The Deep History of Cattle Herding and Symbolism

This brief provides a unique overview that weaves a thread across the deep history of the management and symbolism of wild aurochs and domestic cattle in Sudan, where these practices are attested for over 15,000 to 20,000 years. It highlights the central preoccupation with these bovids by societies of the region, from the time of the earliest funerary rituals involving wild aurochs in the late Pleistocene, to the introduction of domestic cattle in the Neolithic, to pre-state societies through the historical period into the present day. It recounts the relationship between humans and the African aurochs, the processes of wild animal management, the prey pathway that provides a possible model for domestication, the introduction of Bos taurus to the African continent, and then the establishment of widespread herding practices, including the introgression of the African aurochs into domesticated cattle populations. Finally, it emphasises the economic and symbolic value of cattle seen through social cults and even a human ‘infatuation’ with cattle by observing the roles and representations of these animals from different disciplinary perspectives. Its geographic scope covers modern Sudan's territory, extending from Nubia, in the Middle Nile Valley, to the wider Nile Basin, as well as to eastern and western Sudan.

The herding of domestic animals came to shape the societies of North-Eastern Africa during a period of over 10,000 years, up to the present. With focus on cattle, this volume examines the deep history of the origins of pastoralism in Africa and the economic, political, and religious role they came to play over time. Animal herding is the subsistence economy that is best adapted to arid and semi-arid environments, such as those in North-Eastern Africa, with cattle herding playing a prominent role in providing economic needs by serving as a ‘walking larder’ and ‘storage on the hoof’ and in ritual through its symbolic role, including the practice of sacrifice. From an economic point of view, cattle can provide meat, milk, blood, skin, sinew, manure, fuel, and labor, and can serve as a currency of exchange and a store of value. From a symbolic point of view, their physical presence in tombs and in movable (figurines) and immovable art (rock engravings and paintings) represents a material demonstration of ostentatious wealth and/or social status that can be converted into political support by building a clientele by means of exchange and redistribution, as well as a manifestation of divinity. Finally, from a ritual point of view, ceremonies related to a cattle cult fix and consolidate social bonds between members of a community.