Quantitative analysis of drought management strategies across ethnographically-researched African societies: a pilot study
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- dc.contributor.author Biagetti, Stefano
- dc.contributor.author Zurro, Debora
- dc.contributor.author Alcaina-Mateos, Jonas
- dc.contributor.author Bortolini, Eugenio
- dc.contributor.author Madella, Marco
- dc.date.accessioned 2023-06-20T07:29:26Z
- dc.date.available 2023-06-20T07:29:26Z
- dc.date.issued 2021
- dc.description.abstract In this paper, we present a pilot study aimed at investigating the impact of subsistence strategies and environmental pressure on the distribution of ethnographically documented strategies to cope with drought and its effects across 35 current societies in Africa. We use freely accessible ethnographic databases to retrieve data on how a number of African societies deal with the circumstances of drought, and ascertain the impact of geography on their distribution in order to measure possible relationships between them, a set of subsistence choices, and proxies of environmental constraints. We use Canonical Correspondence Analysis to explore the emerging patterns and find that subsistence strategy strongly impacts the choice of drought management strategies, especially if considered with a proxy of local environmental condition. Spatial proximity and aridity per se have only marginal impact, highlighting other relevant processes of cultural transmission that at least partly transcend (a) the intensity of human interaction over geographic gradients and (b) local adaptation primarily dependent on water availability. This study supports the wide applicability of quantitative and replicable methods to cross-cultural evidence on a variety of adaptive strategies and uses ethnographic data to propose new hypotheses that can inform future archaeological research by showing recurrent and non-case-specific choices highlighting resilient practices and adaptive behaviour in Africa.
- dc.description.sponsorship This research and this publication were funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the project CULM–Modelling plant cultivation in prehistory HAR2016-77672-P, PI Debora Zurro) and by the quality research group of the Generalitat de Catalunya (CaSEs–2017 SGR 212). S.B. is supported by RAINDROPS, (ERC-Stg-2017, grant agreement no. 759800, PI Carla Lancelotti).
- dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
- dc.identifier.citation Biagetti S, Zurro D, Alcaina-Mateos J, Bortolini E, Madella M. Quantitative analysis of drought management strategies across ethnographically-researched African societies: a pilot study. Land. 2021;10(10):1062. DOI: 10.3390/land10101062
- dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/land10101062
- dc.identifier.issn 2073-445X
- dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/57270
- dc.language.iso eng
- dc.publisher MDPI
- dc.relation.ispartof Land. 2021;10(10):1062.
- dc.relation.isreferencedby https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/ehrafe/
- dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/759800
- dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/1PE/HAR2016-77672-P
- dc.rights © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
- dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
- dc.rights.uri http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- dc.subject.keyword cross-cultural studies
- dc.subject.keyword Africa
- dc.subject.keyword drought
- dc.subject.keyword databases
- dc.subject.keyword quantitative approach
- dc.subject.keyword ethnoarchaeology
- dc.title Quantitative analysis of drought management strategies across ethnographically-researched African societies: a pilot study
- dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
- dc.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion