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Sixth Edition

Sallie A. Marston
University of Arizona

Paul L. Knox
Virginia Tech

Diana M. Liverman
University of Arizona

Vincent J. Del Casino, Jr.

University of Arizona

Paul F. Robbins
University of Wisconsin, Madison
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data.

Names: Marston, Sallie A., author.
Title: World regions in global context : peoples, places, and environments /
Sallie A. Marston, Paul L. Knox, Diana M. Liverman, Vincent J. Del Casino,
Paul F. Robbins.
Description: Sixth Edition. | Boston : Pearson, [2019] | Earlier editions
cataloged under title. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015035836| ISBN 9780134183640 (alk. paper) | ISBN
0134183649 (alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Geography—Textbooks. | Globalization—Textbooks.
Classification: LCC G116 .W675 2019 | DDC 910--dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015035836

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Brief Contents

1 World Regions in Global Context 2

2 Europe 48

3 The Russian Federation, Central Asia, and the Transcaucasus 90

4 Middle East and North Africa 130

5 Sub-Saharan Africa 176

6 The United States and Canada 222

7 Latin America and the Caribbean 258

8 East Asia 302

9 South Asia 342

10 Southeast Asia 382

11 Oceania 426

Appendix: Maps and Geospatial Technologies A-1

Glossary G-1

Photo and Illustration Credits P-1

Index I-1
iii
Contents
Book & MasteringGeographyTM Walkthrough S
Preface xiv
About the Authors xvii
and Territory 21
DIGITAL & PRINT RESOURCES xviii Historical Legacies and Landscapes 21
European Colonialism, Capitalism, and the Industrial
Revolution 21

1 World Regions in Global The Process of Decolonization 23

Communism and the Cold War 23
Context 2 Future World Regional Systems 25
Economy, Accumulation, and the Production
of Inequality 25
Thinking Like a Geographer 4
Economic Sectors and Regional Economies 25
Place and the Making of Regions 4
Measuring Economic Development 27
Maps and Mapping 5
Patterns of Social Well-Being 28
Globalization and Regionalization 6
Explaining and Practicing “Development” 29
A World of Regions 7
Territory and Politics 31
Organizing and Exploring the World’s Regions 7
States and Nations 31
Environment, Society, and Sustainability 8 Political Globalization 32
Climate and Climate Change 8
Culture and Populations 33
Regional Climate 8
Culture, Religion, and Language 33
Climate Change and a Warming World 10
Geographies of Religion 33
Visualizing Geography: The Causes and
Geographies of Language 34
Consequences of Climate Change 12
Cultural Practices, Social Differences,
Geological Resources, Risks, and Water 14
and Identity 36
Resources and Risks 14
Culture and Identity 36
River Formation and Water Management 15
Demography and Urbanization 38
Ecology, Land, and Environmental Management 16
Modeling Demographic Change 39
Ecosystems and Biodiversity Decline 16
The Demographic Transition 39
Human-Influenced Ecologies 17
Faces of the Region: Demographic Change
and the Experience of Place 40
Future Geographies 42
Population Boom or Bust? 42
Emerging Resource Regions 42
Economic Globalization and Challenges to Regional
Governance 43
New Regions of Insecurity and Crime 43
Future Environmental Threats and Global
Sustainability 44
Learning Outcomes Revisited 45
key Terms 46
Thinking Geographically 46
Data Analysis 47

iv
 contents v

2 Europe 48
Environment, Society, and Sustainability 50
Climate and Climate Change 51
Europe and Climate Change 51
Geological Resources, Risk, and Water 53
Northwestern Uplands 53
Alpine Europe 54
Central Plateaus 55
North European Lowlands 56
Ecology, Land, and Environmental Management 56
Roman Land Improvement 57
Medieval Settlement 57
Emergence of the Modern Landscape 57
history, Economy, and Territory 57
Migration within Europe 82
geographies of indulgence, Desire, and
addiction: Beer and Wine 58 Recent Migration Streams 83
sustainability in the anthropocene: Planning for Green Europe’s Towns and Cities 84
Cities 60 Future Geographies 86
Historical Legacies and Landscapes 62 Coping with Aging Populations 86
Trade and the Age of Discovery 63 Coping with Immigration 86
Colonialism 63 The EU: Costs of Expansion 86
Industrialization 63 The EU: Problems of Indebtedness 87
Imperialism and War 65 Learning Outcomes Revisited 88
Eastern Europe’s Interlude of State Socialism 67
The Reintegration of Eastern Europe 67 key Terms 88
Economy, Accumulation, and the Production of Inequality 68 Thinking Geographically 89
The European Union: Coping with Uneven
Development 68 Data Analysis 89
Regional Development: Europe’s Core Regions 70
High-Speed Rail 70
Territory and Politics 72
3 The Russian Federation, Central
Regionalism and Boundary Disputes 73 Asia, and the Transcaucasus 90
Ethnic Conflict in the Balkans 73
Environment, Society, and Sustainability 92
Culture and Populations 75
Climate and Climate Change 92
Culture, Religion, and Language 75
Adapting to a Warming Continent and Melting Sea Ice 93
Language Families 76
Geological Resources, Risk, and Water 95
Religious Diversity 76
Mountains and Plains 95
Islam in Europe 76
Emerging Regions: The Arctic 96
Regional Cultures 77
Rivers and Seas 98
Cultural Practices, Social Differences, and Identity 77
Ecology, Land, and Environmental Management 98
The Concept of Modernity 77
The Tundra 99
Social Critique and the European Dream 78
The Taiga 100
A “European” Identity? 78
Mixed Forest 100
Women in European Society 78
The Steppe 101
Demography and Urbanization 79
Semidesert and Desert 102
Demographic Change 79
Challenges to Sustainability in the Region 101
Visualizing geography: Europe’s Muslims 80
Faces of the Region 82 history, Economy, and Territory 102
The European Diaspora 82 Historical Legacies and Landscapes 102
vi World Regions in Global Context

S
 contents vii

The Rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) 158
Nuclear Tensions 159
Regional Alliances 159
Culture and Populations 159
Religion and Language 159
Islam 160
Christianity, Judaism, and Other Middle Eastern and North
African Religions 162
Regional Languages 162
Cultural Practices, Social Differences, and Identity 163
Cultural Practices 163
Kinship, Family, and Social Order 164
Gender 164
Sexuality 165
Demography and Urbanization 167
Demographic Change 167
history, Economy, and Territory 191
Pull Factors 167
sustainability in the anthropocene: Renewable
Faces of the Region: Refugees Flee the Violence of the Energy in Kenya 192
Syrian Civil War 169
Historical Legacies and Landscapes 192
Push Factors 170
Human Origins and Early African
Cities and Human Settlement 170 History 194
Future Geographies 172 The Colonial Era in Africa 194
Oil 172 Slavery and the Slave Trade 194
Water 172 European Settlement in Southern Africa 194
Peace and Stability 172 European Exploration and the Scramble for Africa 194
Learning Outcomes Revisited 173 The Legacy of Colonialism 195
Independence 197
key Terms 174
Economy, Debt, and the Production of Inequality 197
Thinking Geographically 174 Dependency, Debt, and African Economies 197
Contemporary African Agriculture 198
Data Analysis 175
Agricultural Challenges and Opportunities 198
Manufacturing and Services 199

