Africa from MIS 6-2: Where do we go from here?

Abstract

This chapter seeks to identify directions along which future research into the population dynamics of African hunter-gatherer communities and the paleoenvironmental context in which they lived can be explored. These themes include: critically assessing existing datasets for their quality and chronological precision; transcending outdated stadial “block-like” thinking about the past in favor of more dynamic understandings of continuous processes of change; converting statements about broad climatic trends into more precise, quantitative statements about past temperature, and rainfall patterns in order to approximate more closely the impact of climatic change on the resources exploited by past hunter gatherers; examining the connectivity and isolation of human populations, concerting archaeological, and paleoenvironmental evidence with data from genetics and human paleontology; and addressing the challenges posed for archaeologists’ use of ethnographic analogy by the recognition of “modern” forms of human cognition and behavior at much greater time depths than was once thought plausible. The chapter concludes by reflecting upon the relevance of MIS 6-2 research for African societies today.