Title: Droughts, Food and Culture: Ecological Change and Food Security in Africa's Later Prehistory
Author: Fekri Hassan (ed.)
Date: 2002
Publisher: Kluwer Academic
Pages: 347 pages
ISBN: 0-306-46755-0

[Back cover]

Recent droughts in Africa and elsewhere in the world, from China to Peru, have serious implications for food security and grave consequences for local and international politics. The issues concern the plight of African peoples, as well as our global ecological future.

Global climatic changes become manifest initially in regions that are marginal or unstable. Africa's Sahel zone is one of the most sensitive climatic regions in the world, and the events that have gripped that region beginning in the 1970's were the first indicators of a significant shift in global climatic conditions.

This work aims to bring archaeology within the domain of contemporary human affairs and to forge a new methodology for coping with environmental problems from an archaeological perspective. Using the later prehistory of Africa as a comparison, the utility of this methodological strategy in interpreting cultural change and assessing the long-term response to current global climatic fluctuations is examined and understood.

This volume will be of interest to archaeologists, African historical researchers, and any agency in the global environmental and ecological fields.