scholarly journals Development of Middle Stone Age innovation linked to rapid climate change

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Ziegler ◽  
Margit H. Simon ◽  
Ian R. Hall ◽  
Stephen Barker ◽  
Chris Stringer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Sub Saharan

Abstract The development of modernity in early human populations has been linked to pulsed phases of technological and behavioural innovation within the Middle Stone Age of South Africa. However, the trigger for these intermittent pulses of technological innovation is an enigma. Here we show that, contrary to some previous studies, the occurrence of innovation was tightly linked to abrupt climate change. Major innovational pulses occurred at times when South African climate changed rapidly towards more humid conditions, while northern sub-Saharan Africa experienced widespread droughts, as the Northern Hemisphere entered phases of extreme cooling. These millennial-scale teleconnections resulted from the bipolar seesaw behaviour of the Atlantic Ocean related to changes in the ocean circulation. These conditions led to humid pulses in South Africa and potentially to the creation of favourable environmental conditions. This strongly implies that innovational pulses of early modern human behaviour were climatically influenced and linked to the adoption of refugia.

scholarly journals Early, intensive marine resource exploitation by Middle Stone Age humans at Ysterfontein 1 rockshelter, South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (16) ◽  
pp. e2020042118
Author(s):  
Elizabeth M. Niespolo ◽  
Warren D. Sharp ◽  
Graham Avery ◽  
Todd E. Dawson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Resource Exploitation ◽  
Shell Midden ◽  
Coastal Adaptation

Modern human behavioral innovations from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) include the earliest indicators of full coastal adaptation evidenced by shell middens, yet many MSA middens remain poorly dated. We apply 230Th/U burial dating to ostrich eggshells (OES) from Ysterfontein 1 (YFT1, Western Cape, South Africa), a stratified MSA shell midden. 230Th/U burial ages of YFT1 OES are relatively precise (median ± 2.7%), consistent with other age constraints, and preserve stratigraphic principles. Bayesian age–depth modeling indicates YFT1 was deposited between 119.9 to 113.1 thousand years ago (ka) (95% CI of model ages), and the entire 3.8 m thick midden may have accumulated within ∼2,300 y. Stable carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotopes of OES indicate that during occupation the local environment was dominated by C3 vegetation and was initially significantly wetter than at present but became drier and cooler with time. Integrating archaeological evidence with OES 230Th/U ages and stable isotopes shows the following: 1) YFT1 is the oldest shell midden known, providing minimum constraints on full coastal adaptation by ∼120 ka; 2) despite rapid sea-level drop and other climatic changes during occupation, relative shellfish proportions and sizes remain similar, suggesting adaptive foraging along a changing coastline; 3) the YFT1 lithic technocomplex is similar to other west coast assemblages but distinct from potentially synchronous industries along the southern African coast, suggesting human populations were fragmented between seasonal rainfall zones; and 4) accumulation rates (up to 1.8 m/ka) are much higher than previously observed for dated, stratified MSA middens, implying more intense site occupation akin to Later Stone Age middens.

South Africa

2019 ◽  
pp. 89-120
Author(s):  
Eleanor M. Fox ◽  
Mor Bakhoum
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Inclusive Development ◽  
Economic Opportunity ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Equity And Efficiency ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Sub Saharan

This chapter explores South African competition law. South Africa has the most sophisticated system of competition law and policy in sub-Saharan Africa. It has a mission to expand economic opportunity and facilitate inclusive development. In the wake of the UN Millennium Development Goals and the follow-on Sustainable Development Goals, there is a new world consciousness of the need to combat deep systemic poverty and to reverse the tide of increasing inequality of wealth, income, and opportunity. If there is any nation in the world whose competition law mandates integration of equity and efficiency, it is South Africa, and its policymakers are intent to address this need. The chapter looks at the South African Competition Act and highlights selected cases to illustrate the law and its implementation, including the effort by the Competition Tribunal to give serious regard to the equality and inclusiveness values that animated the statute.

scholarly journals Evaluating South Africa’s utilisation of sustained export potential in sub-Saharan Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Mhonyera ◽  
Ermie Steenkamp ◽  
Marianne Matthee
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Import Demand ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Second Step ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
Traditional Markets ◽  
Western Africa ◽  
Sub Saharan

