Cattle herds and banana gardens: the historical geography of the western Great Lakes region, ca AD 800-1500

This paper discusses the importance of economic specializations in banana farming and cattle pastoralism in eastern Africa's Great Lakes region. I present comparative linguistic evidence for the careers of these two socially and economically important food sources. Next, I review some recent archaeological work on pastoralism and Later Iron Age pottery traditions. A final section considers some of the forces that shaped the choices of some Lakes Africans to take up more intensive forms of banana farming and/or pastoralism.