5 Sub-Saharan Africa 176

China, and the African Economy 200
Social and Economic Inequality 200
Regional Organizations 201
Environment, Society, and Sustainability 178 Territory and Politics 202
Climate and Climate Change 179 South Africa and Apartheid 202
Adaptation to Climate 180 The Cold War and Africa 203
Climate Change 180 Civil Wars and Internal Conflicts 203
Geological Resources, Risk, and Water 181 Visualizing geography: The Millennium
Plate Tectonics 182 Development Goals in Sub-Saharan Africa 204
Water Resources and Dams 183 Peacekeeping 206
Soils, Minerals, and Mining 183 Culture and Populations 207
Ecology, Land, and Environmental Management 184 Ethnicity 207
Major Ecosystems 184 Religion 207
Diseases and Pests 185 Language 207
geographies of indulgence, Desire, and Cultural Practices, Social Differences, and Identity 208
addiction: Diamonds 188 Kinship 208
Land Use and Agriculture 189 Land 208
Conservation and Africa’s Wildlife 190 Reciprocity 209
Sustainability 190 Music, Art, and Film 209
viii World Regions in Global Context

Sport 210 Geologic and Other Hazards 228

The Changing Roles of Women 210 Mineral, Energy, and Water Resources 229
Faces of the Region: The Ongoing Struggles Ecology, Land, and Environmental Management 229
of South Africa’s Youth 211 Indigenous Land Use 230
Demography and Urbanization 212 Colonial Land Use 230
Demographic Change 212 Contemporary Agriculture and Sustainability 230
Factors Affecting Fertility 212 Environmental Challenges 231
Population Impacts of HIV/AIDS and Other Health-Care
Concerns 213 history, Economy, and Territory 231
African Cities 214 sustainability in The anthropocene: Alternative Food
Movements 232
The Sub-Saharan African Diaspora 216
geographies of indulgence, Desire, and
Migration Within Africa 216 addiction: Marijuana 234
Refugees and Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) 217 Historical Legacies and Landscapes 235
Future Geographies 217
Indigenous Histories 235
Sustaining Representative and Effective Governments 217 Colonization and Independence 235
Economic Opportunities 217 The Legacy of Slavery in the United States 236
Food, Water, Health, and Energy for All 218 European Settlement and Industrialization 236
Learning Outcomes Revisited 219 Economy, Accumulation, and the Production
of Inequality 237
key Terms 220 The Two Economies 237
Thinking Geographically 220 Transforming Economies 238
The New Economy 239
Data Analysis 221
Wealth and Inequality 240
Visualizing geography: The Gender Gap
6 The United States and in the United States and Canada 242
The United States and Canada and the Global
Canada 222 Economic Crisis 243
Territory and Politics 243
Environment, Society, and Sustainability 224 States and Government 243
Climate, Adaptation, and Global Change 224 A New Province 244
Climate Patterns 225 U.S. Military Influence 244
Climate Change and Other Environmental Issues 225 U.S. War on Terror: Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan 245
Geological Resources, Risk, and Water 227 War in Iraq 245
Physiographic Regions 227 Al-Qaeda and Drone Warfare 245
Costs of Iraq and Afghanistan Wars 245
War on Terror Continues 245
Social Movements 246
Culture and Populations 246
Religion and Language 246
Cultural Practices, Social Differences, and Identity 246
Arts, Music, and Sports 247
U.S. Cultural Imperialism 247
Canadian Cultural Nationalism 248
Sex, Gender, and Sexuality 248
Demography and Urbanization 249
Immigration 249
Assimilation and Anti-Immigrant Prejudice 250
Internal Migration 250
Demographic Change 251
Urbanization, Industrialization, and New Growth 252
Faces of the Region: The Other Baltimore 253
Urban to Suburban Migration 254
 contents ix

Future Geographies 254

U.S. Dominance and Its Challenge 254
Security, Terrorism, and War 255
Environmental Change 255
Learning Outcomes Revisited 256
key Terms 257
Thinking Geographically 257
Data Analysis 257

7 Latin America and the

Caribbean 258
Environment, Society, and Sustainability 261
Climate and Climate Change 261 Contemporary Economic Conditions 282
sustainability in the anthropocene: Air Pollution in Economic Structure 283
Mexico City 262 Inequality 284
Climatic Hazards 263 Emerging Regions: BRICS 285
Climate Change Impacts 264 Territory and Politics 286
Climate Change Causes and Responses 265 U.S. Influence 286
Geological Resources, Risk, and Water 266 The Cold War and Revolution 286
Earthquake and Volcanic Hazards 266 Authoritarianism 286
Visualizing geography: Amazon Democracy 288
Deforestation 268 Social Movements and Indigenous Rights 288
Minerals, Mining, and Oil 270 Drug Economy 289
Water Resources 271
Culture and Populations 289
Ecology, Land, and Environmental Management 271
Religion 289
Plant and Animal Domestication 272
Language 290
Maya, Incan, and Aztec Adaptations to the
Cultural Practices, Social Differences, and Identity 291
Environment 272
Food 291
The Fate of the Forests and Biodiversity 274
Music, Art, Film, and Sports 291
Sustainable Development 274
Gender Relations 292
The Green Revolution and Agriculture 274
Demography and Urbanization 293
Biofuels 276
Demographic Change 293
Ecotourism and Conservation 276
Migration Within the Region 294
history, Economy, and Territory 276 Latin American and Caribbean Migration
Historical Legacies and Landscapes 276 Beyond the Region 295
The Colonial Experience in Latin America 277 Faces of the Region: Bolivian Youth in Argentina 296
Demographic Collapse 278 Urbanization 297
Columbian Exchange 278 Future Geographies 298
geographies of indulgence, Desire, and Sustainable Development 298
addiction: Coffee 279 Emerging Economies 298
Land and Labor 280 Representation and Democracy 298
Export Commodities 280 Public Attitudes 298
Independence 280
Economy, Accumulation, and the Production of Inequality 281 Learning Outcomes Revisited 299
Export Dependence 281 key Terms 300
Import Substitution 281
Thinking Geographically 301
Debt Crisis 281
Free Trade and NAFTA 281 Data Analysis 301
x World Regions in Global Context
8 East Asia 302
Environment, Society, and Sustainability 304
Climate and Climate Change 305
Adapting to Semiarid and Subtropical Climates 306
Climate Change 307
Geological Resources, Risk, and Water 308
The Tibetan Plateau 309
Plains, Hills, Shelves, and Islands 309
Earthquakes in a Still-Forming Region 309
Flooding, Flood Management, and Hydroengineering 309
sustainability in the anthropocene: The Environmental
Price of Industrialization 310
Ecology, Land, and Environmental Management 311
Tibetan and Himalayan Highlands 311
Steppe and Desert 311
Inner China, Korea, and the Japanese Archipelago 311
Revolutions in Agriculture 312
Conservation Issues 313
Wildlife in the Demilitarized Zone 314
Sustainability in East Asia 314
geographies of indulgence, Desire, and
addiction: Animals, Animal Parts, and Exotic Pets 315
history, Economy, and Territory 316
Historical Legacies and Landscapes 316
Empires of China 316
Japanese Feudalism and Empire 317
Imperial Decline 318
Revolutions, Wars, and Aftermath 318
Economy, Accumulation, and the Production of
Inequality 319
Japan’s Economy: From Postwar Economic Miracle
to Stagnation 319
Visualizing geography: Colonialism in
East Asia 320
China’s Economy: From Communist Revolutionary to
Revolutionary Capitalist 322
Emerging Regions: The Pacific Rim 323
Two Koreas, Two Economies 325
Territory and Politics 325
An Unfinished War in Korea 325
Unresolved Geopolitics in Taiwan 326
The Contested Periphery of Tibet 327
The Geopolitics of Globalized Chinese
Investment 327
Culture and Populations 328
Religion and Language 328
Religions 328
Feng Shui 328
Languages 328
Cultural Practices, Social Differences, and Identity 329
Gender and Inequality 329
Faces of the Region: Emerging Women’s Power Amid
Patriarchy and Corruption 330
Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflict in China 331
Food 332
East Asian Culture and Globalization 332
Demography and Urbanization 333
Demographic Change 334
Population Control in China 334
Migrations 336
Diasporas 336
Great Asian Cities 336
Future Geographies 338
A Nation of Chinese Consumers? 338
Environmental Rebirth or Collapse in China? 338
Emerging Korean Conflict or Reconciliation? 339
Emerging Chinese Hegemony 339
Learning Outcomes Revisited 340
key Terms 341
Thinking Geographically 341
Data Analysis 341
9 South Asia 342
Environment, Society, and Sustainability 344
Climate and Climate Change 345
The Monsoon 345
Rainfall, Drought, and Agricultural Adaptation 346
Implications of Climate Change 347
Geological Resources, Risk, and Water 349
The Hazard of Flooding 351
 contents xi

