This book is concerned with evaluating the antiquity of the domestication changes in northern Africa, considering the nature of the environments in which they arose, their social implications and the influence of climatic change on their later progress.

Preface -- Note on Transcription -- Introduction: Ecology and society in northeast African history -- Archaeological and Historical Perspectives -- Human adaptation and long-term climatic change in northeast Africa: an archaeological perspective -- The great drought and famine of 1888–92 in northeast Africa -- Emutai: crisis and response in Maasailand 1883–1902 -- Case Studies -- Primary export crop production and the origins of the ecological crisis in Kordofan: the case of Dar Hamar -- Cultivation as a long-term strategy of survival: the Berti of Darfur -- Traders, farmers and pastoralists: economic adaptations and environmental problems in the southern Nuba Mountains of the Sudan -- Adaptation to floods in the Jonglei area of the Sudan: an historical analysis -- Prelude to disaster: the case of Karamoja -- Pastoralist migration and colonial policy: a case study from northern Kenya -- Cultivating pastoralists: ecology and economy among the Il Chamus of Baringo, 1840–19801 -- Looking for a cool place: the Mursi, 1890s–1980s -- History, drought and reproduction: dynamics of society and ecology in northeast Ethiopia