Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T11:34:23.922Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Toward a new understanding of Akan origins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Résumé

De récentes trouvailles en archéologie et en biologie en population humaine indiquent deux périodes démographiques dans la colonisation de la forêt du sud du Ghana: la période préhistorique et le début de la periode historique. La premiere pèriode commença au début de l'ère commune. Le problème materiel le plus important qui a confronté les premières populations de la forêt en Afrique de l'oust a été le besoin de contrebalancer des taux de mortalité infantile et de maladie adulte extraordinairement elevés. Cette perte démographique était le résultat de nouvelles maladies écologiques—le rapport entre les pathogènes, notemment la malaria, leurs hoes et leurs environnements mutuels—qui ont confronté les peuples de la forêt aux temps préhistoriques et au début de la période historique. Le fait que ces nouvelles communautés de la forêt aient du payer chèrement de leurs vies et productivité les a conduit à apprécier la reproductivité des femmes étrangères (esclaves). La deuxième pèriode d'ajustement démographique vint entre le quinzième et le dix-septième siècle, lorsque les africains de l'ouest ont répondu à l'esclavage, les guerres et le viral Eurasien, les maladies bactérielles et [spirochètales] comme la tuberculose et la syphillis, en se regroupant dans leurs colonies de façon à dévélopper un système de defense. C'était pendant cette période, lorsque les réfugiés avaient été incorporé dans les communautés des forêts en grand nombre, y compris des femmes esclaves qui avaient été amenees pour reproduire, que la tradition des étrangers falsifiant les généalogies akan s'est répandue, aidant ainsi à assurer la reproduction sociale des lignages akan.

Type
Re-interpreting the past is Ghana
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aaby, P. 1987. ‘Overcrowding: a major determinant of variations in measles mortality in Africa’.Paper presented at the IUSSP seminar on Mortality and Society in sub-Saharan Africa,Yaounde,19–23 October.Google Scholar
Aaby, P, Bukh, Jette, Lisse, Ida Maria, and Smits, Arjon J. 1983. ‘Measles mortality, state of nutrition and family structure: a community study from Guinea-Bissau’, Journal of Infectious Diseases 147 (4), 693701.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Allison, P. A. 1962. ‘Historical inferences to be drawn from the effect of human settlement on the vegetation of Africa’, Journal of African History 3 (2), 241–9.Google Scholar
Anquandah, J. 1982. Recovering Ghana's Past. Accra and Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar
Armelagos, G. J. 1990. ‘Health and disease in prehistoric populations in transition’, in Swedlund, A. C. and Armelagos, G. J. (eds.), Disease in Populations in Transition. Westport, Ct., and London: Bergin & Garvey.Google Scholar
Armelagos, G. J., Goodman, A. H. and Jacobs, K. H. 1991. ‘The origins of agriculture: population growth during a period of declining health’, Population and Environment 13 (1), 922.Google Scholar
Ashworth, A., and Dowler, E. 1991. ‘Child malnutrition’, in Feacham, R. G. and Jamison, D. T. (eds.), Disease and Mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the World Bank.Google Scholar
Bellis, J. O. 1987. ‘A late archaeological horizon in Ghana: proto-Akan or pre-Akan?’ in Schildkrout, Enid (ed.), The Golden Stool. New York: American Museum of Natural History.Google Scholar
Black, F. L. 1975. ‘Infectious diseases in primitive populations’, Science CLXXXIII (187), 515–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Black, F. L. 1990. ‘Infectious disease and the evolution of human populations: the example of South American forest tribes’, in Swedlund, A. C. and Armelagos, G. J. (eds.), Disease in Populations in Transition. Westport, Ct., and London: Bergin & Garvey.Google Scholar
