ABSTRACT
By 50,000-40,000 years ago, if not earlier, Africa was inhabited by fully modern people, so that the archaeological evidence for their behaviour becomes more important than the evidence for anatomical change. They lived by hunting and gathering, the longest-lasting of human economies, but their exploitation of environments appears to have become more intense than that of their predecessors. This can be seen in their use of raw materials, in their acquisition of food, and in the variety of their adaptations. Along with this increased efficiency, there was an emerging awareness of themselves and their place in the world. Such is indicated by evidence for personal adornment, the formal burial of the dead and the practice of art. There are also signs of violence between people, probably brought about by competition for resources. In short, the later hunter-gatherers of Africa have left archaeological evidence for many aspects of modern human behaviour. Furthermore, because small groups of them survived until recent times, such as the San people of the Kalahari Desert, it is possible to use ethnographic observations to set the archaeological evidence in a broader context, that helps to explain how people were able to live off the land for so long. However, many later hunter-gatherers in Africa must have innovated in order to survive, because it was they who were responsible for the changes that after about 10,000 years ago led to the production rather than the collection of food (Chapters 7 and 8).
