First farmers in the Central African rainforest: A view from southern Cameroon
First farmers in the Central African rainforest: A view from southern Cameroon
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DOI：
10.1016/j.quaint.2011.03.024
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发表时间：
2012-02
影响因子：
2.2
通讯作者：
K. Neumann;K. Bostoen;A. Höhn;S. Kahlheber;A. Ngomanda;B. Tchiengué
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
K. Neumann;K. Bostoen;A. Höhn;S. Kahlheber;A. Ngomanda;B. Tchiengué
农业从干燥的西非热带稀树草原引入中非雨林，与2500 BP后放大季节性的重大气候变化相一致。稀树草原作物珍珠粟（Pennisetum glaucum），可追溯到2400-2200 BP，只能种植由于一个明显的旱季的发展。2400 BP后Nyabessan花粉图中的Trema orientalis表明了季节性增加和成熟森林被先锋地层取代。然而，木炭数据并没有指出在这一时期在南喀麦隆存在稀树草原，而是一个马赛克的成熟和先锋森林。早期的热带雨林农民将珍珠粟的种植与野生含油树木果实的开发结合起来，如油棕和橄榄。由于存在易于切割的先锋编队，有利于轮垦的建立。考古植物学的发现符合西班图人的语言场景，使珍珠粟的种植成为他们的粮食生产战略之一，然后再进一步向南扩展。重建的班图语历史早期阶段的珍珠粟继承词汇提供了强有力的旁证，证明班图人扩张的主要阶段与粮食生产的扩散重叠。
Agriculture was introduced into the Central African rainforest from the drier West African savanna, in concert with a major climatic change that amplified seasonality just after 2500 BP. The savanna crop pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), dated to 2400–2200 BP, could only be cultivated due to the development of a distinct dry season. Increasing seasonality and the replacement of mature forests by pioneer formations is indicated by Trema orientalis in the pollen diagram of Nyabessan after 2400 BP. However, charcoal data do not point to the existence of savannas in South Cameroon during this period, but rather to a mosaic of mature and pioneer forests. The early rainforest farmers combined the cultivation of pearl millet with the exploitation of wild oil-containing tree fruits, such as oil palm and Canarium. The existence of pioneer formations that can be easily cut favoured the establishment of shifting cultivation. The archaeobotanical finds fit into a linguistic scenario of West-Bantu speakers making the cultivation of pearl millet one of their food production strategies before expanding further to the South. The reconstructed inherited pearl millet vocabulary for the early phases of Bantu language history provides strong circumstantial evidence for an overlap of the major stages of the Bantu expansion with the dispersal of food production.