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Karen Kupperman’s Jamestown Project examines the temporal and geographic background of Jamestown, and George E. Brooks’ Ecological Perspectives on Mande, Population Movements, Commercial Networks, and Settlement Patterns from the Atlantic Wet Phase (Ca. 5500-2500 B.C.) to the Present studies the migration and settlements of the Mande people based on the geographical changes of the African Sahara. Both readings offer insight into how geography and the changing of land over time contribute to the moving and settling of peoples.
In Ecological Settlements…, Brooks discusses settlement and migration in west Africa over a period of eight millennia. He explains the need to survive through “adapting to changing rainfall patterns in a given area, migrating to different locations, taking advantage of circumstances regarding commercial exchanges, or raiding neighboring groups” (Brooks, 24). In order to successfully survive the harsh climate changes of west Africa, Mande speaking peoples adapted their necessities to live in environments that were neither stagnant nor comfortable. Matthew Liijova wrote that to survive, the Mande people followed rainfall, as water is paramount to thriving in any environment. I completely agree with this point, as Liijova successfully points out that Mande peoples adapted in order to accommodate for the most basic needs to survive. Brooks states that 5500 to 2500 B.C.E. was a time of flourishing for African peoples, as this was the time of the Wet Sahara–a green land with possibly three to four times more rainfall than there was between 1930 and 1960 (Brooks, 26). This point also relates to Liijova’s statement in that it reiterates the idea that simply in order to live, humans must have access to at least water.
Karen Kupperman’s Jamestown Project also discusses survival, but touches more on the myth of the Jamestown failure and how settlers had to survive through cooperation in order to create a successful colony. According to Kupperman, “Virginia’s early history… has been deemed a dismal failure. But… the Jamestown experience had produced a fundamental understanding about human understanding” (Kupperman, 327). Despite its rocky start, Virginia is a pinnacle of success in the establishment of western colonies abroad. Both Kupperman and Brooks write about survival, but in different ways. Brooks discusses survival over 8 millennia, while Kupperman discusses the failures and successes of the establishment of one colony. This shows the broad scope survival encompasses, as well as its role in the continuation of the Atlantic as a diverse environment regarding its people and geography.