Blacker, J. G. C. 1991. ‘Infant and child mortality: development, environment and custom’, in Feachem, R. G. and Jamison, D. T. (eds.), Disease and Mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the World Bank.Google Scholar
Boahen, A. 1966. ‘The origins of the Akan’, Ghana Notes and Queries, 9, 310.Google Scholar
Bradley, D. J. 1991. ‘Malaria’, in Feachem, R. G. and Jamison, D. T. (eds.), Disease and Mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the World Bank.Google Scholar
Caldwell, J. C. 1967a. ‘Population: general characteristics’, in Birmingham, W., Neustadt, I. and Amaboe, E. N. (eds.), A Study of Contemporary Ghana 2, Some Aspects of Social Structure. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Caldwell, J. C. 1967b. ‘Population change’, in Birmingham, W., Neustadt, I. and Amaboe, E. N. (eds.), A Study of Contemporary Ghana 2, Some Aspects of Social Structure. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Caldwell, J. C. 1968. Population Growth and Family Change in Africa: the new urban elite in Ghana. London: Hurst.Google Scholar
Caldwell, J. C. (ed. in collaboration with N. O. Addo, S. K. Gaisie, A. Agun and P. O. Olusanya). 1975. Population Growth and Socioeconomic Change in West Africa. New York and London: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Cissoko, S. M. 1968. ‘Famines et épidémies à Timbouctou et dans la boucle du Niger du XVIe au XVIIIe siècles’, Bulletin de l'IFAN 30, 806–21.Google Scholar
Clark, J. T., and Kelly, K. M. 1993. ‘Human genetics, paleoenvironments and malaria: relationships and implications for the settlement of Oceania’, American Anthropologist 95 (1), 612–30.Google Scholar
Curtin, P. D. 1969. The Atlantic Slave Trade: a census. Madison, Wi., and London: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Danquah, J. B. 1968. The Akan Doctrine of God: a fragment of Gold Coast ethics and religion. Second edition, London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Davies, O. 1967. West Africa before the Europeans: archaeology and prehistory. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Desowitz, R. S. 1981. New Guinea Tapeworms and Jewish Grandmothers: tales of parasites and people, New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Desowitz, R. S. 1991. The Malaria Capers. New York and London: Norton.Google Scholar
Destro-Bisol, G. 1993. ‘Migrations, genetic variability and DNA polymorphisms’, Current Anthropology 34 (3), 765–75.Google Scholar
Dolphyne, F. A. 1982. ‘Akan language patterns and development’, Tarikh 26 (7) 2, 3545.Google Scholar
Durnin, J. V. G. A., and Drummond, S. 1988. ‘The role of working women in a rural environment when nutrition is marginally adequate: problems of assessment’, in Collins, K. J. and Roberts, D. F. (eds.), Capacity for Work in the Tropics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Edelstein, S. J. 1986. The Sickled Cell: from myths to molecules. Cambridge, Ma., and London: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Engmann, E. T. V. 1986. Population of Ghana. Accra: Ghana Universities Press.Google Scholar
Ewbank, D. 1988. ‘Health in Africa’, in van de Walle, Etienne, Ohadike, P. and Sala-Diakanda, M. D. (eds.), The State of African Demography. Liege: International Union for the Scientific Study of Population.Google Scholar
Excoffier, L. P. B., Sanchez-Mazas, A. S. C., and Langaney, A. 1987. ‘Genetics and the history of sub-Saharan Africa’, Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 30, 151–94.Google Scholar
Fage, J. D. 1980. ‘Slaves and society in western Africa’, Journal of African History 21, 305–6.Google Scholar
Feachem, R. G., Jamison, D. T., and Boss, E. R. 1991. ‘Changing patterns of disease and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa’, in Feachem, R. G. and Jamison, D. T. (eds.), Disease and Mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the World Bank.Google Scholar
Field, M. J. 1970. Akim Kotoku: an Oman of the Gold Coast. Reprinted Westport, Ct.: Negro Universities Press.Google Scholar
Godson, J. N. 1985. ‘Molecular responses to malaria vaccines’, Scientific American 252 (5), 52–9.Google Scholar
