Africa and the Early Indian Ocean World Exchange System in the Context ofHuman–Environment Interaction

Abstract

This volume comprises a selection of chapters by leading scholars on aspects of early exchange between Africa and the wider Indian Ocean world (IOW)—a macro-region running from Africa to the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, and the Far East. The rationale for regarding this region as a “world” is the central significance of the monsoon system. Unlike the Atlantic and Pacific, the IOW seas (the Indian Ocean and the Indonesian and China Seas) are capped by a huge continent—Asia. During northern hemisphere summers, as the Asian continent warms up, hot air rises from the land, causing a vacuum that, through the process of convection, sucks in moist air from the oceans to the south. This creates the southwest monsoon. In winter, the opposite process occurs, and air is expelled from the continent over the oceans, creating the northeast monsoon.