Energy and Mineral Resources 352

Sustainability: Energy Innovation in South Asia 352
Arsenic Contamination 352
Ecology, Land, and Environmental Management 353
Land Use Change 353
Agriculture and Resource Stress 354
Environmental Pollution 355
sustainability in the anthropocene: Conserving
Wildlife 356
history, Economy, and Territory 357
Historical Legacies and Landscapes 357
Harappan and Aryan Legacies 357
Early Empires 357
Mughal India 357
The British East India Company 358
Rebellion and the Raj 358
Independence and Partition 359 Learning Outcomes Revisited 380
Economy, Accumulation, and the Production of Inequality 361 key Terms 380
The New South Asian Economy 361
The Tourism Boom 362 Thinking Geographically 381
geographies of indulgence, Desire, and Data Analysis 381
addiction: Trekking 363

10 Southeast Asia 382

Inequality and Poverty 364
Territory and Politics 366
Indo-Pakistani Conflicts and Kashmir 366
Geopolitics of Afghanistan 366
The Afghan–Pakistan Frontier 367
Culture and Populations 368
Religion and Language 368
Religion 368
Religious Identity and Politics 369
Language 370
Cultural Practices, Social Differences, and Identity 370
Caste, Marginality, and Resistance 370
Faces of the Region: Aziz Royesh 371
Status of Women 372
Popular Culture 372
The Globalization of South Asian Culture 373
Demography and Urbanization 374
Demographic Change 374
Factors Affecting Fertility Rates 374
Male–Female Sex Ratios 374
Urbanization 374
The South Asian Diaspora and Counter-Diaspora 375
Visualizing geography: Gross National
Happiness 376
Future Geographies 378
A Peaceful Fate for Afghanistan? 378
Zero Population Growth—When? 378
New Food Technologies? 379
Can India’s Economy Catch China’s? 379
Environment, Society, and Sustainability 384
Climate and Climate Change 385
Climate Factors of Mainland and Islands 385
Tropical Cyclones and Typhoons 386
Trade Winds and Trade Networks 386
Climate and Agriculture 386
sustainability in the anthropocene: Regional Effects
of Climate Change 388
Geological Resources, Risks, and Water Management 389
Energy and Mineral Resources 390
Risks and Benefits of Volcanic Activity 391
River Systems 391
Ecology, Land, and Environmental Management 392
Southeast Asia’s Biodiversity 392
European Colonial Influences on Regional
Ecosystems 393
Sustainability Challenges and Deforestation 394
Responses to Deforestation and Environmental
Change 394
history, Economy, and Territory 394
Historical Legacies and Landscapes 394
Emerging Regions: The Greater Mekong 396
European Colonialism in Southeast Asia 398
Colonial Legacies of the 19th Century 399
Visualizing geography: Angkor Wat 400
European Decolonization 402
xii World Regions in Global Context
Economy, Accumulation, and the Production
of Inequality 403
Postcolonial Agricultural Development 403
Green Revolution Technologies 403
Postcolonial Manufacturing and Economic
Development 403
Singapore and the Asian Economic “Miracle” 404
The Little Tigers 404
Southeast Asia in the Global Economy 404
Social and Economic Inequality 405
Territory and Politics 406
The Indochina Wars 406
Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge 407
Postcolonial Conflict and Ethnic Tension 408
Regional Cooperation 409
Cultures and Populations 410
Religion and Language 410
Religion 410
Language 412
Cultural Practices, Social Differences,
and Identity 413
Sexual Politics 413
HIV/AIDS Politics 414
Minority Politics 414
Demography and Urbanization 415
Population and Demographic Change 415
geographies of indulgence, Desire,
and addiction: Opium and
Methamphetamine 416
Population Distributions 418
Migration Within Southeast Asia 418
International Migration 419
Faces of the Region: The “Maid Trade” Is Not
Fair Trade 421
Urbanization 422
Future Geographies 422
Regional Economic Cooperation 422
Intensifying Regional Integration 423
Environmental Issues and Sustainability 423
Social and Health Issues 423
Learning Outcomes Revisited 424
key Terms 424
Thinking Geographically 425
Data Analysis 425
11Oceania 426
Environment, Society, and Sustainability 428
Climate and Climate Change 429
Australian Climate 429
Emerging Regions: Antarctica 430
New Zealand Climate 432
Pacific Island Climate 432
Climate Change and Ozone Depletion 432
Geological Resources, Risks, and Water 433
Australian Physical Landscape 433
The Great Artesian Basin and Outback 433
Visualizing geography: New Zealand’s Physical
Landscape 434
Desert Landforms 436
New Zealand Physical Landscape 436
Pacific Island Physical Landscapes 436
Mining 437
Ecology, Land, and Environmental Management 438
Australian Ecosystems 438
New Zealand Ecosystems 438
Pacific Island Ecosystems 438
Introduced Exotic and Feral Species 440
sustainability in the anthropocene: Ocean Plastic
Pollution 441
Sustainability of Marine Resources and Agricultural
Land 442
Agricultural Sustainability 442
Fisheries 442
history, Economy, and Territory 443
Historical Legacies and Landscapes 443
Early European Exploration and Colonization 443
Australia 444
New Zealand 445
Pacific Islands 446
Independence, World War II, and Global
Reorientations 446
 contents xiii

Economy, Accumulation, and the Production of

Inequality 447
Agriculture and Economy 447
From Import Substitution to Free Trade in Australia
and New Zealand 447
Economic Development in the Pacific Islands 447
Tourism 447
Poverty and Inequality 449
Faces of the Region: The Stolen Generations 450
Territory and Politics 451
Regional Cooperation 451
Independence and Secessionist Movements 451
Multiculturalism and Indigenous Social
Movements 451

