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Contents
Special Features xii The Indus Region 32
Prefacexiii China34
About the Authors xix The Americas 34
Summary: Traits of Early Cities 35
Part I Understanding the City Crete and Greece 37
Its Evolution Rome37

1 Exploring the City  1

Decline: The Middle Ages
Revival: Medieval and
39

Why Study the City? 1 Renaissance Cities 39

Deciding What is “Urban” 3 The Rise of Modern Cities 42
The Urban Transformation 4 Case Study: London—The History
Urbanization as a Process 6 of a World City 43
Levels of Urbanization 6 Beginnings: 55 b.c.e.–1066 c.e.44
Urbanism as a Way of Life 9 The Medieval City: 1066–1550 45
The Complexity of the City: Various The World City Emerges: 1550–1800 46
Perspectives10 Industrialization and
The City in History 10 Colonization: 1800–1900 47
The Emergence of Urban Sociology 12 The Modern Era: 1900 to the Present 48
Summary • Conclusion • Discussion Questions •
Geography and Spatial Perspectives 12
Internet Activities
Critical Urban Theory: The City
and Capitalism 13
Urban Places and Behavior 14 3 Development of North
International Comparisons: The City American Cities  53
and Culture 15
The Colonial Era, 1600–1800 54
The Anatomy of Modern North
Characteristics of Colonial Cities 54
American Cities 18
The City-Instigated Revolutionary War 55
The City in Global Perspective  20
Growth and Expansion, 1800–1870 55
The Quality of City Life  20
The Beginnings of Industrialization 56
Discussion Questions • Internet Activity
Urban–Rural/North–South Tensions 58

2 Evolution of the The Era of the Great Metropolis, 1870–1950

Technological Advance
58
59
World’s Cities  23
Suburbs and the Gilded Age 59
Urban Origins 23 The Great Migration 60
Archaeology: Digging the Early City 24 Politics and Problems 61
The First Permanent Settlements 24 The Quality of Life in the New Metropolis 61
The City Emerges 25 Today’s North American Cities 62
City-States and Urban Empires 28 Decentralization62
Mesopotamia and North Africa 28 The Sunbelt Expansion 66
vii
viii Contents

The Evolution of Megaregions 68 Urban Decline and Anti-Sprawl Planning 112

Northeast Megaregion Assets 69 Portland Today 114
Sunbelt Problems 70 Summary • Conclusion • Discussion Questions •
Internet Activities
The Postindustrial City 70
Deterioration and Regeneration 71
The Future 72 Part II 
Disciplinary
The Human Cost of Economic Perspectives
Restructuring73
Case Study: New York—The “Big Apple” 74 5 Urban Sociology
The Colonial Era 75 Classic and Modern Statements 117
Growth and Expansion 76
The European Tradition, 1846–1921 117
The Great Metropolis Emerges 76
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: From
New York Today 79
Barbarism to Civilization 119
Economic Resiliency 79
Ferdinand Tönnies: From
Upgrading the City 80
Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft120
Changing Population 81
Emile Durkheim: Mechanical and
Summary • Conclusion • Discussion Questions • Organic Solidarity 122
Internet Activities
Georg Simmel: The Mental
Life of the Metropolis 123
4 Today’s Cities and Suburbs 85 Max Weber: The Historical and
Comparative Study of Cities 126
Urban and Suburban Sprawl 85
The European Tradition: An Evaluation 128
What Is Sprawl? 86
Urban Sociology in North America,
Why Do We Have Sprawl? 86
1915–1970129
Consequences of Sprawl 88
Robert Park: Sociology at the
Smart Growth 92 University of Chicago 130
Land Purchases 93 Louis Wirth: Urban Theory 133
Urban Growth Boundaries 94 Herbert Gans: The Urban Mosaic 136
Revitalizing Existing Cities and Towns 94 Wirth and Gans: A Comparison 136
Transit-Oriented Approaches 96 Claude Fischer and Subcultural Theory 138
Greening Our Cities 98 Classic Theories and Modern Research 139
Exurbs98 Tolerance in the City 139
The New Cities 99 Impersonality in the City 139
Characteristics and Commonalities 100 Density and Urban Pathology 142
Types of New Cities 100 Urban Malaise 143
Evolving Middle-Class Centers 104 New Directions in Urban Sociology 144
Three New City Variations 104 Summary • Conclusion • Discussion Questions •
Gated Communities 107 Internet Activities
Types of Gated Communities 108
A Sense of Community 109 6 Spatial Perspectives
Common-Interest Developments  110 Making Sense of Space  147
Case Study: Portland, Oregon 111 Urban Geography 148
The Physical Setting 111 The Location of Cities 149
History112 Why Cities Are Where They Are 151
 Contents ix

The Shape of the City

The Radiocentric City
155
156
8 The Context of Cities
The Urban Experience  199
The Gridiron City 157
Urban Ecology 158 The Physical Environment 199
Concentric Zones 159 The Image of the City 200
Sectors160 Cognitive Mapping 203
Multiple Nuclei 162 The Social Environment: Gesellschaft 205
Limitations163 The Pedestrian: Watching Your Step 205
A World of Strangers 208
The Economics of Land Use 164
The City as Gesellschaft: A Reassessment 210
Central Place Theory 164
The Social Environment: Gemeinschaft 211
General Pattern of Land Use 166
Urban Networks 211
Limitations167
Identifying with the City 215
Social Area Analysis and Mapping 167
The City as Gemeinschaft: A Reassessment 217
GIS Mapping 168
The Texture of the City 217
Limitations169
Humanizing the City 221
The Los Angeles School: Postmodernism 169
Social Movements and City Life 222
Building Blocks 170
Suburban Life 223
Main Arguments 170
The Stereotypes 223
Limitations171
Summary • Conclusion • Discussion Questions •
The Physical Environment 224
Internet Activities The Social Environment 225
Summary • Conclusion • Discussion Questions •

7 Critical Urban Theory

Internet Activities

174
The City and Capitalism 
9 Comparative Urbanism
Urban Political Economy 175 The City and Culture  228
Redefining the Study of Cities 176
The City and the Countryside 228
Urban Areas as Themed Environments 177
Interdependencies229
The Baltimore Study 178
Urban Dominance 230
Updating Marx 179
The City and Civilization 233
Logan and Molotch: Urban Growth
Machines180 The “Soul” of the City 234
The City as the Center of Civilization 235
Evolution of a Global Economy 182
The Civic Culture of the City 236
Deindustrialization182
The City and Societal Culture 237
Economic Restructuring 182
World-Systems Analysis 183 Case Study: Ming Beijing 237
Physical Structure 237
Scott: City-Regions and the Global Economy 187
Symbolism239
The Nested City 188
Case Study: Hellenic Athens 241
Critical Urban Theory: Four Principles 188
The Preclassical Period 241
The Urbanization of Poverty 191
The Golden Age 241
The Developing World 191
Behind the Glory 243
The Developed World 193
Ming Beijing and Athens: A Comparison 244
Summary • Conclusion • Discussion Questions •
Internet Activities The Culture of Capitalism and the City 244
x Contents

The Capitalist City 246 Ethnic Enclaves and Ethnic Identity 289
The Industrial Revolution 246 Ethnic Change 290
Urban Life as Economics 247 Racial and Ethnic Minorities 292
Assets and Debits 249 Blacks293
Case Study: Communist–Capitalist Beijing 249 Asians and Pacific Islanders 297
Urban Life as Politics 250 Hispanics301
Economic Reform and Environmental Issues 251 Muslims304
A Rising Consumerism 252 Native Peoples 304
Summary • Conclusion • Discussion Questions • Women and Urban Life 306
Internet Activities
Work307
Urban Space 308
Part III 
The Structure of The Public Sphere 309
the City Case Study: Chicago, “City of the
Big Shoulders” 309
10 Stratification and Social Class Early Chicago 310
Urban and Suburban Lifestyles  256 The Burning and Rebuilding
of Chicago 311
Social Stratification 257
Jane Addams and Hull House 312
Social Class Distinctions 257
Immigrant Aid 312
Income Distribution Nationwide 261
Social Activism 312
Incomes Within and Outside Cities 262
Early Feminism 313
Wealth and Net Worth 262
Chicago in the Early Twentieth Century 313
Poverty Nationwide 263
The Postwar Period 314
Poverty Within and Outside Cities 263
The Chicago Machine 314
A Cautionary Note 265
Ordered Segmentation 315
Urban Social Class Diversity 266
Chicago Today 316
Upper-Class Urban Neighborhoods 266
Summary • Conclusion • Discussion Questions •
Middle-Class Urban Neighborhoods 268 Internet Activities
Working-Class Urban Neighborhoods 272
Mixed-Income Urban Neighborhoods 275 12 Housing, Education, Crime
Low-Income Urban Neighborhoods 277 Confronting Urban Problems  320
The Homeless 278
Housing: A Place to Live 320
Suburban Social Class Diversity 279
Adequate Housing: Who Has It? 321
Upper-Income Suburbs 279
Housing Problems: A Brief History 321
Middle-Income Suburbs 280
Public Housing 322
Working-Class Suburbs 281
Deterioration and Abandonment
Suburban Cosmopolitan Centers 281 in the Inner City 325
Minority Suburbs 281 The Great Recession and Foreclosures 326
Summary • Conclusion • Discussion Questions •
The Inner City Today: A Revival? 326
Internet Activities
The New Urbanism 329

