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Mapping biological and cultural transfersin the western Indian Ocean:New directions for interdisciplinary research

Martin WalshDepartment of Social Anthropology

University of Cambridge

mtw30@cam.ac.uk

East Africa in the Indian Ocean:The Emergence of maritime

subsistence, contact and trade on the

East African coast

Department of Archaeology, University of

York, 28 November 2008

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Contents

Introduction

Defining problems

Finding the evidence

Before the Sabaki

The Swahili diaspora

Comorian origins

Malagasy migrations

Other directions

Conclusion

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Introduction

Historical & ethnobiological linguisticsBiogeography & comparative ethnography

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The internal classification of Northeast Coast Bantu and Sabaki

after Nurse and Hinnebusch 1993

Proto-NORTHEAST COAST BANTU

Proto-SABAKI

Elwana

Swahili

Comorian

Mwani Lower Pokomo

Mijikenda

Historical

development

of theSABAKI

languages

Defining problems

N Swahili

S Swahili

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minimal data some data available

Louette 1988; 2004

(compilation)

NEC Bantu bird names

and identifications

Finding the evidence

Moreau 1940-41

Mafia

Pakenham 1959

Brain 1980

Sacleux 1891; 1939

Krapf 1882; Binns 1925

Dakatcha IBA

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click substratum

Before the Sabaki

Sample vocabulary from the

click substratum in Dahalo

(Ehret et al. 1989)

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PEMBA

old continental island

first settlement?

UNGUJA & MAFIA

continuous settlement?

Before the Sabaki

CHIFUNDI & VUMBA

language shift from Mijikenda

ZANZIBAR archipelago

settled by NEC Bantu?

MAFIA archipelago

settled by Rufiji-Ruvuma speakers?

Pemba dialect vocabulary

(Whiteley 1958)

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The Swahili diaspora

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The Swahili diaspora

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Comorian origins

Kae (Makunduchi)

Chifundi

Vumba

Proto-NORTHEAST COAST BANTU

Lower Pokomo

proto-Comorian

Mijikenda

Comorian

Swahili

Elwana

Proto-SABAKI

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Comorian origins

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Malagasy migrations

?

?

Recent observations on the historical origins of Malagasy make it possible to develop a more definite model for the

origin of Bantu loanwords. Blench (in press a) focuses on the terminology for domestic and translocated animals, and

considers some other areas of vocabulary in less detail. Another element in the Malagasy lexicon is the development

of vocabulary to reflect a wholly unfamiliar natural environment. Walsh (pers.comm.) has recently studied the

Malagasy terms for wild animals and it appears that the great majoritysome derive, not from Austronesian, but from

Bantu languages. As with livestock names, almost all are from Swahili and languages of the Sabaki group, not, forexample, from the Bantu languages nearest to Madagascar, those in Mozambique. (Blench 2007: 76-77)

antsanga

antsangy

*nkomba ankomba

Unguja kitanga

< *-canga

?

?Mijikenda tsanje

Bondei sangi

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Wild banana, Musa acuminata

Typhonodorum lindleyanum

Malagasy

migrations

bie viha ~ via

Shambaa: huti

?

Swahili: puti

*punti

Malagasy: fontsy

?

mgomba-tumbili

mgomba-kofi

tongonya

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Other directions

?

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Conclusion

Mammals

Domesticated

*Data quality (NEC Bantu)

Birds

Reptiles

Fish / marine

Generally

inadequateInvertebrates

ANIMALS

Fair in some

cases

Cultivated

Good in some

casesWild plants

PLANTS

ETHNOG.LING.BIOLOGYLIFE FORM

*a quick, qualitative overview

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Basi!