Culture and Populations 452

Language 452 Learning Outcomes Revisited 463
Religion 454
key Terms 464
Cultural Practices, Social Differences,
and Identity 454 Thinking Geographically 464
Gender and Sexual Identity 455
Data Analysis 465
Social Problems 455
Arts and Film 455
geographies of indulgence, Desire, and APPENDIx: MAPS AND GEOSPATIAL
addiction: Uranium 456 TEChNOLOGIES A-1
Demography and Urbanization 458
Demographic Change 458
Immigration and Ethnicity 459 GLOSSARy G-1
Oceanic Migration and Diasporas 460
Urban Areas 460
Future Geographies 462 PhOTO AND ILLUSTRATION
The Challenges of Climate Change and Ocean CREDITS P-1
Sustainability 462
Connections to the Global Economy 462
Traditional Cultures 462 INDEx I-1
Preface
“One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher
can change the world.”
Malala Yousafzai1
We live in a world of global interconnection and dynamic change.
This means that if we want to understand the human condition
or the changing environment, we have to look at both our ­local
community and the wider world. We have to challenge our
­assumptions about what we think we know. We have to work
together. World Regions in Global Context provides a framework
for understanding the global connections that affect relationships
within world regions, while also recognizing that the events that
take place locally can have an impact on a global scale. Of course,
no textbook can provide the answers to all the complex ques-
tions about the forces that fuel these global connections and local
changes. That’s why we have classes, students, teachers, travel,
and other ways of understanding the world! But World Regions in
Global Context can shed some light on the dynamic and complex
relationships between people and the world they inhabit. This
book gives students the basic geographical tools and concepts
they need to understand the complexity of today’s global geogra-
phy and the world regions that make up that geography.
New to the 6th Edition
The 6th edition of World Regions in Global Context has been
­thoroughly revised by the authors and editorial team based on re-
views from teachers and scholars in the field. Every line and graphic
in the book has been reviewed and edited for maximum clarity and
effectiveness. The text has been significantly edited to provide
­additional space for infographics, data-driven maps, and images. The
new edition includes significant changes as well as a number of new
features that make the revised text more accessible and engaging.
■ Global change, especially climate change, is becoming an increas-
ingly pressing issue as is responses to that change. The 6th edition
takes up this concern by more overtly incorporating a discussion
of environmental change in each chapter through the reorganized
subsection titled Environment, Society, and Sustainability. The
increasing emphasis on sustainable solutions to climate change
and other environmental challenges is marked by the addition of
other features in the text as well, including a new box feature.
■ Sustainability in the Anthropocene This feature provides an
example of efforts to develop more sustainable lifestyles, cities,
or food systems in this era of the “Anthropocene”—a newly
proposed geologic era of human influences. In each region we
have highlighted a specific project or place where people are
1
This is an excerpt from Malala Yousafzai’s speech at the UN General Assembly on July 12, 2013
(http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-full-text-malala-yousafzai-delivers-
defiant-riposte-to-taliban-militants-with-speech-to-the-un-general-assembly-8706606.html),
downloaded September 11, 2015.
xiv
implementing solutions that are socially, economically, and
ecologically sustainable.
■ Faces of the Region explores the experience of different people
within each world region. It takes up the challenge of asking
what is it like to be a young person in one place, or what is it
like to grow older in another place, or what it’s like to grow up
in a place that is experiencing dramatic change. It looks at the
everyday, real-life experiences of migration and generational
change and asks how and in what ways changing demograph-
ics in each world region may be impacting how people come
to know and understand their place in the world.
■ Geography is strongly invested in the use of maps and other
visual data. The Visualizing Geography feature has been up-
dated with a new emphasis on infographics and maps that
encourage data and visual analyses. It builds on and extends
that tradition with extensive use of visualizations and maps to
focus on issues such as global sea-level rise, the consequences
of conflict in the Middle East and North Africa, and the migra-
tion of Muslim populations into Europe.
■ Every chapter review includes a new Data Analysis feature
in which students apply chapter concepts and answer critical
thinking questions based on data accessed via Quick Response
(QR) links to Web sites of governments, nongovernmental or-
ganizations, and other important sources of data related to re-
gional, economic, social, and political developments.
■ Recognizing the importance of population dynamics as a
factor in many regional challenges, the Culture and Popula-
tions section of each chapter contains a section, Demographic
Change, with updated population statistics and trends as well
as new population pyramids helping students to visualize the
societal impacts of population change.
■ The maps, images, graphs, and tables that make up the text’s vi-
sual program have been revised. Readers will notice that many
maps now include images that highlight key features. The photo
program for this edition has also been substantially revised with
newer and different photos. We have added questions that prompt
students to look more carefully at some of the graphics and images.
■ We have updated the histories, stories, and current events in each
chapter. As readers know, the world has changed a lot since the
previous edition of this book. To respond to these changes, we
have included stories on the European response to the Syrian ref-
ugee crisis; the Syrian civil war and the rise of Islamic State of Iraq
and Syria (ISIS); the recent Russian annexation of Crimea; natu-
ral disasters in Southeast Asia and the threat of rising sea-levels
due to climate change in Oceania; and the growing connections
between China and Africa, for example. New and updated infor-
mation has been added to all the special feature material as well,
including all the new Geographies of Indulgence, Desire, and
Addiction features on luxury cars, beer and wine, and trekking.
■ Chapter 1 now includes a new section on how one can begin
“Thinking Like a Geographer.”