11 Race, Ethnicity, and Gender HOPE VI Program 331

Education: The Urban Challenge 333
Urban Diversity  288
Meeting the “No Child Left
Cities and Immigrants  288 Behind” Challenge 333
 Contents xi

Magnet Schools 335 Garden Cities 384

School Vouchers 336 The “City Beautiful” Movement 384
Charter Schools 337 The New Towns Movement 385
Crime: Perception and Reality 337 British New Towns 385
Public Perception of Crime 338 New Towns Worldwide 386
Explaining High-Crime Areas 341 New Towns in North America 388
Effects of Crime on Everyday Life 343 What Makes New Towns
What Is the Solution?  343 Succeed or Fail? 391
Summary • Conclusion • Discussion Questions • Twentieth-Century Large-Scale Visions 392
Internet Activities The Radiant City 392
Broadacre City 393
Part IV Global Urban The Arcology 393
Try-2004394
Developments Utopia’s Limitations 394
13 Global Urbanization  348 Twentieth-Century Small-Scale Visions 394
Sidewalks and Neighborhoods 395
African Cities  349
Squares and Parks 395
Early Cities  350
Placemaking397
European Dominance  351
Festival Marketplaces 400
Modern Cities  352
The Future of Cities 401
Asian Cities  354
Possibilities402
China  354
Limitations403
India  357
Case Study: Toronto, Ontario 404
Japan359
The Physical Setting 404
Southeast Asia  360
History405
Latin American Cities  363
Creation of a Metropolitan Government 405
European Dominance  367
Two Phases of Urban Planning 406
Modern Cities  367
Toronto Today 407
Middle Eastern Cities  369 Summary • Conclusion • Discussion Questions •
Early Islamic Cities  369 Internet Activities
Modern Cities  371
Common Problems  374
Glossary  413
Spiraling Populations  374
Quality of Life  375 References  419
Environment  375 Photo Credits   439
Shantytowns  376
European Cities  376 Index  441
Summary • Conclusion • Discussion Questions •
Internet Activities

14 Urban Planning
Past, Present, and Future  382
Past Visions 382
Why Plan? 383
Special Features
URBAN LIVING The Crazy-Quilt Pattern of New York, 1890 77
A Long Walk Through My Neighborhood 16 Working-Class Manchester, 1844 118
All New York’s a Stage 75 Our Town: The Spirit of Gemeinschaft122
Urban Apathy: Ignored Violent Attacks 125 New Orleans: Paying the Price for
Its Location 152
The Shame of the Cities: Who’s to Blame? 131
Break-of-Bulk in Two Cities 155
How City Dwellers Cope—and Cope Well 144
Miami’s Little Havana 168
India: A Different Kind of Poverty 193
Memories of an Older City in the New 206
Latin American “Street Children”:
Living on the Edge 194 The Personality of Cities 220
Learning to Cross the Street The Invasion of the City Slickers 232
All Over Again 208 The Industrial City: 1844 245
The Subway at Rush Hour 209 Pruitt–Igoe: Symbol of a Failed
Clothes Make the Man 210 National Solution 323
The Networks of Street-Corner Men 212 The Magnificent City of Tenochtitlán 364
Great Urban Rituals 216 The Islamic City 371
Mayor Fiorello La Guardia of New York 231 Toronto Plans Its Future 408
“Nothing but the Facts, Ma’am”
—Capitalist–Industrialist Consciousness 248 CITY SNAPSHOT
The “Philadelphia Gentlemen” 259 Denver, Colorado 106
Comparing Working-Class and Singapore189
Middle-Class Suburbs 282 Paris, France 218
Life in a Minority Suburb 284 London270
The Multicultural City and Food 292 St. Louis, Missouri 298
The Largest Slums in the World 377
URBAN TRENDS
CITYSCAPE “As American as Apple Pie” 87
San Francisco’s Massive Changes 7 Large Corporations Return to Cities 96
Daily Life in Catal Hüyük, 6000 b.c.e.27 The City and Civilization 234
Classical Rome: The Spectacle of Death 40 The New Urban Schools 336
The East End and West End of London 49 The Evolution of Primate Cities 363
The Northeast Megaregion (Megalopolis) 69 Jane Jacobs: Planning for Vitality 396

xii
Preface
S
ince the historic landmark year of 2008, a
steadily increasing majority of the planet’s
people are living in cities. Urban living is
rapidly becoming a widening norm for more and
more members of our species. Surely, no more
compelling reason exists for us to undertake the
study of cities and urban life.
The Basic Approach
This text is not the oldest in the field, but it is the
trendsetter, and often imitated by competing texts.
Our approach is multidisciplinary but funda-
mentally sociological. Readers will find here the
enduring contributions of the classical European
social thinkers, including Max Weber, Karl Marx,
Ferdinand Tönnies, Georg Simmel, and Emile
Durkheim, as well as those of early pioneers
in North America, including Robert Park and
Louis Wirth. Of course, many men and women
have stood on the shoulders of these giants and
extended our understanding. Thus, this text also
considers the ideas of a host of contemporary
urbanists, including Manuel Castells, Michael
Dear, Herbert Gans, Jane Jacobs, Henri Lefebvre,
Lyn Lofland, John Logan, Kevin Lynch, Harvey
Molotch, Allen Scott, Edward Soja, Michael Sorkin,
Richard Child Hill, and Kuniko Fujita.
Yet, as this string of well-known names sug-
gests, urban studies rests on research and theory
developed within many disciplines. Cities and
Urban Life, therefore, is truly a multidisciplinary
text that draws together the work of historians
(Chapter 2: “Evolution of the World’s Cities,”
and Chapter 3: “Development of North American
Cities”), sociologists (Chapter 4: “Today’s C ­ ities
and Suburbs,” Chapter 5: “Urban Sociology:
Classic and Modern Statements,” Chapter 10:
“Stratification and Social Class: Urban and
Suburban Lifestyles,” Chapter 11: “Race, Ethnic-
ity, and Gender: Urban Diversity,” and Chapter
12: “Housing, Education, Crime: Confronting
Urban Problems”), geographers and urban ecol-
ogists (Chapter 6: “Spatial Perspectives: Making
Sense of Space”), critical urban theorists work-
ing within various disciplines (Chapter 7: “Criti-
cal Urban Sociology: The City and Capitalism”),
social psychologists (Chapter 8: “The Context
of Cities”), anthropologists (Chapter 9: “Com-
parative Urbanism: The City and Culture,” and
Chapter 13: “Global Urbanization”), and archi-
tects as well as city planners (Chapter 14: “Urban
Planning: Past, Present, and Future”).
The Organization of this Text
Part I of the text, “Understanding the City: Its
Evolution,” introduces the main concepts and
themes that resonate throughout the book; sur-
veys the historical development of cities, not-
ing how urban life has often differed in striking
ways from the contemporary patterns we take
for granted (Chapters 2 and 3); and examines the
current trends of sprawl, edge cities, and gated
communities now shaping cities and suburbs
(Chapter 4). Part II, “Disciplinary Perspectives,”
highlights the various disciplinary orientations
that, together, have so advanced our under-
standing of cities (Chapters 5–9). Part III, “The
Structure of the City,” focuses on the social orga-
nization of today’s cities in North America, high-
lighting how urban living reflects the importance
of stratification and social class (Chapter 10) and
of race, ethnicity, and gender (Chapter 11), as well
as forcing us to confront vexing problems such
as housing, education, and crime (Chapter 12).
Part IV, “Global Urban Developments,” offers a
look at urbanization in the major world regions:
xiii
xiv Preface
Africa, Asian, Latin America, the Middle East,
and Europe (Chapter 13). It is in these first four
areas of the world that urbanization is now most
rapid, with cities reaching unprecedented size.
Finally, Chapter 14 examines the architectural,
social, and political dimensions of urban plan-
ning and discusses approaches to help cities
achieve their potential for improving everyone’s
lives.
Four Key Themes
This attempt to tell the urban story will lead us to
consider a wide range of issues and to confront
countless questions. Four main themes guide this
exploration, however, and it is useful to make
these explicit. Whatever else a student entering
the field of urban studies might learn, he or she
must pay attention to these themes:
1. Cities and urban life vary according to time and
place. Since the idea of the city first came to
our ancestors some 10,000 years ago, the
urban scene has been re-created time and
again, all around the world, in countless
ways. The authors—informed by their own
travels to some 70 of the world’s nations—
have labored to portray this remarkable
diversity throughout this text.
2. Cities ref lect and intensify society and culture.
Although cities vary in striking ways, every-
where, they stand as physical symbols of
human civilization. For example, nowhere do
we perceive the inward-looking world of the
Middle Ages better than in the walled cities
of that era. Similarly, modern U.S. cities are
powerful statements about the contemporary
forces of industrial capitalism.
3. Cities reveal the best and the worst about the
human condition. Another way to “read” cit-
ies is as testimony to the achievements and
failings of a way of life. Thus, while New
York boasts some spectacular architecture,
exciting public parks, vital art galleries,
and vibrant concert halls, it also forces us to
confront chronic prejudice and wrenching
poverty.
4. Cities offer the promise—but not always the real-
ity—of a better life. Since at least the time of the
ancient Greeks, people have recognized that
the city holds the promise of living “the good
life.” Yet all urban places fall short of this
ideal in some ways, and in many of today’s
cities, people are struggling valiantly simply
to survive. The great promise of urban liv-
ing, coupled with the daunting problems of
actual cities, provokes us to ask how we can
intentionally and thoughtfully make urban
places better. Although we are realistic about
the problems, we remain optimistic about the
possibilities.
Special Features of the Text
Two special features warrant the attention of
readers.
Boxes Each chapter contains several boxed
inserts. These boxes are of four kinds. Urban
Trends boxes depict a pattern, either past or
present, shaping people’s way of life. Urban Liv-
ing boxes provide a picture of the city “at street
level”—that is, a close-up look at how people
really live. City Snapshot boxes offer a brief profile
of a city as an illustration of a main point in that
particular chapter. Finally, Cityscape boxes present
a literary account or scholarly analysis of some
significant dimension of urban life.
Case Studies The text includes eight case stud-
ies that offer a broad sociohistorical look at major
cities in various regions of the world as they illus-
trate a chapter’s key points. The cities profiled in
these case studies are London (Chapter 2); New
York (Chapter 3); Portland, Oregon (­Chapter 4);
Ming Peking (Chapter 9); Hellenic Athens
(­C hapter 9); Communist–Capitalist Beijing
(Chapter 9); Chicago (Chapter 11); and Toronto,
Ontario (Chapter 14).

