ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the conflicts and synergies between archaeology and historical linguistics in reconstructing African agricultural history. It presents examples of the link between reconstructions and dated materials in some major economic species, but also highlights lacunae, noting important species with ambiguous linguistic records. Two tools other than archaeology are available for the reconstruction of agrarian history: historical and comparative linguistics and DNA studies. The use of DNA to determine taxonomic relationships between or within wild and cultivated crops and trees has yet to be undertaken even for major species. Historical linguistics can be defined as the analysis of the relationship between languages, in particular those assumed to be genetically related and to have sprung from some common source. It focuses on items where common lexical roots are clearly indicative of the salience of a plant or animal species in a particular region.