Goody, J. 1975. ‘Population and polity in the Voltaic region’, in Friedman, J. and Rowlands, M. J. (eds.), The Evolution of Social Systems. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J. 1963. ‘The languages of Africa’ II, International Journal of American Linguistics 29 (1).Google Scholar
Haas, J. D. 1990. ‘Mortality and morbidity consequences of variation in early childhood growth’, in Swedlund, A. C. and Armelagos, G. G. (eds.), Disease in Populations in Transition. Westport, Ct., and London: Bergin & Garvey.Google Scholar
Harlan, J. R. 1989. ‘The tropical African cereals’, in Harris, D. R. and Hillman, G. C. (eds.), Foraging and Farming: the evolution of plant exploitation. London: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Harlan, J. R., de Wet, Jan M. J., and Stemler, A. B. L. 1976. The Origins of African Plant Domestication. The Hague and Paris: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harpending, H. C., Sherry, S. T., Rogers, A. R., and Stoneking, M. 1993. ‘The genetic structure of human populations’, Current Anthropology 34 (4), 483–96.Google Scholar
Harris, D. R. 1976. ‘Traditional systems of plant food production and the origins of agriculture in Africa’, in Harlan, J. R., de Wet, Jan M. J. and Stemler, A. B. L. (eds.), The Origins of African Plant Domestication. The Hague and Paris: Mouton.Google Scholar
Hill, A. 1991. ‘Infant and child mortality: levels, trends and data deficiencies’, in Feachem, R. G. and Jamison, D. T. (eds.), Disease and Mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the World Bank.Google Scholar
Hill, A. and K., 1988. ‘Mortality in Africa: levels, trends, differentials and prospects’, in van de Walle, E., Ohadike, P. and Sala-Diakanda, M. D. (eds.), The State of African Demography. Liege: International Union for the Scientific Study of Population.Google Scholar
Jacobson, D. L., and Black, F. L. 1986. ‘Hepatitis A Antibody in an isolated Amerindian tribe fifty years after exposure’, Journal of Medical Virology 19, 1921.Google Scholar
Journal of African History. 1961. Proceedings of the third Conference on African History and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies,University of London,3–7 July,Journal of African History 3 (2) I, 193267.Google Scholar
Kea, R. 1982. Settlements, Trade and Polities in the Seventeenth Century Gold Coast, Baltimore, Md., and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Kiple, K. F. 1984. The Caribbean Slave: a biological history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kirkwood, B. R. 1991a. ‘Acute respiratory infections’, in Feachem, R. G. and Jamison, D. T. (eds.), Disease and Mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the World Bank.Google Scholar
Kirkwood, B. R. 1991b. ‘Diarrhoea’, in Feachem, R. G. and Jamison, D. T. (eds.), Disease and Mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the World Bank.Google Scholar
Kiyaga-Mulindwa, D. 1978. ‘Earthworks of the Birim Valley, South-western Ghana’. Ph.D. thesis, Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University.Google Scholar
Kiyaga-Mulindwa, D. 1982. ‘Social and demographic changes in the Birim valley, southern Ghana, c. 1450 to c. 1800’, Journal of African History 23, 6382.Google Scholar
Ki-Zerbo, J. (ed.). 1980. Histoire générate de l'Afrique I. Paris: Jeune Afrique-UNESCO.Google Scholar
Klein, A. N. 1994. ‘Slavery and Akan origins’, Ethnohistory 41 (4), 627–56.Google Scholar
Kropp-Dakubu, M. E. 1977. ‘The contribution of linguistics to the study of Ghanaian history’, in Hunwick, J. O. (ed.), Proceedings of the Seminar on Ghanaian Historiography and Historical Research, 20–22 May 1976. Legon: Department of History, University of Ghana.Google Scholar
Leslie, P. W., and Gage, T. B. 1989. ‘Demography and human population biology: problems and progress’, in Little, M. A. and Haas, J. D. (eds.), Human Population Biology. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Little, M. A., and Haas, J. D. 1989. ‘Introduction. Human population biology and the concept of transdisciplinarity’, in Little, M. A. and Haas, J. D. (eds.), Human Population Biology. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Livingstone, F. B. 1958. ‘Anthropological implications of the sickle-cell gene distribution in West Africa’, American Anthropologist 60 (3), 533–62.Google Scholar