What’s New in the Seventh
Edition
This new edition reflects a number of changes. If
you want to know what the next edition of com-
peting texts will include, most likely it will be
from this list of a dozen changes that enhance Cit-
ies and Urban Life, seventh edition:
1. Thorough updating. Most important is the
­continuance of our policy to provide a thor-
ough updating in the text of all data and
information and to include the most recent
and relevant studies not only in sociology
but in many other related fields as well. Of
the more than 725 reference sources, about
four-fifths are from the twenty-first century;
the remainder are mostly classic studies.
No competing text even comes close!
2. The newest data from multiple sources. The latest
data from Asian, Canadian, European, and
U.S. government agencies and departments,
and the United Nations—as well as major
organizations such as the Pew Research
Center and the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development—have been
incorporated wherever practical, thus pro-
viding new demographic information about
changes to cities, suburbs, metropolitan and
non-metropolitan areas, and the growing
presence of minorities in all regions of the
country.
3. New boxed feature. City Snapshots offers a brief
profile of cities to illustrate chapter content.
In this edition are Denver (Chapter 4), Singa-
pore (Chapter 7), Paris (Chapter 8), London
(Chapter 10), and St. Louis (Chapter 11).
4. New section on nested city theory. Added to
Chapter 7 on critical urban theory is a section
on nested city theory, one of the more recent
concepts about the role of cities in the global
economy and how they are situated within
various systems—local, national, regional,
and global.
Preface xv
5. New section on HOPE VI program. This fed-
erally funded community revitalization
effort seeks to overcome past public housing
failures by embracing new urbanism con-
cepts to transform distressed poverty areas
(Chapter 12).
6. New feature articles. Two new Urban Living
features “A Long Walk Through My Neigh-
borhood” (Chapter 1) and “The Subway at
Rush Hour” (Chapter 8), and a new City-
scape feature, “Memories of an Old City
in the New” (Chapter 8), appear in this­
edition.
7. Chapter content reorganization. For greater
cohesiveness, the material on the econom-
ics of land use and central place theory has
been moved to Chapter 6 on spatial perspec-
tives. This change allows Chapter 7 to have a
tighter focus on critical urban theory.
8. Expanded coverage of world cities. In Chapter 13,
the material has been reordered and revised
to cover more than just the developing world.
New cities have been added (Cairo, Lagos,
Guangzhou, Tokyo, Mexico City, and Rio de
Janeiro), as has discussion about the lure and
shared commonalities of many European cit-
ies.
9. The Future of Cities. Chapter 14 contains both
a revision of material on urban planning in
the past and twentieth-century large-scale
and small-scale urban planning and devel-
opment. A new section on the future of cities
explains how current trends give us insight
into what will be the future of cities in growth
and development.
10. Updated case studies. The end-of-chapter
city case studies—as well as other in-text
city profiles, notably those of Cleveland
and Detroit—have been updated to reflect
changes in the last few years, the growing
Asian and Hispanic presence in cities, and
the renaissance of many older cities through
gentrification and tourism.
xvi Preface
11. Canadian content. The first urban text to
include the Canadian urban experience,
and still the most comprehensive about that
country’s cities, this edition incorporates
new demographics on that country, fur-
ther encouraging students to think beyond
national boundaries.
12. Discussion questions. New to this edition are
thought-provoking end-of-chapter discus-
sion questions, often pertaining to your area,
for in-class or at-home consideration.
13. Expanded Internet activities. Each chapter
­c ontains at least three links to interesting
websites relevant to chapter content, where
you’ll find photos, articles, or interactive
exercises.
14. Learning objectives. At the beginning of each
chapter, identification of special learning
objectives realized in the chapter enables
­students to focus on themes and key topics.
Supplements
Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank (ISBN
9780133882001) The Instructor’s Manual and
Test Bank has been prepared to assist teachers
in their efforts to prepare lectures and evaluate
student learning. For each chapter of the text,
the Instructor’s Manual offers different types of
resources, including detailed chapter summaries
and outlines, learning objectives, discussion ques-
tions, classroom activities, and much more.
Also included in this manual is a test bank
offering multiple-choice, true/false, fill-in-the-
blank, and/or essay questions for each chapter.
The Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank is avail-
able to adopters at www.pearsonhighered.com.
MyTest (ISBN 9780133882216) The Test
Bank is also available online through Pearson’s
computerized testing system, MyTest. MyTest
allows instructors to create their own personal-
ized exams, to edit any of the existing test ques-
tions, and to add new questions. Other special
features of this program include random gen-
eration of test questions, creation of alternative
versions of the same test, scrambling question
sequence, and test preview before printing.
Search and sort features allow you to locate ques-
tions quickly and to arrange them in whatever
order you prefer. The Test Bank can be accessed
from anywhere with a free MyTest user account.
There is no need to download a program or file
to your computer.
PowerPoint Presentation (ISBN
9780133882049) Lecture PowerPoints are
available for this text. The Lecture PowerPoint
slides outline each chapter to help you convey
sociological principles in a visual and excit-
ing way. They are available to adopters at www.
pearsonhighered.com.
E-Text and More
• Pearson e-text—An e-book version of Cities
and Urban Life, seventh edition, is included in
MySearchLab. Just like the printed text, stu-
dents can highlight and add their own notes
as they read their interactive text online.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank the editorial team at
Pearson for their efforts in making this text a real-
ity. Particular thanks go to our past Pearson pub-
lishers: Nancy Roberts and Karen Hanson, for
their wonderful guidance and support for our
past editions. For this edition we likewise thank
Melissa Sacco, editorial project manager; Neeraj
Bhalla, production manager; and Abdul Khader
for picture research. We also are most appreciative
of the fine work by Saraswathi Muralidhar, p ­ roject
manager at Lumina Datamatics, Inc. in guiding
this new edition from its manuscript form to its
actual publication.
The authors also wish to acknowledge the
role played by James L. Spates, of Hobart and
William Smith Colleges, in a 1980s version of this
book, entitled The Sociology of Cities, coauthored