Background: Regional trade could be a powerful engine of economic growth and sustainable job creation. However, South Africa’s exports to sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are typically smaller and more short-lived than its exports to its traditional markets. This is despite South African policymakers considering trade with SSA to be a priority. Aim: The aim of the article is to evaluate South Africa’s utilisation of sustained export potential in SSA with a view to providing practical insights that will inform future policymaking and planning. Setting: Despite the priority attention given to SSA in the country’s trade policy, South Africa is yet to make meaningful inroads into SSA’s largest and fastest-growing economies. Method: The research method applied comprised three steps. The first step involved the identification, over a five-year period from 2010 to 2014, of consistently large and/or growing import demand in SSA for all products at the Harmonised System (HS) six-digit level, as well as the identification of products South Africa consistently exported competitively (sustainable exports). The second step entailed matching SSA markets with consistently large and/or growing import demand to South Africa’s sustainable exports. The third step involved evaluating South Africa’s utilisation of sustained export potential in SSA. Results: The results reveal that South Africa is utilising just over half (54%) of its sustained export potential in SSA. Conclusion: South Africa is, therefore, underutilising or not utilising close to 50% of its sustained export potential in SSA. Most of the export potential that South Africa is utilising is in Eastern Africa while most of the export potential that the country is underutilising and not utilising at all is in Central and Western Africa.

What is Cultural Modernity? A General View and a South African Perspective from Rose Cottage Cave

2001 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyn Wadley
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
General View ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Symbolic Information ◽  
African Perspective ◽  
Recovered Material

Storage of symbolic information outside the human brain is accepted here as the first undisputed evidence for cultural modernity. In the hunter-gatherer context of the Stone Age this storage could include artwork, rapidly changing artefact styles and organized spatial layout of campsites. Modern human behaviour in this context is distinguished by a symbolic use of space and material culture to define social relationships, including significant groupings based on attributes such as kinship, gender, age or skill. Symbolism maintains, negotiates, legitimizes and transmits such relationships. It is argued here that artefacts are not inherently imbued with symbolism and that modern human culture cannot be automatically inferred from inventories of archaeologically recovered material culture. Evidence for the out-of-brain storage of symbolism in southern African sites first appears in the final phase of the Middle Stone Age at about 40,000 years ago.

scholarly journals Helminths in South Africa: management of cestode and trematode infections in humans

2020 ◽  
pp. 33-38
Author(s):  
RL van Zyl
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Signs And Symptoms ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
The South ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Impact

Sub-Saharan Africa has to contend with many challenges, including inadequate healthcare systems, lack of optimal sanitation, and clean water and food. All of these contribute to malnutrition and an increased risk of infections, including parasitism by cestodes and trematodes. Schistosomiasis is a category-2 notifiable trematode (fluke) infection, whereas cestode (tapeworm) infections need not be reported to the South African Department of Health. Epidemiological data for helminthiasis in South Africa is scant, with a paucity of publications on the South African scenario. As such, a complete picture of the impact of helminth infections on all age groups in South Africa does not exist. These parasitic diseases not only have an impact on socio economic development of a country, community and families, but also contribute to the chronic and detrimental effects on the health and nutritional status of the host, including the impaired development of children. In order to break the cycle of poverty and disease, a strong education drive is required in schools and communities to provide effective strategies and guidelines on preventative measures that result in avoidance of exposure to infective stages of Schistosoma and Taenia tapeworms. Also, it is imperative that healthcare professionals are able to recognise the signs and symptoms, so that interventions can be promptly initiated. The current anthelmintic treatments available in South Africa are effective against cestodes and trematodes, with no drug resistance having being reported. The need for compliancy when taking anthelmintic drugs must be emphasised.

