BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA SHEET

medicinal plants are ingested, providing important nutritional returns. Thus,
any approach to understanding the interrelationships between dietary roles of
wild or domesticated species must be carefully documented, especially given the
long historical-archaeological history of plant use exhibited in Sub-Saharan
Africa.
The relationships between cultivated field crops, forest-bush destruction,
and dietary use of domesticated and wild food resources are considered in depth
by several writers on African agrarian, agricultural systems, among them Allan
(1965), de Schlippe (1956), Gourou (1955), and McLoughlin (1970). All consider
patterns of variation within shifting cultivation systems and address the question
whether technological change automatically improves food sufficiency. Theynote
that under tropical conditions shifting cultivation -- a mixed blessing -- has
generally provided substantial quantities of food and permitted maintainence of
quality human nutrition.
Other writers have examined African food production systems throughout the
tropical regions of the continent. Some, like Schnell (1957), Murdock (1960),
Jones (1961), and Joy (1966), have described dietary patterns and food resources
whereas others, among them Githens and Wood (1943), Baker (1949), Lagercrantz
(1950), and Jardin (1967), have focused on regional patterns of food intake.
It is the view of this writer, however, that any examination of African
food systems must consider the processes associated with plant and animal do­
mestication as well as the shift from hunting-gathering to agriculture. Current
evidence advanced by Chang (1973; 1977), Solheim (1971), and Gorman (1969) sug­
gests domestication of plants first evolved in east China, subsequently in the
Middle East and Africa. Whatever the dates, direction, or impetus for domesti­
cation, two regions of Africa must be considered early centers of agricultural
activity; the Egyptian Nile valley and highland Ethiopia. Murdock (1959, pp.
4.