by Spates and Macionis. Although Vince Parrillo
and John Macionis have significantly revised
that effort at many levels, some elements of Jim’s
ideas still remain.
For their efforts reviewing part or all of the
manuscript and generously sharing their ideas
with us, we gratefully acknowledge the review-
ers for this edition and previous ones: [add new
reviewers’s names] Brian Sahd, Hunter ­College;
Robert L. Boyd, Mississippi State U ­ niversity;
Ivan Chompalov, Edinboro U ­ niversity; P
­ atrick
­D onnelly, University of Dayton; M ­ atthew
Green, University of Arizona; Richard S.
Muller, M­ onmouth University; Lee L. Williams,
­Edinboro University; Daniel J. Monti, Jr., Boston
University; Stephanie Moller, University of North
Carolina at Charlotte; Robert J. S. Ross, Clark
University; Mark Abrahamson, University of
Preface xvii
Connecticut; Robert L. Boyd, Mississippi State
University; Jerome Krase, Brooklyn College; Leo
Pinard, California Polytechnic State University–
San Luis Obispo; David Prok, Baldwin Wallace
College; James D. Tasa, Eric Community College–
North; Ronald S. Edari, University of Wisconsin;
and Daniel J. Monti, Boston University.
John J. Macionis
Kenyon College Gambier, Ohio 43022
E-mail: macionis@kenyon.edu
http://www.TheSociologyPage.com
Vincent N. Parrillo
William Paterson University, Wayne,
New Jersey 07470
E-mail: parrillov@wpunj.edu
http://www.vinceparrillo.com
This page intentionally left blank
About the Authors
John J. Macionis (pronounced “ma-SHOW-nis”)
has been in the classroom teaching sociology
for more than forty years. John earned a bache-
lor ’s degree from Cornell University, majoring
in sociology, and then completed a doctorate in
sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.
His publications are wide-ranging, focusing
on community life in the United States, inter-
personal intimacy in families, effective teaching,
humor, new information technology, and the
importance of global education. Macionis is the
author of Sociology and Society: The Basics, and
Social Problems, the most popular text in the field.
He collaborates on international editions of his
texts, including Sociology: Canadian Edition; Soci-
ety: The Basics, Canadian Edition; and Sociology: A
Global Introduction. These texts are also available
in various foreign-language editions. For the lat-
est on all the Macionis textbooks, as well as infor-
mation about how sociology can encourage social
change, visit the author ’s personal Web site:
http://www.macionis.com or http://www.The-
SociologyPage.com.
John Macionis has been professor and distin-
guished scholar of sociology at Kenyon College
in Gambier, Ohio, where he recently retired after
Vincent N. Parrillo was born and raised in Pat-
erson, New Jersey, which is the locale of three of
four award-winning PBS documentaries that he
wrote, narrated, and produced. His bachelor ’s
degree in business administration from Seton
Hall University, master’s in English from Mont-
clair State University, and doctorate in sociology
from Rutgers University offer insight into his
diversified accomplishments.
His publications include two historical nov-
els, Guardians of the Gate (2011) and Defenders of
thirty-five years. In 2002, the American Socio-
logical Association presented Macionis with the
Award for Distinguished Contributions to Teach-
ing, citing his innovative use of global material
and teaching technology in his textbooks.
Professor Macionis has been active in aca-
demic programs in other countries, having trav-
eled to some fifty nations. He writes, “I am an
ambitious traveler, eager to learn and, through
the texts, to share much of what I discover with
students, many of whom know little about the
rest of the world. For me, traveling and writing
are all dimensions of teaching. First, and fore-
most, I am a teacher—a passion for teaching ani-
mates everything I do.”
In his free time, Macionis enjoys tennis,
swimming, hiking, and playing oldies rock-and-
roll. He is as an environmental activist in the
Lake George region of New York’s Adirondack
Mountains, where he works with a number of
organizations, including the Lake George Land
Conservancy, serving as president of the board of
directors.
Professor Macionis welcomes (and responds
to) comments and suggestions about his texts.
Send him an e-mail to macionis@kenyon.edu.
Freedom (2016); Understanding Race and Ethnic
Relations, 5th ed. (2016); Strangers to These Shores,
11th ed. (2014); Diversity in America, 4th ed. (2012);
Contemporary Social Problems, 6th ed. (2005); and
Millennium Haze (2000). He is general editor of
the two-volume interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of
Social Problems (Sage, 2008). Some of his writings
have been published in nine languages.
Vince Parrillo is professor and graduate
director of sociology at the William Paterson
University of New Jersey, where he also serves
xix
xx About the Authors
as director of the Paterson Metropolitan Region
Research Center. Twice his university has hon-
ored him with its Award for Excellence in Cre-
ative Expression and Scholarship. His current
field research on Hizmet schools has taken him
to Albania, Bosnia, Canada, Kazakhstan, Poland
and Romania.
Professor Parrillo is also a Fulbright Scholar
and Senior Fulbright Specialist. A visiting profes-
sor at the University of Liege and University of
Pisa, he has given a great many presentations in
Asia, Canada, and Europe, under sponsorship of
the U.S. Department of State. A keynote speaker
at international conferences in Belgium, Czech
Republic, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, and
South Korea, he has also conferred with national
leaders in Canada, Czech Republic, Germany,
Norway, Poland, Romania, and Sweden on issues
relating to immigration. In addition, he has con-
ducted numerous diversity training sessions
for NCOs and senior officers at various military
bases at the invitation of the U.S. Department of
Defense.
A past vice president of the Eastern Socio-
logical Society, he was its Robin M. Williams, Jr.
Distinguished Lecturer in 2006. His interest in
theater has led him directing many community
theater productions and professionally as co-­
lyricist of Hamlet: The Rock Opera, which has been
performed in New York City, Bratislava, Prague,
Seoul, and Tokyo.
Professor Parrillo invites and encourages
readers to e-mail him (parrillov@wpunj.edu) and
promises to reply.
Chapter 1
Exploring the City
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
1.1 Recognize how most people are
captivated by cities
1.2 Examine the four criteria for defining
an urban area
1.3a Investigate the factors that lead to
urban growth and development
1.3b Evaluate the characteristics of the
urban way of life
1.4 Describe the ecological process
of invasion–succession as seen in
emerging cities
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against
the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question . . .
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.
T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of
J. Alfred Prufrock”
1.5 Enumerate the population
percentage change of the 30 largest
U.S. cities
1.6 Explain how the urban situation
is desperate in most cities of the
developing world
1.7 Express the role played by cities in the
progress of human civilization
1.1: Why Study the
City?
1.1 Recognize how most people are
captivated by cities
Cities! Most of us share poet T. S. Eliot’s fasci-
nation with urban places—settings of intense
­excitement, great mystery, and striking human
diversity. Like the poet, most of us probably
agree that cities (London was the object of Eliot’s
interest) are places we would love to visit—but
many of us wouldn’t want to live there! Even so,
little compares with the ­excitement of visiting
major cities, whether they are near or far away.
1
2 Chapter 1
When we go into the city, we often find block
after block of shops selling all kinds of things we
never find at home. On the streets we pass by
every imaginable sort of person—the old and the
young, the rich and the poor, the up and com-
ing as well as the down and out. People say that
virtually anything can and does happen in big
cities—and it doesn’t take long to realize that
they’re right!
Across North America, more than four
out of five of us live in urban places, and even
more of us build our lives around cities. We are
born in cities (or near them), grow up in or near
one (probably in a suburb), go to a college in
or near a city (maybe one some distance away
from our hometowns), and eventually settle
down in or near a city that becomes “home.”
For most of us, no matter where we live, much
of our favorite e­ ntertainment—including clubs,
musical or sports events, and theater—is city
based. We might as well admit it: We are a
nation of city folks, and the urban way of life
is our norm. To study the city, therefore, is to
study ourselves.
Yet the city is more than what our personal
experiences reveal. A dynamic entity unto itself,
the city is the most powerful drawing card in
human history. The share of the world’s popu-
lation ­living in cities rose from just 9 percent in
1900 to 30 ­percent in 1950 and then climbed to
52 p­ ercent in 2011. If present trends continue,
by 2050 cities will be home to 66 percent of all
humans on the planet (United Nations Popula-
tion Division 2014).
The city is thus the setting for all aspects of
the human drama: the highest learning collid-
ing with the grossest ignorance, unimaginable
wealth contrasted with the most abject ­poverty.
Historically, most people drawn to the city
sought to realize their hopes of a higher stan-
dard of living and often succeeded—but will
this continue to be true in the new megacities,
such as Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Cairo, New
Delhi, and Tokyo? (See the world map preced-
ing this chapter to locate these and other prom-
inent cities.) Such places are adding millions of
new residents so rapidly that they cannot pro-
vide basic services (water, housing, and elec-
tricity) to many of their people. Unless checked
soon, such growth may intensify poverty and
suffering for billions, not to mention ecological
disasters unparalleled in history. To study the
city, therefore, is also to study a uniquely pow-
erful form of human settlement: a physical and
social environment with the potential for both
satisfying and frustrating the entire spectrum of
human needs.
An important theme of this book is that cit-
ies do not exist entirely by themselves. They are
an inseparable part of their larger societies. For
centuries, the city has been the heart, the life-
blood, of various civilizations—the center of eco-
nomic, political, and artistic events. In cities, we
find both the triumphs and the tragedies of the
human story. For example, we associate Hellenic
Athens, Renaissance Florence, and Elizabethan
London with great achievements of the human
spirit, while we link classical Rome and Nazi
Berlin with savage human degradation. In each
case, a cultural setting helped shape the city’s
character: During the fourth century b.c.e.,1 the
Greeks raised Athens to a pinnacle of human
­a ccomplishment, while the rise of Nazism in
­Germany after World War I led to Berlin’s infa-
mous decadence.
The connection between the city and a
broader culture is no less evident today. In its cit-
ies exists much of what is great about the United
States: intellectual excellence, political freedom,
1
The authors use the designation b.c.e. (“before the
common era”) in place of b.c. (“before Christ”) in recog-
nition of the religious pluralism of most societies today.
Similarly, we use c.e. (“common era”) in place of a.d.
(Anno Domini, “in the year of our lord”).

