the house hold and the bread winner while the woman’s duty was to stay at home and take care of the house and children. While many people years ago deemed this way of life and practice to be the right and ethical thing to do, times have changed and so this kind of treatment towards a woman’s equality must be questioned. Even though times have changed, this mindset of a woman’s ability to be as good as a man has not completely gone away. In today’s society a woman contributes to the economy and her family as equally as that of a man. Therefore, women should share equal rights and opportunities as their gender counterparts.

Not only did other civilizations influence this region 's dominant power in the world, another major factor was the cycle of economic stability. When landmasses have a great financial standing, they experience a rate of growth of agriculture, innovation of technology, and increased capital would be present. All these elements could decipher if a society will rise or fall. A determining circumstance if a region will be successful is where it will settle, and if agriculture is prevalent in that area. For instance, all over Asia started to introduce many different farm technologies such as the dikes, conservation, and irrigation systems which led to a large population. As all these influences started to unwind, so did the specialization of labor, which helped to create technological innovations in the ways of production, transportation, and trade. The use of these technologies created social complexity within the territories itself; which showed the gap between the rich and poor. The emergence of new religions disburse through these areas, making new laws and foundations for these people. The growth of these religions deeply impacted the political institutions. All these different innovations and help to build these area of Africa and Eurasia into an advanced global society, a world power.

Women and men have very different roles in a Malian society. These different roles are displayed in the book, Sundiata. Women in this society are seen as a less important and unequal to men. The men hold more authority and higher positions. Women do not have very many rights, and are unable to have positions of power.

We believe that the earliest humans emerged in Africa because in the 1970s, archaeologists made critical finds in Africa. In East Africa, they discovered the footprints of human-like beings, called humanoids, who had lived about 3.5 million years ago. In Ethiopia, another team dug up a rare, complete skeleton of one of these humanlike beings—a female that they nicknamed Lucy.