| Description |
1 online resource (xxix, 382 pages : photographs) |
| Contents |
Part I The Baobab -- The Distinguishing Features of the Tree of Life and the Baobab -- The Hadza and the Studies That Document Their Use of the Baobab -- Part II Theoretical Framework: Societal Specialization and Bipedality -- Hominin Adaptation as the Development of a Gendered Forager Division of Labor -- Bipedality as the Outcome of the Multidimensional Selective Pressure of the Developing Forager Way of Life -- Part III Material Culture and Technology -- Africa's Premier Fiber Tree -- The Baobab and Containers -- The Baobab and Fire in Hominin Evolution -- Part IV Environmental Considerations The Baobab and Hadza Acquisition, Management, and Use of Water -- Baobab Seasonality -- Part V Hadza Baobab Resources: Food, Health, and Exchange Benefits -- The Hadza's Preeminent Fruit Tree -- Baobab Beverages -- Africa’s Honey Tree -- The Baobab and Birds -- The Hadza Diet and the Baobab as a Source of Other -- The Baobab as a Hunger-Time Tree of Life -- The Baobab and Exchange -- Part VI The Inspirational Value of the Baobab -- The Baobab in Hadza Inspirational Life -- The Baobab as a Fertility Tree -- Other Inspirational Uses of the Baobab -- The Baobab and Danger -- The Baobab and Death -- Part VII The Hadza and Baobab Regeneration -- The Baobab and Hadza Central-Place Residential Camps -- Hadza Influence on Baobab Regeneration -- The Hadza Baobab Retreat |
| Summary |
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 Africas 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 |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on July 13, 2023) |
| Subject |
Adansonia digitata -- Tanzania
|
|
Ethnobotany -- Tanzania
|
|
Hatsa (African people)
|
|
Adansonia digitata
|
|
Ethnobotany
|
|
Hatsa (African people)
|
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Tanzania
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| ISBN |
9783031264702 |
|
3031264703 |
|
