Adaptation to Arid Environment: A Comparative Study of Hunter-Gatherers and Pastoralists in Africa

Abstract

The author compares two modes of living in African continent, hunting-gathering and pastoralism, and discusses man's adaptation to arid environment. First, the author deals with the San, hunter-gatherers of the Karahari, and the Rendille, camel pastoralists of arid area in northern Kenya, describing the characteristics of their environments, livelihood, and societies. Secondly, he compares them with other hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, and agriculturalists inhabiting less arid habitat, and points out that pastoralism is suited to drier environment, agriculture to wetter environment of the land hunting-gathering is widely adaptive to both. Through further examination of the land and resource utilization, material culture, demographic features, and social organizations of the San and the Rendille, he concludes that the extensive land utilization accompanied by frequent migration--common to both peoples--should be interpreted as an adaptation to arid environment, and that their quantitatively limited material culture, elaborate demographic regulation, and flexible social structure are remarkable characteristics of the societies in arid regions.