Objectives and Approach
World Regions in Global Context has two primary objectives.
The first is to provide a body of knowledge about world regions
and their distinctive political and economic practices, cultural
and environmental landscapes, and sociocultural attributes.
The second is to emphasize that although there is diversity
among world regions, all world regions are connected through
new and changing relationships. This approach informs the
book’s thematic structure, which is organized to engage readers
in a discussion of environmental, social, historical, economic,
and territorial change as well as cultural practices and demo-
graphic shifts.
Thematic Structure
This book is built on an opening chapter that describes how one
thinks like a geographer. The 10 regional chapters follow, explore,
and elaborate on the concepts laid out in Chapter 1. In each chap-
ter, we balance discussions of global interconnections with local
realities. To do this systematically, we divide each regional chap-
ter into four major categories, each highlighting a set of themes
that are central to understanding world regions.
Environment, Society, and Sustainability
We begin each chapter with a discussion of the physical and en-
vironmental context of the region; this includes a discussion of
climate and climate change; geological resources, risks, and water;
ecology, land, and environmental management; and sustainabil-
ity. Our aim is to demonstrate how environment is shaped by, and
shapes, the region’s inhabitants over time.
History, Economy, and Territory
This section focuses on the historical geographic context for each
world region and illustrates how the economies and territories that
make up each world region have evolved over time. Included are
discussions of historical landscapes and legacies; economy, accumu-
lation, and the production of inequality; and territory and politics.
Culture and Populations
This section explores the cultures and populations of each world
region. This section emphasizes the relationships between pop-
ulation change and settlement patterns, while exploring the im-
portance of urbanization in each region. This section is broken
down into three subsections focusing on culture, religion, and
language; cultural practices, social differences, and identity; and
demography and urbanization.
Future Geographies
In keeping with the theme of this textbook, which emphasizes
ongoing change, each chapter concludes with a brief discussion
of some of the key issues facing each world region, projecting
how they are likely to develop in the coming years and decades.
PreFACE  xv
Pedagogy and Content
Enrichment
The book includes a number of important pedagogical devices to
help readers understand the complex processes that connect our
world and make it different.
Learning Outcomes and Learning
Outcomes Revisited
On the opening pages of each regional chapter, we provide a list of
Learning Outcomes. This list directs students to the key t­ ake-away
points in the chapter. They are intentionally broad, drawing from
a number of different discussions throughout each c­ hapter. At
the end of the chapter, we return to these learning ­outcomes and
offer brief comments on them. The Learning ­Outcomes ­Revisited
­section helps readers grapple with some of the larger c­ onceptual
material and focuses student review and also includes key
questions.
Apply Your Knowledge
Apply Your Knowledge questions ask readers to synthesize the in-
formation in the text and respond to applied questions that link
back to the chapter’s broad learning outcomes. Readers will find
six to eight of these question in each chapter. Many have been
­updated with QR links to Web sites where students can access
current data that deepens their understanding of regional issues.
Special Content Features
New and updated box features provide students with an opportu-
nity for in-depth exploration of key chapter content. In addition
to a new emphasis on data analysis, the 6th edition’s box fea-
tures include critical thinking questions to encourage students to
self-assess and reflect on what they have learned.
■ Visualizing Geography In each chapter, we use cutting-edge car-
tography and data visualization techniques to introduce readers
to a current geographic issue. Visual data provide a powerful way
to convey information and analyze geographic processes in ac-
tion, encouraging students to ask, “What types of geographic data
can I use to answer the pressing questions of the day?”
■ Emerging Regions This feature emphasizes global and local
change and underscores the importance that these new regions
have now and may have in the future. Readers are encouraged
to explore Emerging Regions with an eye toward asking how
world regional geography changes over time and how it might
look different in the future.
■ Faces of the Region This section explores the experience of
different people within each world region. It takes up the chal-
lenge of asking what is it like to be a young person in one place
or what is it like to grow older in another place. It looks at the
everyday, real-life experience of migration and asks how and
in what ways changing demographics in each world region
may be impacting how people come to know and understand
their place in the world.
xvi World Regions in Global Context
■ Geographies of Indulgence, Desire, and Addiction This fea-
ture links people in one world region to people throughout
the world through a discussion of the local production and
global consumption of regional commodities, helping students
appreciate the links between producers and consumers around
the world as well as between people and the natural world.
■ Sustainability in the Anthropocene This feature provides an
example of efforts to develop more sustainable lifestyles, cit-
ies, or food systems in each region by highlighting a specific
project or place where people are implementing solutions that
are socially, economically, and ecologically sustainable.
MasteringGeographyTM
MasteringGeographyTM now features an expansive library of BBC
video clips, a new next generation of Geographic Information Sys-
tem (GIS)–inspired MapMaster interactive maps, Dynamic Study
Modules for World Regional Geography, a responsive-design
eText 2.0 version of the book, and more.
Conclusion
This book is the product of conversations among the authors, col-
leagues, students, and the editorial team about how best to teach a
course on world regional geography. In preparing the text, we have
tried to help students make sense of the world by connecting con-
ceptual materials to the most compelling current events. We have
also been careful to represent the best ideas the discipline of geog-
raphy has to offer by mixing cutting-edge and innovative theories
and concepts with more classical and proven approaches and tools.
Our aim has been to show how important a geographic approach is
for understanding the world and its constituent places and regions.
Acknowledgments
We are indebted to many people for their assistance, advice, and
constructive criticism in the course of preparing this book. Among
those who provided comments on various drafts and editions are
the following professors:
Donald Albert, Sam Houston State University; Martin Balin-
sky, Tallahassee Community College; Brad Baltensperger, Michigan
Technological University; Karen Barton, University of North Colo-
rado; Max Beavers, University of Northern Colorado; Richard Ben-
field, Central Connecticut State University; William H. Berentsen,
University of Connecticut; Keshav Bhattarai, Central Missouri State
University; Warren R. Bland, California State University, Northridge;
Brian W. Blouet, College of William and Mary; Sarah Blue, Northern
Illinois University; Pablo Bose, University of Vermont; Jean Ann Bow-
man, Texas A&M University; John Christopher Brown, University of
Kansas; Stanley D. Brunn, University of Kentucky; Joe Bryan, Univer-
sity of Colorado: Boulder; Michelle Calvarese, California State Uni-
versity, Fresno; Craig Campbell, Youngstown State University; Xuwei
Chen, Northern Illinois University; Jessie Clark, University of Ore-
gon; David B. Cole, University of Northern Colorado; Joseph Corbin,
Southern New Hampshire University; Jose A. da Cruz, Ozarks Tech-
nical Community College; Tina Delahunty, Texas Tech University;
Cary W. de Wit, University of Alaska, Fairbanks; Catherine Doenges,
University of Connecticut-Stamford; Lorraine Dowler, Pennsylvania
State University; Dawn Drake, Missouri Western State University;
Brian Farmer, Amarillo College; Caitie Finlayson, Florida State Uni-
versity; Ronald Foresta, University of Tennessee; Gary Gaile, Univer-
sity of Colorado; Roberto Garza, University of Houston; Jay Gatrell,
Indiana State University; Mark Giordano, Oregon State University;
Dusty Girard, Brookhaven College; Qian Guo, San Francisco State
University; Devon A. Hansen, University of North Dakota; Julie E.
Harris, Harding University; Russell Ivy, Florida Atlantic University;
Rebecca Johns, University of Southern Florida; Kris Jones, Saddle-
back College; Tim Keirn, California State University, Long Beach;
Marti Klein, Mira Costa College; Lawrence M. Knopp, University of
Minnesota, Duluth; Debbie Kreitzer, Western Kentucky University;
Robert C. Larson, Indiana State University; Alan A. Lew, Northern
Arizona University; John Liverman, independent scholar; Max Lu,
Kansas State University; Donald Lyons, University of North Texas;
Taylor Mack, Mississippi State University; Brian Marks, L ­ ouisiana
State University; Chris Mayda, Eastern Michigan University; Eugene
McCann, Simon Fraser University; Tom L. McKnight, University of
California, Los Angeles; M. David Meyer, Central Michigan Univer-
sity; Sherry D. Moorea-Oakes, University of Colorado, Denver; Barry
Donald Mowell, Broward Community College; Darla Munroe, The
Ohio State University; Tim Oakes, University of Colorado; Nancy
Obermeyer, Indiana State University; J. Henry Owusu, University
of Northern Iowa; Rosann Poltrone, Arapahoe Community College;
Jeffrey E. Popke, East Carolina University; Kevin Raleigh, University
of Cincinnati; Henry O. Robertson, Louisiana State University, Alex-
andria; Robert Rundstrom, University of Oklahoma; Yda Schreuder,
University of Delaware; Anna Secor, University of Kentucky; Daniel
Selwa, Coastal Carolina University; Sangeeta Singh, Metropolitan
State University of Denver; Christa Ann Smith, Clemson University;
Richard Smith, Harford Community College; Barry D. Solomon,
Michigan Technical University; Joseph Spinelli, Bowling Green State
University; Kristin Sziarto, University of Wisconsin-­Milwaukee; Liem
Tran, Florida Atlantic University; Syed (Sammy) Uddin, W ­ illiam
Paterson University/St. John’s University; Samuel Wallace, West
­
Chester University; Matthew Waller, Kennesaw State University;
­Gerald R. Webster, University of Alabama; Julie Weinert, South-
ern Illinois University; Mark Welford, Georgia Southern University;
­Clayton Whitesides, Coastal Carolina University; Sharon Wilcow,
University of Texas, Austin; Keith Yearman, College of Du Page; and
Anibal Yanez-Chavez, California State University, San Marcos.
Special thanks go to our editorial team at Pearson Education,
Christian Botting, Sean Hale, and Anton Yakovlev; to our fantas-
tic developmental editor, Jonathan Cheney, and our project man-
ager, Lindsay Bethoney at Lumina Datamatics; to Eric Schrader for
photo research; to Kevin Lear and International Mapping for their
creative work with the art program; and to Rachel Youdelman for
her work on permissions for text and line art. We would also like
to thank our excellent research assistants, Jennifer McCormack
and Fiona Gladstone.
Sallie A. Marston
Paul L. Knox
Diana M. Liverman
Vincent J. Del Casino Jr.
Paul F. Robbins
About the Authors
Sallie A. Marston
Sallie Marston received her PhD in geography
from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She
is currently a professor in the School of Geog-
raphy and Development at the University of
Arizona. Her research focuses on the political
and cultural aspects of social life, with par-
ticular emphasis on sociospatial theory. She
is the recipient of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences’
Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award as well as the Uni-
versity of Arizona’s Graduate College Graduate and Professional
Education Teaching and Mentoring Award. She teaches an under-
graduate course on community engagement through school gardens
and another on culture and political economy through the HBO
television show, The Wire. She is the author of over 85 journal ar-
ticles, book chapters, and books and serves on the editorial board
of several scientific journals. She has coauthored, with Paul Knox,
the introductory human geography textbook, Human Geography:
Places and Regions in Global Context, also published by Pearson.
Paul L. Knox
Paul Knox received his PhD in geography
from the University of Sheffield, England.
After teaching in the United Kingdom for
several years, he moved to the United States
to take a position as professor of urban affairs
and planning at Virginia Tech. His teaching
centers on urban and regional development,
with an emphasis on comparative study. He has written several
books on aspects of economic geography, social geography, and
urbanization and serves on the editorial board of several scien-
tific journals. In 2008, he received the Association of American
Geographers Distinguished Scholarship Award. He is currently a
University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, where he also
serves as Senior Fellow for International Advancement.
Diana M. Liverman
Diana Liverman received her PhD in geog-
raphy from the University of California,
Los Angeles. Born in Accra, Ghana, she is
the codirector of the Institute of the Envi-
ronment and Regents Professor of Geogra-
phy and ­Development at the University of
­Arizona. She has taught geography at Oxford
University, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of
Wisconsin–Madison. Her teaching and research focus on global
environmental issues, environment and development, and Latin
America. She has served on several national and international ad-
visory committees dealing with environmental issues and climate
change and has written about topics such as natural disasters,
climate change, trade and environment, resource management,
and environmental policy.
Vincent J. Del Casino Jr.
Vincent J. Del Casino Jr. received his PhD
in geography from the University of Ken-
tucky in 2000. He is currently vice provost
for digital learning and student engage-
ment, associate vice president for student
affairs and enrollment management, and
professor in the School of Geography and
Development at the University of Arizona. He was previously
professor and chair of Geography at California State University,
Long Beach. His research interests include social and health
geography, with a particular emphasis on human immunodefi-
ciency virus (HIV) transmission, the care of people living with
HIV and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and
homelessness in ­Southeast Asia as well as the United States.
His teaching focuses on social geography, geographic thought,
and geographic methodology. He also teaches a number of gen-
eral education courses in geography, including world regional
geography, which he first began teaching as a graduate student
in 1995.
Paul F. Robbins
Paul Robbins received his PhD in geog-
raphy from Clark University in 1996. He
is currently the director of the Nelson
Institute for Environmental Studies at
the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Previously, he taught at the University of
Arizona, Ohio State University, the University of Iowa, and
Eastern Connecticut State University. His teaching and research
focus on the relationships between individuals (e.g., homeown-
ers, hunters, professional foresters), environmental actors (e.g.,
lawns, elk, mesquite trees), and the institutions that connect
them. He and his students seek to explain human environmental
practices and knowledge, the influence the environment has
on human behavior and organization, and the implications this
holds for ecosystem health, local community, and social justice.
Robbins’s past projects have examined chemical use in the sub-
urban United States, elk management in Montana, forest prod-
uct collection in New England, and wolf conservation in India.
xvii
Digital & Print Resources
For Teachers & Students
This edition provides a complete human geography program for
students and teachers.
MasteringGeography™ with Pearson eText
The Mastering platform is the most widely used and effective on-
line homework, tutorial, and assessment system for the sciences.
It delivers self-paced coaching activities that provide individual-
ized coaching, focus on the teacher’s course objectives, and are
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teachers maximize class time with customizable, easy-to-assign,
and automatically graded assessments that motivate students to
learn outside of class and arrive prepared for lecture.
MasteringGeography™ offers the following:
■ Assignable activities that include GIS-inspired MapMaster™
Interactive Map activities, Encounter World Regional Geogra-
phy Google Earth™ Explorations, Geography Video activities,
Geoscience Animation activities, Map Projection activities,
coaching activities on the toughest topics in geography, end-
of-chapter questions and exercises, reading quizzes, and Test
Bank questions.
■ A student Study area with GIS-inspired MapMaster™ Inter-
active Maps, Geography Videos, Geoscience Animations, “In
the News” RSS Feeds, Web links, glossary flashcards, chapter
quizzes, an optional Pearson eText that includes versions for
iPad and Android devices and more.
Pearson eText gives students access to the text whenever and
wherever they can access the Internet. The eText pages look ex-
actly like the printed text and include powerful interactive and
customization functions, including links to the multimedia.
Features of Pearson eText include the following:
■ Now available on smartphones and tablets
■ Seamlessly integrated videos and other rich media
■ Fully accessible (screen-reader ready)
■ Configurable reading settings, including resizable type and
night reading mode
■ Instructor and student note-taking, highlighting, bookmarking,
and search
Teaching College Geography: A Practical Guide for Graduate
­Students and Early Career Faculty by the Association of
American Geographers (0136054471) This two-part resource
provides a starting point for becoming an effective geography
teacher from the very first day of class. Part One addresses “nuts-
and-bolts” teaching issues. Part Two explores being an effective
teacher in the field, supporting critical thinking with GIS and
mapping technologies, engaging learners in large geography
classes, and promoting awareness of international perspectives
and geographic issues.
xviii
Aspiring Academics: A Resource Book for Graduate Students
and Early Career Faculty by the Association of American
Geographers (0136048919) Drawing on several years of research,
this set of essays is designed to help graduate students and early
career faculty start their careers in geography and related social
and environmental sciences. Aspiring Academics stresses the
interdependence of teaching, research, and service—and the
importance of achieving a healthy balance of professional and
personal life—while doing faculty work. Each chapter provides
accessible, forward-looking advice on topics that often cause the
most stress in the first years of a college or university appointment.
Practicing Geography: Careers for Enhancing Society and
the Environment by the Association of American Geographers
(0321811151) This book examines career opportunities for
geographers and geospatial professionals in business, government,
nonprofit, and educational sectors. A diverse group of academic and
industry professionals share insights on career planning, networking,
transitioning between employment sectors, and balancing work and
home life. The book illustrates the value of geographic expertise
and technologies through engaging profiles and case studies of
geographers at work.
Television for the Environment Earth Report Videos on DVD
(0321662989) This three-DVD set helps students visualize how
human decisions and behavior have affected the environment,
and how individuals are taking steps toward recovery. With
topics ranging from the poor land management promoting the
devastation of river systems in Central America to the struggles for
electricity in China and Africa, these 13 videos from Television for
the Environment’s global Earth Report series recognize the efforts
of individuals around the world to unite and protect the planet.
Television for the Environment Life World Regional
Geography Videos on DVD (013159348X) From the Television
for the Environment’s global Life series, this two-DVD set
brings globalization and the developing world to the attention
of any world regional geography course. These 10 full-length
video programs highlight matters such as the growing number
of homeless children in Russia, the lives of immigrants living
in the United States trying to help family still living in their
native countries, and the European conflict between commercial
interests and environmental concerns.
Television for the Environment Life Human Geography
Videos on DVD (0132416565) This three-DVD set is designed to
enhance any human geography course. These DVDs include 14
full-length video programs from Television for the Environment’s
global Life series, covering a wide array of issues affecting
people and places in the contemporary world, including the
serious health risks of pregnant women in Bangladesh, the social
inequalities of the “untouchables” in the Hindu caste system,
and Ghana’s struggle to compete in a global market.