and artistic vitality. Of course, these same cit-
ies also exhibit this country’s greatest failings,
including grinding poverty and sometimes—­
savage crimes. To study the city, then, is also to
examine the society in which it exists. The impact
of economics can be as significant as that of cul-
ture, particularly in today’s global economy,
so we must also examine closely the forces of
globalization in shaping a city’s structure and
well-being.
Understanding the city, therefore, is crucial
in comprehending modern existence. But how we
choose to study the city is also important. The city
is a complex reality that yields few easy answers.
If we look only at the facts of urban life, we will
surely miss its dynamic soul. The city will appear
dull and lifeless—a collection of concrete build-
ings, bureaucracies, and unemployment rates.
But if we also ask the “how” questions, which
link these factual elements to human lives, the
city springs to life as a set of vital, dynamic forces.
In studying the city, then, we must not ask
merely “What is it?” We must, as Eliot suggests
in his poem, “go and make our visit.” We must
probe beyond the descriptions and the statistics
to the broader and deeper reality of urban life.
This book will help you do just that.
­cluster is the U.S. Census Bureau term for adja-
1.2: Deciding What is
“Urban”
1.2 Examine the four criteria for defining an
urban area
Urban seems like a simple enough concept to
grasp, but it actually has many interpretations.
Derived from the Latin word urbanus—meaning
characteristic of, or pertaining to, the city—urban
essentially holds that same association to most
people.
Complicating that understanding, however,
are the varying criteria for defining an urban area
Exploring the City 3
that exist among the nearly 200 countries with
urban populations. These criteria include admin-
istrative function (a national or regional capital),
­economic characteristics (more than half the resi-
dents in nonagricultural occupations), functional
nature (existence of paved streets, water supply,
sewerage, and electrical systems), and population
size or population density (the number of people
living within a square mile or kilometer). Both
administrative function and population size or
density—alone or in combination with other crite-
ria—are the two most common defining elements
for urban designation. Small countries or territo-
ries (Tokelau and Wallis and Futuna Islands) do
not use an urban definition at all, while others
(Anguilla, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar,
Hong Kong, Macao, Monaco, Nauru, Singapore,
Sint Maarten, and the Vatican) identify their
entire populations as urban.
Canada and the United States use population
density to identify an urban area, without regard
to local boundaries. In Canada, an urban area
must contain more than 400 people per square
kilometer, with a total population exceeding 1,000
­people. The United States defines an urban area
as adjoining census blocks with a population
density of 1,000 persons per square mile, which
is equivalent to the Canadian standard. Urban
cent urban areas with populations ranging from
2,500 to 49,999 that extend across city, county, or
state boundaries. Sometimes social scientists use
the term conurbation to refer to these intercon-
nected areas of continuous built-up development.
(The Census Bureau defines places of less than
2,500 persons as rural.)
Such differences worldwide make cross-­
national comparisons difficult. For example, the
lower-range limit for population of an urban
area ranges from 200 in Iceland to 10,000 in Spain
(United Nations Department of Economic and
Social Affairs 2013:103). A universal standard—
say, a midpoint from these two extremes of 5,000
4 Chapter 1

inhabitants—would be inappropriate in pop-
ulous countries such as China or India, where
rural settlements—with no urban attributes at
all—could easily contain such large numbers.
Using each country’s own criteria, the United
Nations Population Division (2014) reported that
55 percent of the world’s population was urban.
Significant variations in the percentage of urban
populations by area: Africa, 40 percent; Asia,
47.5 percent; Europe, 73.4 percent; Latin America
and the Caribbean, 79.5 percent; and North
America, 81.5 percent. The lowest urban popu-
lation (9.5 percent) was in Trinidad and Tobago,
while the highest (100 percent) were in the 11
countries identified a few paragraphs earlier.
Worldwide projections show the percentage
of urban population increasing everywhere (see
Table 1–1). In fact, the world’s cities are growing
by about 360,000 people each year. This dramatic
pattern means that, as stated earlier, by 2050
two-thirds of the planet’s people will be urban
dwellers.
Distinct regional patterns, however, occur
within that urban growth. If we examine Table 1–1
for the percentages of growth between 1980 and
2014, we see that in the more industrialized areas
of the world—North America and Europe—
urban growth slowed considerably in recent
years. The area of greatest urban growth is now
in the developing world—Latin America, Africa,
the Middle East, and Asia (see Figure 1–1). In fact,
when we consult the figures on urban growth
rates by country, we find that the 10 countries
with the highest urban growth rates are all in
these four regions. Those with the lowest rates—
with the notable exceptions of Cuba, a few small
island nations, and Uruguay—are all in Europe,
North America, and Japan. Moreover, when we
scan a list of all the world’s nations ranked in
order of their urban growth rates, we must look
down through 87 countries before we encounter
a developed country—Ireland (UN Population
Division 2014).
1.3: The Urban
Transformation
1.3a Investigate the factors that lead to urban
growth and development
1.3b Evaluate the characteristics of the urban
way of life
If any one thing should astound us, it is how
popular cities have become throughout the
world. As a human invention, cities are scarcely

Table 1–1 Percentage of Urban Population in Major Areas of the World

Area 1980 2015 2040
Africa 26.7 40.4 51.5
Asia 27.1 44.4 60.0
Europe 67.3 72.7 79.9
Latin America and 64.3 78.8 85.1
Caribbean
North America 73.9 82.0 87.3
Oceania 71.3 70.7 72.0
World 39.3 54.0 63.2
More-developed regions 70.2 78.3 83.5
Less-developed regions 29.4 49.0 59.8
Source: From World Urbanization Prospects, 2014 Revision. Copyright © 2014 by the United Nations, Population Division. Reprinted
with permission.
 Exploring the City 5

Figure 1–1 Percentage of Population in Urban Areas, 2014 and 2050

Source: Based on data from World Urbanization Prospects, 2014 Revision.

