Cultural Adaptaion in West Africa

Abstract

A Late Stone Age tradition characterized by microlithic tools appears to have originated in the forest region of West Africa. This was later influenced by waves of pottery making and iron technology from across the Sahara. Associated with these influences was the domestication of animals and cultivation of plants. At first, these West African communities were probably composed of sedentary village farmers or nomadic pastoralists who also practiced hunting and collecting. Agriculture appears to have led to population growth and long distance mercantile activities. There is a steady concern with abstract representations beginning with engravings on rocks and ostrich eggshells in the Sahara, followed by the making of clay models of domesticated animals in the grassland zones and then clay figures in human form as represented in Nok art. The evidence indicates that the art traditions were connected with the use of magic or witchcraft and with cosmological beliefs as social markers and as agents of social control.