Livingstone, F. B. 1967. Abnormal Hemoglobins in Human Populations. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
Livingstone, F. B. 1989. ‘Who gave whom hemoglobin S: the use of restriction site haploptype variation for the interpretation of the evolution of the Bs-globin gene’, American Journal of Human Biology 1 (3), 289302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCaskie, T. C. 1983. ‘Accumulation, wealth and belief in Asante history’, Journal of African History 53 (1), 2443.Google Scholar
McCaskie, T. C. 1992. ‘Empire state: Asante and the historians’, Journal of African History 33 (3), 467–76.Google Scholar
Mclntosh, S. K. and Robert, J. 1986. ‘Recent archaeological research and dates from West Africa’, Journal of African History 27, 413–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNeill, W. H. 1977, Plagues and Peoples. New York: Anchor Press.Google Scholar
Molleson, T. 1994. ‘The eloquent bones of Abu Hureya: the daily grind in an early Near Eastern agricultural community left revealing marks on the skeletons of the inhabitants’, Scientific American, 271 (2), 70–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ofosu-Amaah, S. 1991. ‘Disease in sub-Saharan Africa: an overview’, in Feachem, R. G. and Jamison, D. T. (eds.), Disease and Mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the World Bank.Google Scholar
Opoku, A. A. 1958. ‘Across the Prah’, in Swanzey, H. (ed.), Voices of Ghana: literary contributions to the Ghana Broadcasting System, 1955–57. Accra: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.Google Scholar
Page, H. 1988. ‘Fertility and family planning in Africa’, in van de Walle, E., Ohadike, P. and Sala-Diakanda, M. D. (eds.), The State of African Demography. Liège: International Union for the Scientific Study of Population.Google Scholar
Pagnier, J., Mears, J. G., Dunda-Belkhodia, O., Schaefer-Rego, K. E., Beldjord, C., Nagel, R. L., and Labie, D. 1984. ‘Evidence for the multicentric origin of the sickle cell hemoglobin gene in Africa’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 81, 1771–3.Google Scholar
Patterson, K. D. 1981. Health in Colonial Ghana: disease, medicine and socioeconomic change. Waltham, Ma.: Crossroads Press.Google Scholar
Patterson, K. D., and Hartwig, G. W. 1978. ‘The disease factor: an introductory overview’, in Patterson, K. D. and Hartwig, G. W., Disease in African History: an introductory history and case studies. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Posnansky, M. 1976. ‘Archaeology and the origins of Akan society in Ghana’, in de G. Sieveking, G., Longworth, I. H. and Wilson, K. E. (eds.), Problems in Economic and Social Archaeology. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Posnansky, M. 1987. ‘Prelude to Akan civilisation’, in Schildkrout, Enid (ed.), The Golden Stool. New York: American Museum of Natural History.Google Scholar
Rattray, R. S. 1923. Ashanti. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rattray, R. S. 1927. Religion and Art in Ashanti. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rowland, M. G. M. 1979. ‘Dietary and Environmental Factors in Child Mortality in the Gambia and Uganda’.Paper presented to the conference on the Medical Aspects of African Demography,Cambridge.Google Scholar
Sai, F. T., and Nassim, J. 1991. ‘Mortality in sub-Saharan African: an overview’, in Feachem, R. G. and Jamison, D. T. (eds.), Disease and Mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the World Bank.Google Scholar
Schroeder, W. A., Munger, E. S., and Powards, D. R. 1990. ‘Sickle cell anaemia, genetic variations and the slave trade to the United States’, Journal of African History 31, 163–8.Google Scholar