2015

80 and over
60–79
40–59
20–39
Less than 20 2050

10,000 years old, but as the centuries have
passed, they have become much larger and far
more numerous. For example, in 1950 there
were 75 cities with 1 million or more residents,
but by 2025 there may be 546, seven times the
number three generations earlier (UN Popu-
lation Division 2014). The increase in world
population alone cannot explain this phenome-
non. Once people become aware of the advan-
tages of cities—protection, increased material
standard of living, a more stimulating mental
and social life—they don’t want to live any-
where else. Because this urban growth and
development can occur in different ways and on
6 Chapter 1
several levels, however, we need to know some
basic concepts about these processes and their
consequences if we are to understand fully what
is happening.
1.3.1: Urbanization as
a Process
The changes resulting from people moving into
cities and other densely populated areas are
what we mean by urbanization. This process of
increased population concentration can be delib-
erate and planned, such as in Brazil’s capital,
Brasilia, which came into existence in 1960. It
can also be spontaneous and unplanned, as the
rapid urban growth occurring in many develop-
ing countries. However it occurs, urbanization
transforms land use from rural to urban economic
activities—and often the land itself, from a porous
surface absorbing rainfall, to a nonporous one of
asphalt and concrete. In addition, this progression
in greater population density transforms many
patterns of social life, altering the social struc-
ture and social organization of that area. As we
will discuss shortly, these changes include a more
complex division of labor and social stratification,
the growth of subcultures, and more formal social
controls.
An example of urbanization is the massive
changes that San Francisco experienced. Today,
it is a thoroughly modern U.S. city, famed for its
hills, cable cars, fog, and natural beauty. Visitors
often note its relaxed lifestyle and easygoing,
pleasant atmosphere. Except during rush hour,
people typically stroll along the streets, unlike
midtown Manhattan or central London, where a
fast-paced, push-and-shove walking style is more
common.
Such was not always the case, however. The
changes to San Francisco since its early exis-
tence have been profound, as historical doc-
uments attest. One such document is Richard
Henry Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast (2013,
originally published in 1862), one of the
greatest of ­nineteenth-century seagoing journals,
a part of which you can read in the Cityscape
box.2
What happened to San Francisco between
Dana’s two visits was gold, discovered in 1849.
Almost overnight, the sleepy little village of Yerba
Buena, the nearest port for outfitting the Sierra
Nevada mines, was transformed into a feverish
city. Not for another 70 years would what others
would call a sophisticated, “laid-back” San Fran-
cisco begin to appear.
1.3.2: Levels of Urbanization
Ever-expanding urbanization necessitates the use
of other terms and concepts to understand fully
the complexity and scale of human organization
and interaction. Although we will explore these
topics more fully in subsequent chapters, here is a
brief introduction to them:
Metropolitan Area A large population
center and adjacent communities, with a high
degree of economic and social integration, con-
stitute a metropolitan area. Also known as an
urban agglomeration, such a region typically has
a large city (100,000 residents or more) as a hub
extending its sphere of influence into the sur-
rounding communities. These communities may
not be urban in character themselves, but they
link closely with that city through transportation
(roads and public transit), employment (commut-
ers), media (city newspapers and radio and TV
stations), and leisure activities (clubbing, dining,
entertainment, and professional sports).
Micropolitan Area Another geographic
entity is a micropolitan area, which has an urban
core of at least 10,000 residents but less than
50,000. Like a metropolitan area, it consists of the
county containing the core urban area and any
adjacent counties with a high degree of social
2
Various kinds of boxes are included in each chapter to
illustrate key points and themes. When you encounter
a reference to a particular box, take a minute or two to
read it before going on with the chapter.

and economic integration with that urban core, as
measured by commuting there to work.
Megaregion When two or more metro-
politan areas expand so that they intermingle
Cityscape
San Francisco’s Massive Changes
Shipping from New York, Richard Henry Dana first vis-
ited San Francisco, then called Yerba Buena (“good
herbs”), in 1835. Here is what he saw:
[Near the] mouth of the bay . . . is a high point
on which the [Presidio Mexican military outpost] is
built. Behind this point is the little harbor, or bight,
called Yerba Buena, in which trading vessels
anchor, and, near it, the Mission of Delores. There
was no other habitation on this side of the Bay,
except a shanty of rough boards put up by a man
named Richardson, who was doing a little trading
between the vessels and the Indians. . . . We
came to anchor near the mouth of the bay, under
a high and beautifully sloping hill, upon which
herds of hundreds and hundreds of red deer, and
the stag, with his high branching of antlers, were
bounding about, looking at us for a moment, and
then starting off, affrighted at the noises we made
at seeing the variety of their beautiful attitudes
and motion.
That was not the San Francisco of the next century
nor does it much resemble this description of Dana’s,
written in 1859 after a second visit:
We bore round the point toward the old anchoring
ground of hide ships, and there, covering the sand
hills and the valleys, stretching from the water’s
edge to the base of the great hills, and from the
old Presidio to the Mission, flickering all over with
lamps of its streets and houses, lay a city of one
hundred thousand inhabitants. . . . The dock
into which we drew, and the streets about it,
were densely crowded with express wagons and
hand-carts to take luggage, coaches and cabs
Exploring the City 7
with one another to form a continuous (or
almost c­ ontinuous) urban complex, we have a
­megaregion, the preferred term for what social
scientists previously called a megalopolis.
for passengers, and with men. . . . Through this
crowd I made my way, along the well-built and
well-lighted streets, as alive as by day, where boys
in high keyed voices were already crying the latest
New York papers; and between one and two
o’clock in the morning found myself comfortably
abed in a commodious room, in the Oriental
Hotel, which stood, as well as I could learn, on the
filled-up cove, and not far from the spot where we
used to beach our boats from the Alert.
When I awoke in the morning, and looked
from my windows over the city of San Francisco,
with its townhouses, towers, and steeples; its
courthouses, theaters, and hospitals; its daily
journals; its well-filled learned professions; its for-
tresses and light houses; its wharves and harbor,
with their thousand-ton clipper ships, more in
number than London or Liverpool sheltered that
day . . . when I looked across the bay to the east-
ward, and beheld a beautiful town on the fertile
wooded Shores of the Contra Costa [the area of
today’s Oakland and Berkeley] and steamers, large
and small, the ferryboats of the Contra Costa, and
capacious freighters and passenger-carriers to all
parts of the great bay and its horizon—when I saw
all these things, and reflected on what I once was
and saw here, and what now surrounded me, I
could scarcely keep my hold on reality at all, or the
genuineness of anything, and seemed to myself
like one who had moved in “worlds not realized.”
Source: Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the
Mast (Lanham, MD: Sheridan House, 2013), pp. 102,
105, 173–176.
8 Chapter 1

Table 1–2 Population of the World’s Largest Megacities in Millions

2015 2030

Rank Urban Agglomeration Population Rank Urban Agglomeration Population

1 Tokyo, Japan 38.0 1 Tokyo, Japan 37.2
2 Delhi, India 25.7 2 Delhi, India 36.1
3 Shanghai, China 23.7 3 Shanghai, China 30.8
4 São Paolo, Brazil 21.1 4 Mumbai, India 27.8
5 Mumbai, India 21.0 5 Beijing, China 27.7
6 Mexico City, Mexico 21.0 6 Dhaka, Bangladesh 27.4
7 Beijing, China 20.4 7 Karachi, Pakistan 24.8
8 Osaka, Japan 20.2 8 Cairo, Egypt 24.5
9 Cairo, Egypt 18.8 9 Lagos, Nigeria 24.2
10 New York–Newark, USA 18.6 10 Mexico City, Mexico 23.9
11 Dhaka, Bangladesh 17.6 11 São Paolo, Brazil 23.4
12 Karachi, Pakistan 16.6 12 Kinshasa, DR Congo 20.0
13 Buenos Aires, Argentina 15.2 13 Osaka, Japan 20.0
14 Kolkata, India 14.9 14 New York-Newark, USA 19.9
15 Istanbul, Turkey 14.2 15 Kolkata, India 19.1
16 Chongqing, China 13.3 16 Guangzhou, Guangdong, 17.8
China
17 Lagos, Nigeria 13.1 17 Chongqing, China 17.4
18 Manila, Philippines 13.0 18 Buenos Aires, Argentina 17.0
19 Rio de Janeiro, Argentina 12.9 19 Manila, Philippines 16.8
20 Guangzhou, Guangdong, 12.5 20 Istanbul, Turkey 16.7
China
21 Los Angeles–Long 12.3 21 Bangalore, India 14.8
Beach–Santa Ana, USA
22 Moscow, Russia 12.2 22 Tianjin, China 14.7
23 Kinshasa, DR Congo 11.6 23 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 14.2
24 Tianjin, China 11.2 24 Chennai, India 13.9
25 Paris, France 10.8 25 Jakarta, Indonesia 13.8
26 Shenzhen, China 10.8 26 Los Angeles–Long 13.3
Beach–Santa Ana, USA
27 Jakarta, Indonesia 10.3 27 Lahore, Pakistan 13.0
28 London, England 10.3 28 Hyderabad, India 12.8
29 Bangalore, India 10.1 29 Shenzhen, China 12.7
30 Lima, Peru 12.2

Source: Based on data from World Urbanization Prospects, 2014 Revision.

