Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home AfricaBib Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Evolution of the Cultigen Repertoire of the Nupe of West-Central Nigeria
Author:Blench, RogerISNI
Year:1989
Periodical:Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa
Volume:24
Pages:51-63
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:Nigeria
West Africa
Subjects:Nupe
food crops
agricultural history
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Anthropology and Archaeology
Agriculture, Agronomy, Forestry
Cultivation practices
cultivation systems
External link:https://doi.org/10.1080/00672708909511397
Abstract:This paper examines the process of adoption of food crops among a single ethnic group by looking at the development of domesticated plants among the Nupe of west-central Nigeria. It combines linguistics, historical sources and present-day participant information (derived from fieldwork in 1979-1982 and subsequent shorter visits up to 1987) in order to illustrate the dynamics of traditional African farming systems and the factors relevant to changes in cropping patterns. After summarizing the ethnography of the Nupe, a comparative table of crops at different historical periods (from the early 19th century onward) illustrates the evolution of the repertoire. This is linked to an explanatory framework that examines the farming systems, political stuctures and marketing networks that affect the choices made by farmers. The argument of this paper is that a simple techno-environmental determinism is an inadequate explanatory framework for changes in cultigen repertoires. Soils, rainfall, market opportunities and labour availability are linked with the development of internal differentiation within the society, in terms of both hierarchy and specialized subgroups. Once foods are defined as markers of specific status then their production and importation begins to ramify. During the early period of centralization of the Nupe State, large numbers of vegetable foods were introduced, but with greater wealth stratification, livestock products and imported foods replaced them in prestige. Bibliogr., notes.
Views
Cover