Learning Catalytics
Learning Catalytics™ is a “bring your own device” student en-
gagement, assessment, and classroom intelligence system. With
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teractive teaching and peer instruction. Available integrated
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For Teachers
Instructor Resource Manual Download (0134142667)
The Instructor Resource Manual, originally created by one
of this book’s coauthors, Vincent Del Casino Jr., follows the
new organization of the main text. Strategies for Teaching Key
Concepts provide teachers with a focused plan of action for every
class session. Web Exercises tie in with associated Interactive
Maps, and Additional Resources such as journals and Web sites
are provided.
TestGen/Test Bank download (0134142640) TestGen is a
computerized test generator that lets teachers view and edit Test Bank
questions, transfer questions to tests, and print the test in a variety
of customized formats. This Test Bank includes approximately
1,000 multiple-choice, true/false, and short answer/essay questions.
Questions are correlated to the book’s Learning Outcomes, the U.S.
National Geography Standards, and Bloom’s Taxonomy to help
teachers to better map the assessments against both broad and
specific teaching and learning objectives. The Test Bank is available
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Instructor Resource DVD (0134142780) Everything teachers
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helps make teachers more effective by saving them time and
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The IRC DVD includes the following:
■ All textbook images as JPEGs, PDFs, and PowerPoint™
­Presentations
■ Pre-authored Lecture Outline PowerPoint™ Presentations,
which outline the concepts of each chapter with embedded
art and can be customized to fit teachers’ lecture requirements
■ CRS “Clicker” Questions in PowerPoint™ format, which
­correlate to the book’s Learning Outcomes, the U.S. National
Geography Standards, and Bloom’s Taxonomy
DIGITAL & PRINT RESOURCES
■ The TestGen software, Test Bank questions, and answers for
both MACs and PCs
■ Electronic files of the Instructor Resource Manual and Test Bank
This Instructor Resource content is also available completely online
via the Instructor Resources section of www.MasteringGeography
.com and www.pearsonhighered.com/irc.
For Students
Goode’s World Atlas 23rd Edition (0133864642) Goode’s World
Atlas has been the world’s premiere educational atlas since
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Pearson’s Encounter Series
Pearson’s Encounter series provides rich, interactive explorations
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■ Encounter World Regional Geography Workbook and Web-
site by Jess C. Porter (0321681754)
■ Encounter Human Geography Workbook and Web site by Jess
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Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming 2nd
edition by Michael Mann and Lee R. Kump (0133909778) For
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text is also available in various eText formats, including an eText upgrade
option in MasteringGeography.
People carry bags of coltan down a hill
from the Mudere mine, near Rubaya,
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Miners dig 50 meters underground for
the minerals before transporting them
to a nearby river where they are sepa-
rated before being sold to dealers. Mine
accidents are common in DR Congo,
where raw materials are mined for the
manufacture of many commercial items,
including electronics.
 1
World Regions in
Global Context

