Buffering new risks? Environmental, social and economic changes in the Turkana Basin during and after the African Humid Period
Buffering new risks? Environmental, social and economic changes in the Turkana Basin during and after the African Humid Period
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DOI：
10.1177/09596836221121766
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发表时间：
2022-10
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通讯作者：
E. Hildebrand;K. Grillo;K. Chritz;M. Fischer;Steven T. Goldstein;Anneke Janzen;A. Junginger;R. Kinyanjui;E. Ndiema;Elizabeth A. Sawchuk;Amanuel Beyin;S. Pfeiffer
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作者：
E. Hildebrand;K. Grillo;K. Chritz;M. Fischer;Steven T. Goldstein;Anneke Janzen;A. Junginger;R. Kinyanjui;E. Ndiema;Elizabeth A. Sawchuk;Amanuel Beyin;S. Pfeiffer
本文评估了以风险为导向的框架，以解释图尔卡纳盆地的渔业和畜牧业社区在非洲潮湿期（AHP，15-5 ka）期间和之后所面临的环境，社会和经济变化。轨道驱动的AHP在非洲北方和东部的大部分地区创造了潮湿的条件、高水位和不寻常的水文联系。随着干旱条件的设置和降雨量减少之间5.3和3.9 ka在非洲东部，图尔卡纳湖（肯尼亚西北部）急剧萎缩。海岸线的退缩与开阔平原的扩张同时发生，为盆地的早期牧民创造了新的生态条件和潜在的机会。在这一不断变化的环境中，经济从粮食采购（捕捞/狩猎水产资源）转向粮食生产（放牧），这可能是通过牧民的移民和当地渔民的放牧。早期的牧民还建造了至少七个巨石柱遗址，在这段时间内作为公共墓地。最近的研究表明，当地的环境动态-在AHP期间和之后-是复杂的，要求对AHP后的生活带来新的和/或更高的风险这一概念进行更仔细的询问。风险缓冲战略可能包括流动性、多样化、物理存储和交换。在图尔卡纳湖周围工作的考古学家提出，从捕鱼到畜牧的经济转变需要增加流动性，作为应对干旱和资源不可预测性的风险缓冲战略，而支柱遗址-作为不稳定景观中的固定地标-为日益移动的放牧社区提供了聚集和交流的环境。然而，最近的研究表明，当地的环境动态图尔卡纳湖盆地-期间和之后的AHP -比以前认为的更复杂，有必要重新评估的概念，即后AHP的生活带来新的和/或更高的风险。在这里，我们探讨风险缓冲策略（如流动性，多样化，物理存储和/或交换）作为唯一的一个类别的潜在解释，在这个时候在该地区观察到的新的社会实践。要衡量其适用性，我们需要：（a）评估埋葬在界碑点的社区和个人的空间流动性;（B）评价随着畜牧业取代渔业，流动战略是否以及如何发生变化;（c）审查社会和经济变化的其他解释。
This paper evaluates risk-oriented frameworks for explaining environmental, social, and economic changes faced by fishing and herding communities in the Turkana Basin during and after the African Humid Period (AHP, 15–5 ka). The orbitally-forced AHP created moist conditions, high lake levels, and unusual hydrological connections across much of northern and eastern Africa. As arid conditions set in and rainfall decreased between 5.3 and 3.9 ka in eastern Africa, Lake Turkana (NW Kenya) shrank dramatically. Shoreline retreat coincided with an expansion of open plains, creating new ecological conditions and potential opportunities for early herders in the basin. In this changing landscape, economies shifted from food procurement (fishing/hunting aquatic resources) to food production (herding), likely through both in-migration by pastoralists and adoption of herding by local fishers. Early pastoralists also built at least seven megalithic pillar sites that served as communal cemeteries during this time. Recent research has shown that local environmental dynamics – both during and after the AHP – were complex, demanding a more careful interrogation of the notion that post-AHP life entailed new and/or heightened risks. Risk-buffering strategies might include mobility, diversification, physical storage, and exchange. Archaeologists working around Lake Turkana have proposed that economic shifts from fishing to pastoralism entailed increased mobility as a risk-buffering strategy to deal with aridity and resource unpredictability, and that pillar sites – as fixed landmarks in an unstable landscape – provided settings for congregation and exchange amongst increasingly mobile herding communities. However, recent research has shown that local environmental dynamics in the Lake Turkana basin – both during and after the AHP – were more complex than previously thought, necessitating re-evaluation of the notion that post-AHP life entailed new and/or heightened risks. Here, we explore risk buffering strategies (e.g. mobility, diversification, physical storage and/or exchange) as only one category of potential explanation for the new social practices observed in the region at this time. Gauging their applicability requires us to (a) assess the spatial mobility of communities and individuals interred at pillar sites; (b) evaluate whether and how mobility strategies may have changed as pastoralism supplanted fishing; and (c) examine alternative explanations for social and economic changes.