This merged conglomeration typically ­contains (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and
a population in the tens of millions, such as ­Washington, D.C.). China currently has 150 infra-
that along the Eastern Seaboard, although the structure projects underway to merge nine cities
cities therein retain their individual names by the Pearl River Delta into the world’s largest
 Exploring the City 9

megaregion with 42 million residents (Moore and Lifestyles are, of course, much more than
Foster 2011). matters of individual choice. They reflect social
class differences, often taking the form of social
Megacity A metropolitan area can constitute
inequality. Like most societies, the United States
its own megalopolis if the population within its
and Canada contain marked social stratification,
municipal boundary numbers at least 10 ­million
the hierarchical ranking of people in terms of
people. In the past 35 years, the number of meg-
valued resources. Wealth is certainly one import-
acities has rocketed from 10 in 1990 to 29 in 2014,
ant dimension of social stratification, and North
with an expected increase to 41 by 2030 (see
American cities often provide striking contrasts
Table 1–2). Today, 1 in 8 people worldwide live in
between well-heeled urbanites who have lives of
a megacity (UN Population Division 2014:13).
material comfort and others who must persevere
Global City Also called a world city, a global just to survive.
city occupies an influential position in the global Such differences are typically related to other
economic system, attracting worldwide invest- dimensions of social differences: race, ethnic-
ments and exercising considerable economic ity, and gender. Once ignored in the urban pub-
power worldwide. London, New York, Paris, lic sphere, women are now more likely to hold
and Tokyo are at the top of the hierarchy of cit- public office, at least in cities with populations of
ies because of their role in the world system of 25,000 or more (Wolbrecht, Beckwith, and Baldez
finance and trade (Abrahamson 2004; Sassen 2008). From both historical and contemporary
2005). World-systems analysis, an approach we viewpoints, however, women’s city experiences
will examine more closely in Chapter 7 on crit- have reflected the realities of gender, interwoven
ical urban theory, suggests that the economic with those of social class, race, and ethnicity. In
well-­being of most cities heavily depends on their a still-continuing historical pattern, North Ameri-
placement within this world hierarchy. can cities attract immigrants of different races and
ethnicities. On arrival, many find themselves at or
near the bottom of the urban hierarchy, but, with
1.3.3: Urbanism as a Way of Life time, many improve their situation. Others, how-
As implied earlier, the companion concept to ever, continue to suffer from a wide range of prob-
urbanization (population growth and concentra- lems associated with poverty and/or prejudice.
tion) is urbanism, the culture or way of life of city Social power—the ability to achieve one’s
dwellers. Besides changes in values, attitudes, goals and to shape events—is yet another
norms, and customs, we also include lifestyle important dimension of inequality. For those
patterns and behavioral adaptations influenced with ­considerable wealth, urban living is often
by one’s residential and/or work environment. the experience of shaping their own lives (and,
Often, these lifestyles coincide with different geo- indeed, the lives of others). By contrast, poorer
graphical districts of the city. In downtown areas, urbanites, often members of racial and ethnic
for example, we are likely to see well-dressed minorities, find that life in the city is a grim m ­ atter
businesspeople—many of whom live in apart- of trying to cope with seemingly overwhelming
ments. Older residential neighborhoods may pro- forces.
vide the sights, sounds, and even aromas of exotic Of course, none of these structural patterns
cultural diversity. Still other neighborhoods con- exists exclusively in cities. Social stratification is
tain the city’s poor, who struggle every day to as important in small towns in North Carolina
survive. In many suburban areas, single-­family as it is in Raleigh, the state capital; people per-
homes—replete with children and the ever-­ ceive racial distinctions as keenly in rural Ohio
present automobile—dominate. as they do in Columbus; and “power politics”
10 Chapter 1
is the name of the game in rural Wyoming, just
as it is in Cheyenne. Nevertheless, because these
­structural patterns shape our cities so strongly,
we can hardly ignore them.
On another level, however, cities intensify the
effects of class, race, ethnicity, gender, and power,
because they concentrate everything human in
a small space. If we look carefully, we can find
extreme contrasts in wealth and poverty and in
power and powerlessness that are nearly incom-
prehensible. A walk through the poor neighbor-
hoods of almost any major North American city
will reveal numerous examples of numbing pov-
erty. Indeed, poverty for millions continues as
only one of the significant problems that beset the
urban environment.
1.4: The Complexity
of the City
Various Perspectives
1.4 Describe the ecological process of
invasion–succession as seen in emerging
cities
The city may well be the most complex of all
human creations. As a result, it cannot be under-
stood using any single point of view. While this
book is fundamentally sociological in its orienta-
tion, it draws together insights, theories, and sta-
tistics from a wide variety of related disciplines,
including history, archaeology, psychology, geog-
raphy, economics, and political science. As we
now explain, all these perspectives are vital for
grasping the living entity that is the contempo-
rary city.
1.4.1: The City in History
Today, cities are so much a part of our lives that
they seem both natural and inevitable. You may
be surprised to learn, then, that in the larger pic-
ture of human history, cities are a rather new
idea. Although “modern” humans have existed
on the earth for about 200,000 years, cities began
to appear a scant 10,000 years ago. Moreover, it
wasn’t until the last 3,000 years that cities became
relatively numerous and inhabited by significant
numbers of people. And only in 2009 did we
reach the point at which more than half of the
world’s people were urbanites.
Thus, we can see the importance of studying
the city historically. Without the benefit of hind-
sight, we might easily fool ourselves into thinking
that cities, although perhaps smaller in the past,
were always more or less like those we know
today.
Luckily, our understanding of past cities
doesn’t rely only on historical documents, such as
Dana’s account of early San Francisco. In recent
years, urban archaeologists have made major
strides in the study of urban settings for which lit-
tle or no written material is available.
Abandoned cities, or cities rebuilt on ear-
lier foundations, still contain traces of their ear-
lier existence, providing clues for archaeologists
trained in the careful excavation and analysis
of artifacts. From such clues, archaeologists can
piece together a picture of how a city’s people
lived: how they built their houses and orga-
nized their families, what they thought import-
ant enough to portray in paintings, what level of
technology they employed, what they commonly
drank or ate. By unearthing many such clues,
archaeologists allow long-dead cities to spring
back to life in our minds.
One of the most important finds during
recent years was the 2001 carbon dating of Caral,
an ancient, sacred city of about 160 acres located
approximately 62 miles north of the Peruvian
capital of Lima. Imagine the excitement of dis-
covering that it was founded before 2600 b.c.e.—
pushing back the date for the first known urban
settlement in the Western Hemisphere by at least
1,000 years! This settlement predates the Incan
civilization by 4,000 years, but even more aston-
ishing is the impressive construction of its six