H
ere is an experiment you shouldn’t try. Grab your cell
phone, throw it on the ground, stomp on it, and pick
through the pieces. Amid the remnants, you can find
the world. The screen was manufactured in Mexico. Learning Outcomes
The microprocessor chip was assembled in a factory in China,
owned by a company in South Korea, funded by investment ▶▶Compare and contrast the concepts
from the United States. The software code that runs the phone of globalization and regionalization.
was designed by a programmer in India. The electronics are
made from materials found in copper mines in Chile and col- ▶▶Describe the Anthropocene’s global
tan mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and impacts on earth systems and analyze
the lead that soldered together the circuit board comes from related environmental issues and
Australia. Your cell phone cannot exist without the resources sustainability choices.
and knowledge of all these different world regions.
The objects we use in our daily lives are produced ▶▶Differentiate between forms of
through international linkages and are central to the pro- economic activity and explain why
cesses of globalization. Globalization reflects a world where these forms vary around the globe.
places and people are increasingly connected. Thanks to
these connections, resources and products as well as ideas, ▶▶Explain contemporary economic
languages, culture, and music flow from place to place, mak- development trends and describe
ing places seem more similar. And yet places remain strik- the main indicators of social and
ingly ­different in spite of these similarities. Why? economic advancement.
If you visited all the places involved in the production
of your phone, you would find well-educated, highly paid ▶▶Identify the global, regional, and
technicians living in Bangalore, India. In Mexico, the urban- national actors that play a vital role in
based factory that produced the screen employs workers who the world today.
migrated from rural areas. The Chilean copper mine is an enor-
mous pit mine, three miles wide and a half-mile deep, draw- ▶▶Explain the implications of
ing and polluting water from local communities. In ­Australia globalization and regionalization for
mines are located on lands where indigenous people strug- world regions and cultures.
gle for their rights, and in the DRC the mining of ­coltan has
▶▶Provide examples of how the global
fueled conflicts. In all these places, cell phones have become
distribution of languages and religions
the way people connect to each other, but these places are dif-
is changing.
ferent because of the economic, cultural, and environmental
transformations that happen when they connect to global net-
▶▶Apply the demographic transition
works. This process is regionalization—a world where novel
model and use population pyramids
cultures, ideas, and products emerge from the mix of ele-
to explain how and why regional
ments into new unique regions. The conclusion you can draw
population growth rates rise and fall.
smashing your cell phone and considering its global origins
is: places are different because they are connected.

3
4 World Regions in Global Context

Thinking Like a Geographer
Geography is the study of global relationships involving every-
thing from how people earn a living to how they interact with
the environment. Geographers seek to understand where things
are, why they are there, and how they are connected. G
­ eography
comes from the Greek word geographia, which translates as
“writing the world.” Geographers map, travel, and measure
the world to provide rich accounts of Earth’s characteristics.
­Geographers investigate the physical features of Earth and its
atmosphere, the spatial organization and distribution of human
activities, and the complex interrelationships between people
and the natural and built (meaning “human-made” or “human-­
altered”) environments in which they live. ­Geographers—with
their knowledge of the world and its connection to our com-
munities, economy and environment—play important roles in
business and government, education, health and environmental
management and are well positioned to understand our rapidly
changing world with its risks and opportunities.
Geographers do this through the study of physical
­geography, which is concerned with climate, weather patterns,
landforms, soil formation, and plant and animal ecology and
through human geography, which focuses on the spatial orga-
nization of human activity and how humans make Earth into a
home. Environmental geography connects physical and human
geography, as geographers also study the relationship between
humans and the natural and built environments in which they
live. The power of world regional geography lies in its ability
to describe and examine global geographic processes, while at
the same time explaining why and how certain patterns emerge
on Earth. This book uses physical, human, and environmental
geography to explore relationships within and among world
regions (figure 1.1).
Place and the Making of Regions
World regions can best be thought of as an aggregation of places
and the connections that develop between those places over time.
Places themselves are dynamic, with changing properties and
fluid boundaries that are the product of a wide variety of envi-
ronmental and human factors. Places exert a strong influence, for
better or worse, on people’s physical well-being, opportunities,
and lifestyle choices. Places also contribute to people’s collec-
tive memory and are powerful emotional and cultural symbols.
The meanings given to place may be so strong that they become
a central part of the shared identity of the people experiencing
them. A sense of place refers to the feelings evoked among peo-
ple as a result of the experiences and memories they associate
with a place and to the symbolism they attach to that place. A
sense of place develops out of the human capacity to reorga-
nize the natural world into a built environment. Geographers
think of the built environment as landscape, Earth’s s­ urface as
­transformed by human activity. As a product of human actions
over time, landscape provides evidence about our character

160°W 120°W 80°W 40°W 0° 40°E 80°E 120°E 160°E

80°N
ARCTIC OCEAN
THE
RUSSIAN FEDERATION,
60°N CENTRAL ASIA, AND
THE UNITED THE TRANSCAUCASUS
STATES EUROPE
AND CANADA
40°N
EAST
MIDDLE EAST ASIA
AND NORTH AFRICA
SOUTH
20°N ASIA
ATLANTIC
PACIFIC OCEAN PACIFIC
OCEAN OCEAN
SOUTHEAST
LATIN
0° ASIA
AMERICA
AND THE
SUB-SAHARAN
CARIBBEAN
AFRICA
OCEANIA
20°S

