Baobab The Hadza of Tanzania and the Baobab as Humanity's Tree of Life

About this book

Modern humans, descendants of a founding population that separated from chimpanzees some five to eight million years ago, are today the only living representative of a branching group of African apes called hominins. Because of its extraordinary size and shape, the baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) has long been identified as the most striking tree of Africa's mosaic savanna, the landscape generally regarded as the environment of hominin evolution. This book makes the case for identifying the baobab as the tree of life in the hunter-gatherer adaptation that was the economic foundation of hominin evolution. The argument is based on the significance of the baobab as a resource-rich environment for the Hadza of northeastern Tanzania, who continue to be successful hunter-gatherers of the African savanna.

Contents

Part I: THE BAOBAB
Chapter 1. The distinguishing features of the tree of life and the baobab
Chapter 2. The Hadza and studies that document their use of the baobab

Part II: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Chapter 3. Hominin adaptation as the development of a gendered forager division of labor
Chapter 4. Correlated handiness and bipedality as the outcome of the multidimensional selective pressures of the forager way of life

Part III: MATERIAL CULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY
Chapter 5. Africa's premier fiber tree
Chapter 6. The baobab and container
Chapter 7. The baobab and fire in hominin evolution

Part IV: ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS
Chapter 8. The baobab and Hadza acquisition, management and use of water
Chapter 9. Baobab seasonality

PART V: BAOBAB RESOURCES: FOOD, HEALTH, AND EXCHANGE BENEFITS
Chapter 10. The Hadza preeminent fruit tree
Chapter 11. Baobab beverages
Chapter 12. Africa's honey tree
Chapter 13. The baobab and birds
Chapter 14. The Hadza diet and the baobab as a source of other animal foods
Chapter 15. The baobab as a hunger-time tree of life
Chapter 16. The baobab and health
Chapter 17. The baobab and exchange

Part VI: THE INSPIRATIONAL VALUE OF THE BAOBAB
Chapter 18. The baobab in Hadza inspirational life
Chapter 19. The baobab as a fertility tree
Chapter 20. Other inspirational uses of the baobab
Chapter 21. The baobab and danger
Chapter 22. The baobab and death

Part VII. THE HADZA AND BAOBAB REGENERATION
Chapter 23. The baobab and Hadza central-place residential camps
Chapter 24. Hadza influence on baobab regeneration
Chapter 25. The Hadza baobab retreat

Literature cited
Index

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Biography

Prof. Dr John Rashford is a retired professor emeritus of the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina, who received his PhD in Anthropology from the City University of New York. His research focuses on the ethnobotany of the Caribbean with a particular interest in the cultural importance of trees.