t~1 m ~c 9. Aka-farmer relations in the northwest Congo Basin1

The myth of the forest cocoon For a variety of reasons, research carried out in central and southern Africa has long ignored the problem of contacts between the Later Stone Age populations of hunter-gatherers and the Iron Age peoples who brought techniques of food production, pottery-making and metal-lurgy. Recent archaeological research in Zambia, Malawi and Zim-babwe and more sophisticated methods of dating have begun to pro-vide us with evidence on the antiquity of these contacts, dating in some cases ta at least the beginning of the Christian era (Miller 1969; Phillip-son 1976). The co-existence of these two modes of existence has con-sisted notmerely ln a juxtaposition, but also has involved long-term exchange relations without technological assimilation. The antiquity and persistence of these relations compel us to perceive these foraging societies in a new light. Long assumed to have been on the fringe of history, these societies now appear to have been in contact, yet hav