INDIAN
OCEAN

40°S

0 1,000 2,000 Miles

0 1,000 2,000 Kilometers

60°S

80°S

▲ Figure 1.1 World Regions This map highlights the expanse of each of the ten world regions discussed in this book.
 Chapter 1 World Regions in Global Context 5

and e­ xperience, our struggles and human triumphs. Through of world regional geographies (see Appendix for more detail). A
an analysis of landscape, geographers compare the meanings of map is a visual representation and generalization of the world
the natural environment and built environment in the context of (figure 1.2). Maps can locate places using a coordinate system
­different places and regions. of latitude and longitude. Maps also represent the names that
Regions are best thought of as the connections that emerge people ascribe to places and the relationships that exist between
between and among places over time. When this happens at a places. Maps help geographers ask questions about the rela-
global scale—between different countries, for example—we tionship between different sociocultural, political-economic, or
identify these as world regions. At the same time, people’s own ­environmental distributions, human activities and living experi-
conceptions of place, region, and identity may generate strong ences as well as uses of the natural environment. Maps are not
feelings of regionalism. Regionalism is a term used to describe neutral objects, as every single map is created through a series
the strong feeling of collective identity often shared by people of choices about what should and what should not appear on it
who inhabit a region with distinctive characteristics. The feel- (figure 1.3). A map set at the global scale tends to be more gen-
ings that one has toward places and regions also generate one’s eral than one at regional, national, or even local scale.
geographical imagination. A geographical imagination is how Mapping the world is complicated by the dynamic nature
people think about the world around them—their own places of the world itself, its changing features, and its transforming
and the places of others. Combined with critical thinking, a geo- regions. On a constantly changing Earth, every map is only a
graphical imagination allows geographers to understand chang- snapshot. This basic reality about mapping reflects the larger
ing meanings of social identity and the relationships among challenge posed by this book, which is to explain how and why
people, places, and regions. the map of world regions looks the way it does. Some regions
that we take for granted now would have made no sense to peo-
ple in the past. The Ancient Celts or Romans would never have
Maps and Mapping recognized “Europe” as a coherent world region 2,000 years ago.
Geographers use many tools to study the world, including maps How did Europe become what we recognize today? With this sort
as well as statistical and qualitative techniques. There is not of question in mind, this chapter introduces the basic tools and
one singular way that geographers ask and answer questions fundamental concepts that geographers use to study the world
related to change over time and across space. Geographers do, and describes the conceptual framework that informs the subse-
however, rely on maps to illustrate the patterns and processes quent chapters.

70°N 70°N
160°E

50°N 50°N
70°N
30°N 30°N
100

°E

50°N
140
°W

10°N
10°N 30°N
100

°E
120

10°S
°W

10°S 10°N
12

E
0°
0°

30°S
10
W

10 10°S
0°W °E 30°S
50°S 80
80° E
W 60° 50°S 30°S
60°W 70°S
40°W 40°E 140°W 100°W 60°W 20°W 20°E 60°E 100°E 50°S
20°W 0° 20°E
50°N
70°S
30°N 60°W 20°W 20°E 60°E
10°N 100°E 140°E
70°N
10°S
50°N
30°S
30°N
50°S
10°N
100 70°S 0°
°W 10°S
80°W 20°W
60°W 40°W
30°S
Animation Map
70°N 50°S
110
°W Projections
100°W
50°N 80°W 40°W
60°W

30°N

20°W
120°
W 10 40°W 10°N
0°W 80°W 60°W

10°S http://goo.gl/vRjKDJ
30°S

▲ Figure 1.2 Maps and Mapping All maps are partial representations of the world. The projection of the world from a spherical object to a flat map always
produces certain distortions in distance, direction, area, or size. There are many different map projections that geographers use to measure, assess, and analyze
global and regional patterns and processes. Understanding the reason for choosing one map projection or one approach to mapping data over another is one of
the core critical thinking skills that all geographers must develop over time. What makes a map a representation of reality and not reality itself? What are the
choices that cartographers must make when making a map?
6 World Regions in Global Context
“It is the process of making new
global connections—through
trade, migration, or environmental
exchange—that allows or causes
regions to change.”
Globalization and Regionalization
The world has always been global. Since Homo sapiens
walked out of East Africa and long after the moment when
­McDonald’s began to appear in malls in Kenya (figure 1.4), the
­environments, economies, and societies of the globe have been
tied together. In today’s world, these connections have intensi-
fied and become more widespread in a process geographers call
▲▲ Figure 1.4 A Mall in Kenya A shopping mall is more than just a place
of consumption; it is an iconic marker of a certain form of development. The
concept of the mall has been globalized over the last 50 years, and malls can
now be found throughout the world. Most malls provide goods and services
tied to global products as well as goods unique to the local market. Malls also
play valuable roles as public spaces.
◀ Figure 1.3 Tabula
Rogeriana Muhammed al-Idrisi,
an Islamic cartographer, had a
strong impact on mapmaking
worldwide. Tabula Rogeriana is a
“map of the known world,” which
al-Idrisi produced in 1154 for
King Roger of Sicily. It includes
Europe, Asia, and North Africa.
The Islamic tradition places the
south at the top of the map, in
contrast to many world maps
today. The map became the basis
of many other maps of the world
by both Islamic and European
cartographers.
­ lobalization. Globalization is a system of elements—­political-
g
economic, sociocultural, e­ nvironmental—linked together so that
changes in one element often result in changes in another. Some
scholars predict that the most recent wave of globalization will
result in unprecedented consolidation and homogenization of
the world’s ecologies, economies, and societies. They stress that
globalization is a process that breaks down boundaries, makes
places similar, and connects them by encouraging the flow of
ideas, products, and practices.
And yet parts of the world retain their uniqueness and
new world regions may emerge over time. We use the term
­regionalization to describe how and why new regions emerge. As
we will see, it is the process of making new global c­ onnections
that allows or causes world regions to change. These ­connections
mean that world regions are:
• best studied by considering how they interact and
develop as part of wider global political-economic,
sociocultural, and environmental systems;
• best conceptualized as interdependent, as they affect,
and are affected by, each other; and
• best understood as products of change over time.
These three themes are intertwined in the processes of glo-
balization and regionalization, the twin forces that generate a
world of regions that is both globally interconnected and locally
­differentiated. Globalization becomes an engine of regionaliza-
tion and regional differences can contribute to globalization. Put
another way, it is the process of making new global c­ onnections—
through trade, migration, or environmental exchange—that allows
or causes regions to change. These connections have far-reaching
effects. They create global and regional trade networks, ethnic
neighborhoods in cities, new consumer products and ways of shop-
ping, and even new migrant communities (­figure 1.5). They may
lead to the formation of new ecological communities or new agri-
cultural systems based on imported crops and animals. By study-
ing world regions, we can understand why and how d ­ ifferences
emerge, even as global processes connect the world’s regions in
new and important ways. That places are different because they
are connected is the single central lesson of this book.
Another random document with
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 DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
 FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
 Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA

I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
 The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.

MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

 This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]

MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY

With no small pride first one householder and then a second

showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
 “We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
 Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
 BRAZIER

Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT

SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB

CUTTING THE EDGE

 FINISHING THE BOTTOM

LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

BURNING

FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

 LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE

TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL

NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
 Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK

DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG

REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

 BEATING THE BARK

WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

SOFT

MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN