Geography of Africa 321 - Final Study Guide - Winter 1998

Week Seven Population Geography of SubSaharan Africa

Arithmetic population density Physiological population density Age and sex cohorts Birth rates Child fosterage Death rates Demographic transition model Dependency ratios Doubling time Infant and child mortality Impaired fertility Sterility

Polygyny Postpartum abstinence Refugee Internal refugee Economic refugee Rate of natural increase Fertility rates Replacement fertility rate Cumulative Reciprocal Nested Power structures

Discussion Questions in Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa Text: p.144

a) How is the slave trade related to the cumulative effects of traditionally high fertility?

b) How does poverty lead to high fertility?

c) Why is women's status in society so closely linked to fertility rates?

d) What are the limitations of the national population pyramid model demonstrated in class?

e) How does decision making at various scales (local, national, international) affect the reproductive choices made in a household?

Weeks Eight-Nine Agricultural Development in SubSaharan Africa

Traditional farming systems Permanent cropping Shifting cultivation Mixed farming Intercropping/polyculture Rotational bush fallow Compound farming Pastoralism Cash crop farming Monoculture Semicommercial farming

Commercial farming Marine fishing Rural infrastructure Land degradation Green revolution Rural infrastructure Appropriate technologies Agrobased industries Communitybased cooperatives Integrated rural development Soil tilth

Discussion Questions in Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa Text: p.322

a) What advantage do traditional pastoralists and subsistence farmers gain from raising a diversity of animals or crops?

b)What is the fundamental difference between traditional subsistence farming and modern commercial farming in terms of the ultimate goal of each? Compare and contrast the pattern of production for each system.

c) What does Bill Rau say that African peasants have to teach modern scientists and economists?

d) How did colonial governments in West Africa get the peasants to grow peanuts?

Week-Ten Forest Degradation and Desertification

Agroforestry Meteorologic drought Deforestation Desertification Drought Stripcropping Forest ecosystem management Biodiversity

Forest degradation Agricultural drought Hydrologic drought Soil conservation Water conservation Soil degradation Selective logging Woodfuel consumption

Discussion Questions in Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa Text: pp.57-58

a) Why does Madagascar have such a high degree of endemism among its species?

b) What role do trees play in agroforestry food production systems? How do trees benefit soil systems?

c) Why is it advantageous for a multinational corporation to subcontract out the production to the peasant?

d) How does the fragmentation of the rainforest into small pieces disturb the ecological equilibrium?

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