U-Th dated late Pleistocene tufas linked to human occupation in the semi-arid southern Kalahari

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica von der Meden ◽  
Jayne Wilkins ◽  
Benjamin Schoville ◽  
Kyle Brown ◽  
Robyn Pickering
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Summer Rainfall ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Annual Rainfall ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Cape Coast ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Semi Arid

<p>Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter (GHN) in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa is situated within the Summer Rainfall Zone, in the semi-arid (~300-400mm mean annual rainfall) southeastern edge of the Kalahari Basin. This location is significant as the dominant narrative for the evolution of modern humans has focused on Middle Stone Age archaeological sites along the southern cape coast of South Africa, with coastal resources and favourable climate conditions argued as key factors in driving the evolution of <em>Homo sapiens</em>. Semi-arid regions in the interior of South Africa, such as the southern Kalahari Basin, are often considered to have been too dry to sustain significant human occupation and activity, and have thus been overlooked. However, GHN does indeed preserve rich stratified Middle and Later Stone Age deposits, as well as abundant large relict tufa deposits that cover the surrounding hillside. These tufas, which are ambient temperature, freshwater calcium carbonate deposits, are indicative of past periods of flowing surface waters and shallow pools on the hillside. Laser ablation trace element mapping was used to pre-screen the tufa samples to target layers with high <sup>238</sup>U and little to no <sup>232</sup>Th concentration for U-Th dating. The resultant ages show that the tufa system at Ga-Mohana was active during five distinct intervals over the last 110 ka, three of which closely coincide with the timing of human occupation at the site, itself dated via OSL. The coincidence of tufa formation and human occupation suggests that the tufa-forming waters were a critical resource to human populations living in the area. This hitherto undiscovered source of fresh water, more than 600 km inland and as far back as 110 ka, stands to challenge the notion of an empty and arid interior.</p>

Multiproxy record of late Quaternary climate change and Middle Stone Age human occupation at Wonderkrater, South Africa

2014 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
pp. 42-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucinda R. Backwell ◽  
Terence S. McCarthy ◽  
Lyn Wadley ◽  
Zoë Henderson ◽  
Christine M. Steininger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Quaternary Climate

scholarly journals The value placed on roles and attributes of clinical educators: An international comparison of Indian, South African and Australian undergraduate physiotherapy students.

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-86
Author(s):  
Steve Milanese ◽  
Susan Gordon ◽  
Narasimman Swaminathan
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
International Students ◽  
South African ◽  
Clinical Education ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Clinical Educator ◽  
Clinical Educators ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Physiotherapy Students ◽  
Education Process

Aim and Background: Clinical Education opportunities for undergraduate Physiotherapy students are now increasingly occurring internationally. The clinical educator (CE) plays a significant role in the clinical education process particularly when a student undertakes a clinical placement in a different country as the CE often takes on a surrogate caretaker role. This study explores the self-reported perceptions of Physiotherapy students from three countries representing different global society clusters – South Africa (Sub-Saharan Africa), India (Southern Asia) and Australia (Anglo), regarding the roles and attributes of a CE that they value in the clinical education process. Method: Data was collected from undergraduate Physiotherapy students in a university in India (n=23) and Australia (n=154) and compared with data from a similar student cohort in South Africa (n=70). Students were asked roles and attributes of a clinical educator were of most value in the clinical education setting. Results: The relative values placed on CE roles/attributes across the three cohorts was similar, however specific differences between cohorts suggest that clinical educators should be aware of differences when supervising international students.

scholarly journals The making of the South African timeshare industry: spatial structure and development challenges

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (26) ◽  
pp. 183-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayde R. Pandy ◽  
Christian M. Rogerson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Spatial Structure ◽  
South African ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
International Literature ◽  
Spatial Organisation ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Accommodation Sector ◽  
Tourism Economy

Abstract Research on the accommodation sector attracts only a small fraction of contemporary tourism scholarship relating to sub-Saharan Africa. This paper contributes to this expanding literature on segmentation and the accommodation sector in South Africa. Specifically, it examines the establishment and making of the timeshare industry as a distinctive form of accommodation within the national tourism economy. The timeshare industry in South Africa is the largest and most mature in sub-Saharan Africa and among the most important in the developing world. The analysis uses a longitudinal perspective in order to interpret the emerging spatial organisation and evolving structural issues that impacted upon the development of the timeshare industry in its formative years from 1978 to 2002. The study addresses a knowledge gap around the minimal pursuit of historical research within the existing international literature about timeshare.

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