Quantitative Analysis of Drought Management Strategies across Ethnographically-Researched African Societies: A Pilot Study

Stefano Biagetti, Debora Zurro, Jonas Alcaina-Mateos, Eugenio Bortolini and Marco Madella
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Stefano Biagetti: CaSEs–Culture and Socio-Ecological Dynamics Research Group, Department of Humanities, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), 08005 Barcelona, Spain
Debora Zurro: HUMANE–Human Ecology and Archaeology, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Institució Milà I Fontanals for Research in the Humanities–Spanish National Research Council (IMF-CSIC), 08001 Barcelona, Spain
Jonas Alcaina-Mateos: CaSEs–Culture and Socio-Ecological Dynamics Research Group, Department of Humanities, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), 08005 Barcelona, Spain
Eugenio Bortolini: CaSEs–Culture and Socio-Ecological Dynamics Research Group, Department of Humanities, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), 08005 Barcelona, Spain
Marco Madella: CaSEs–Culture and Socio-Ecological Dynamics Research Group, Department of Humanities, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), 08005 Barcelona, Spain

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 10, 1-15

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.

Keywords: cross-cultural studies; Africa; drought; databases; quantitative approach; ethnoarchaeology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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