Serjeant, G. R. 1988. ‘What's new in sickle cell disease?Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 82, 177–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shepard, R. J. 1988. ‘Work capacity: methodology in a tropical environment’, in Collins, K. J. and Roberts, D. F. (eds.), Capacity for Work in the Tropics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shinnie, P. L.Excavations at Asantemanso, Ghana, 1987’, Nyame Akuma 30, 1112.Google Scholar
Solway, J. S., and Lee, R. B. 1990. ‘Foragers, genuine or spurious: situating the Kalahari San in history’, Current Anthropology 31 (2), 109–22.Google Scholar
Stahl, A. B. 1984. ‘A history and critique of investigations into early African agriculture’, in Clark, J. D. and Brandt, S. (eds.), From Hunters to Farmers: the causes and consequences of food production in Africa. Berkeley, Ca.: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Stahl, A. B. 1985. ‘Reinvestigation of Kintampo 6 rock shelter, Ghana: implications for the nature of culture change’, African Archaeological Review 3, 117–50.Google Scholar
Stahl, A. B. 1986. ‘Early food production in West Africa: rethinking the role of Kintampo culture’, Current Anthropology 27 (5), 532–6.Google Scholar
Stewart, J. M. 1966. ‘Akan history: some linguistic evidence’, Ghana Notes and Queries 9, 54–8.Google Scholar
Stini, W. A. 1988. ‘Food, seasonality and human evolution’, in de Garine, I. and Harrison, G. A. (eds.), Coping with Uncertainty in Food Supply. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Svanborg-Eden, C., and Levin, B. R. 1990. ‘Infectious disease and natural selection in human populations: a critical re-examination’, in Swedlund, A. C. and Armelagos, G. J. (eds.), Disease in Populations in Transition. Westport, Ct., and London: Bergin & Garvey.Google Scholar
Swedlund, A. C., and Armelagos, G. J. 1990. ‘Introduction’, in Swedlund, A. C. and Armelagos, G. J. (eds.), Disease in Populations in Transition. Westport, Ct., and London: Bergin & Garvey.Google Scholar
Templeton, A. R. 1993. ‘The “Eve” hypothesis: a genetic critique and re-analysis’, American Anthropologist 95 (1), 612–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Nations. 1988. Demographic Yearbook 1986. New York: UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Statistical Office.Google Scholar
Vogel, F., and Motulsky, A. G. 1986. Human Genetics: problems and approaches. Second edition, Berlin, New York and Tokyo: Springer.Google Scholar
Wiesenfeld, S. L. 1968. ‘African agricultural patterns and the sickle cell’, Science 160, 1475.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilks, I. 1961a. The Northern Factor in Ashanti History. Legon: Institute of African Studies, University College of Ghana.Google Scholar
Wilks, I. 1961b. ‘A medieval trade route from the Niger to the Gulf of Guinea’, Journal of African History 3 (2), 337–41.Google Scholar
Wilks, I. 1977. ‘Land, labour, capital and the forest kingdom of Asante’, in Friedman, J. and Rowlands, M. J. (eds.), The Evolution of Social Systems. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Wilks, I. 1982a. ‘The state of the Akan and the Akan states’, Cahiers d’etudes africaines 87–8, XXII-3–4, 231–9.Google Scholar
Wilks, I. 1982b. ‘Wangara, Akan and the Portuguese in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries’ I, ‘The matter of Bitu’, Journal of African History 23 (3), 333–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilks, I. 1982c. ‘Wangara, Akan and the Portuguese in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries’ II, ‘The struggle for trade’, Journal of African History 23 (4), 463–72.Google Scholar
Wilks, I. 1993. Forests of Gold: essays on the Akan and the kingdom of Asante. Athens, Oh.: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Wilmsen, E. N., and Denbow, J. R. 1990. ‘Paradigmatic history of San-speaking peoples and current attempts at revision’, Current Anthropology 31 (5), 489507.Google Scholar
Wilmsen, E. N., and Durham, D. 1988. ‘Food as a function of seasonal environment and social history’, in de Garine, I. and Harrison, G. A. (eds.), Coping with Uncertainty in Food Supply. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar