ABSTRACT
The early domestication of animals, late domestication of plants and continued use of wild resources influences the conceptual framework for, and trajectory of research on, domestication processes in Africa. Africanist scholars use the term food production to refer to heavy reliance on domestic animals, domestic plants or both. Preliminary ethnoarchaeological study and synthesis of the available ethnographic literature on eastern and northern African pastoralists such as the Maasai, Turkana, Borana, Barabaig and Tuareg, suggest that donkeys play a key role in the organization of contemporary mobile herding societies in Africa. Donkeys are used for a wide range of tasks in African pastoral societies. They are essential for moving pastoral household goods, small children and animals from one camp to another. This paper focuses on possible African contexts for the domestication of the donkey, but cannot be divorced from considerations of the possible domestication of donkeys in Asia.