pyramids, which are a century older than the
pyramids of Giza in ancient Egypt. It appears
that other nearby sites may be even older, but
that Caral was the regional center for the approxi-
mately 10,000 people living in that area.
Archaeologists believe Caral contains the
most important pre-Columbian ruins discovered
since the 1911 discovery of Machu Picchu, also
in Peru but hundreds of miles to the south. The
Caral site is so old that it predates the ceramic
period, which explains why archaeologists did
not find any pottery shards. Caral’s importance
resides in its domestication of plants, especially
cotton but also beans, squashes, and guava. This
civilization knew how to use textiles and built
many residential structures around the pyramids.
Among the numerous artifacts discovered were
32 flutes made from pelican and animal bones,
engraved with the figures of birds and mon-
keys, thus revealing that although the inhabitants
lived by the Pacific coast, they were nevertheless
aware of the animals of the Amazon (Isbell and
­Silverman 2006).
Exploring the City 11
Archaeology also plays a role in ­contemporary
cities. Most cities exist on the rubble of their own
past. Take London, for example. Over the course
of its 2,000-year history, this city has risen some
30 feet, building on its own refuse. In 2007, digs
at the planned Olympics aquatic center in East
London revealed evidence of 6,000 years of
human activity, including Iron Age and Roman
settlements (Durrani 2012). At a six-month dig in
2013 at a construction site in the heart of modern
London, archaeologists uncovered some 10,000
artifacts from 47 c.e. to the fifth century, including
organic materials of wood, leather, and basketry
that experts say will transform their understand-
ing of the people of Roman London (Patel 2013).
Closer to home, archaeologists completed
an excavation on New York’s Wall Street in
1979–1980, uncovering artifacts from the original
Dutch settlement of 1625. In 1991, excavation for
a new federal building between Broadway and
Duane Street in Lower Manhattan unearthed
an ­eighteenth-century African American burial
ground. Through such finds, we continually learn
Built by the Incas in the
mid-fifteenth century,
Machu Picchu remained
hidden until 1911. Now
a tourist attraction
receiving 400,000 visitors
annually, it is one of the
world’s most impressive
archaeological sites.
It is a masterpiece of
urban planning, civil
engineering, architecture,
and stonemasonry, its
many buildings still intact
except for their thatch-
and-reed roofs.
12 Chapter 1
more about the past and how people lived in
those times.
Two chapters of this text tell about cit-
ies in human history. Chapter 2 reviews major
urban developments from the beginnings of cit-
ies some 10 millennia ago right up to the urban
events of this century. We will see that the urban
story is one of continuous and striking change.
­Chapter 3 highlights how cities have developed
in the United States and Canada. Here, too, you
will read about astonishing changes—changes
hinted at in Dana’s account of San Francisco. You
will read about the alterations of North American
urban life as cities grew from the small, isolated
colonial centers of the seventeenth century to
sprawling environments with populations often
reaching into multimillions. Then, in Chapter 4,
you will learn of recent urban trends shaping our
urban and suburban lifestyles: sprawl, edge cities,
gated communities, and common-interest devel-
opments (CIDs).
1.4.2: The Emergence of Urban
Sociology
One key goal of this book is to help you under-
stand how sociologists study the city. Although
historians have been looking at cities for centu-
ries, sociologists are more recent investigators. As
Chapter 5 explains, early sociologists in the late
nineteenth century lived during a period of dra-
matic urban upheaval, and naturally, they turned
their attention to cities. They tried to understand
just how the Industrial Revolution transformed
the small villages of Europe and North America
into huge, seemingly chaotic metropolises.
Many early sociologists shared a pessimistic
vision of the city. Their works portray the city as
a dangerous place where the traditional values of
social life—a sense of community and caring for
other people—were systematically torn apart.
Recent sociological research, however, shows that
many of these concerns about the destructive-
ness of urban living rested on faulty evidence.
Contemporary research reveals the city as a more
neutral phenomenon. Cities are neither good nor
bad in and of themselves; cultural forces at work
in a particular time and place push them in one
direction or the other. Thus, we come to under-
stand the horrors of nineteenth-century London
as primarily a product of massive industrial-
ization, not as a result of something inherently
urban.
1.4.3: Geography and Spatial
Perspectives
Why did people cluster together to form cities in
the first place? Aristotle, an ancient Greek philos-
opher, provided an early answer: People come
together in cities for security; they remain there
to live the good life. For the ancient Greeks, cit-
ies satisfied a need for security, because in an age
of few laws and fewer treaties, groups frequently
preyed on one another. For protection, people
came together in a single location, often a natural
fortification, such as the Acropolis in Aristotle’s
Athens. Where natural defenses were not avail-
able, people built walls. But a site could become
a city only with other geographical assets: water,
access to transportation routes, and the ability
to produce or import enough goods to meet the
population’s needs.
Once cities began, however, people made a
remarkable discovery. Mixing together in large
numbers not only gave them protection, it also
generated more profitable trade and stimulated
intellectual life as well. People began to hail the
city as offering the potential for what Aristotle
termed “the good life.”
The importance of a city’s physical location,
and of how people come to arrange themselves
within the urban area, led urbanists to develop
two related areas of study: (1) urban geography,
which focuses on the significance of the city’s loca-
tion and natural resources; and (2) urban ecology,
which analyzes how people spread out within an
urban area. Let’s illustrate each of these areas.

A city’s geographical location has a great
deal to do with how people live in that city. Take
the two largest U.S. cities, New York and Los
Angeles. Centered on Manhattan Island and sur-
rounded by rivers, New York City has a land base
of bedrock that is physically able to support tall
buildings. By contrast, Los Angeles stretches out
across a semi-arid basin over several fault lines
that, geologically speaking, make the building of
skyscrapers a shaky business indeed.
These different settings translate into very
different daily routines. For example, a half-hour
commute in New York may begin in the eleva-
tor, perhaps shared with another tenant. Possible
encounters with a doorman, a neighbor on the
street, and perhaps the news dealer on the cor-
ner precede a shared subway ride, then a stop at
Starbucks for a cup of coffee and a brief conver-
sation with the cashier, and then another eleva-
tor ride shared with fellow workers. In contrast
to this series of social interactions, the worker in
Los Angeles drives in the privacy of his or her car,
listening to the radio or a CD, moves along on the
freeway, and, if traffic moves easily, can quietly
get absorbed in thought. In other words, New
York City’s space brings people together, while
the Los Angeles environment separates them.
Geography is only one cause of the differing
social dynamics that distinguish cities. Various
categories of people stake out particular areas
within the city, and particular activities come to
dominate certain districts—and these categories
and activities can change over time. Such shifts
interest urban ecologists, who seek to under-
stand how people choose to locate and rearrange
themselves in urban space. One well-documented
ecological process is invasion–succession, by
which whole sections of a city change. A new
“high-tech” area may rather suddenly upstage
an old industrial district. Or perhaps, almost
overnight, the older district starts to look taw-
dry; secondhand stores, “gentlemen’s clubs,” and
pornographic bookstores replace the older, more
respectable businesses. Before long, income levels
Exploring the City 13
in the area drop and the few remaining original
businesses close their doors. Where once execu-
tives and working people trod the city sidewalks,
now one finds only prostitutes, drug dealers, and
petty criminals. With this succession, the pro-
cess of change is complete. Invasion–succession
may also occur in residential areas as new eth-
nic groups replace older groups in established
neighborhoods.
Many contemporary social scientists, how-
ever, no longer favor the ecological model.
Instead, they emphasize a critical urban theoret-
ical approach. Especially influencing urban stud-
ies today is postmodernism, which is primarily
a reaction against the assumption that rational,
objective efforts can explain reality with any cer-
tainty. Why do they say that? Postmodernists
insist that people have multiple interpretations
based on their individual, concrete experiences,
not on the abstract principles of “experts.” There-
fore, urban planning should still reflect traditional
visions, but only through expression of notions
of community, diversity, small-scale approaches,
restoration of the older urban fabric, and creation
of new spaces that use modern technologies and
materials (Dear 2001). Both these older and newer
studies of physical arrangements, spatial perspec-
tives, and the social dynamics for city life provide
the subject matter of Chapter 6.
1.4.4: Critical Urban Theory:
The City and Capitalism
Just as important as a city’s geographical set-
ting and its cultural framework is its ability to
generate trade—to be economically prosper-
ous. Throughout history, people have flocked
to the city for many reasons, most importantly,
their belief that there they would significantly
improve their standard of living. For example,
hope for a better life spurred millions upon mil-
lions of immigrants from rural and poor back-
grounds to come to the cities of Canada and the
United States during the late nineteenth and early
14 Chapter 1
twentieth centuries. These people, including
many of our great-­grandparents, settled in cities
across both nations to seek their fortunes.
Comparisons of medieval and contemporary
cities reveal the growing importance of the eco-
nomic function of cities over the centuries. In the
Middle Ages, although cities were already import-
ant centers of trade, other areas of life also were
thriving. All one has to do is look at the physical
layout of cities built during the Middle Ages—with
their central cathedral as the tallest b
­ uilding—to
see the importance of religion in people’s lives.
The Industrial Revolution, however, changed all
that. Cities became ever more important as cen-
ters of wealth. To meet the economic demands of
millions, skyscrapers in the new “central business
district” sprang up, rising far above the churches
that once dominated old city skylines.
Looking at the decline of manufacturing
in cities, the migration to the suburbs and the
­Sunbelt, the mushrooming cities in poor nations,
and a growing world economy, a new breed of
urban researchers concluded that natural pro-
cesses could not explain these changes and their
economic impact on cities. Instead, they argue,
decision making within political and economic
institutions, often thousands of miles away,
affects a city economically, politically, socially,
and even physically. Some, but not all, advocates
of critical urban theory are neo-Marxists. Regard-
less of their ideological orientation, they focus on
investment decisions and economic trends that
determine a city’s fortunes.
Recent analytical thinking in this area
includes postmodern theory, an emphasis on
fragmented and nontraditional elements. World-­
systems analysis—examining a city as one inter-
dependent part of the global whole—is another
prominent aspect of contemporary thinking. We
will look at all of these structural imperatives and
their ramifications on urban poverty in Chapter 7.
1.4.5: Urban Places and
Behavior
With about four-fifths of North Americans living
in cities, any student of cities needs to explore the
urban experience. How and why do cities stimu-
late us so much? Do cities change people in one
way or another?
The Church of Our
Lady before Tyn, with
its magnificent Gothic
steeples, dominates the
cityscape of Prague,
Czech Republic. The
Old Town retains many
medieval qualities:
visual domination by
the cathedral, no central
business district, narrow
streets, and buildings
with commercial
enterprises at street level
and residences on the
floors above.
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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