Modern humans, descendants of a founding population that separated from chimpanzees some five to eight million years ago, are today the only living representative of a branching group of African apes called hominins. Because of its extraordinary size and shape, the baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) has long been identified as the most striking tree of Africa's mosaic savanna, the landscape generally regarded as the environment of hominin evolution. This book makes the case for identifying the baobab as the tree of life in the hunter-gatherer adaptation that was the economic foundation of hominin evolution. The argument is based on the significance of the baobab as a resource-rich environment for the Hadza of northeastern Tanzania, who continue to be successful hunter-gatherers of the African savanna.

Autorentext

Prof. Dr. John Rashford is a retired professor emeritus of the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina, who received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the City University of New York. His research focuses on the ethnobotany of the Caribbean with a particular interest in the cultural importance of trees.