In this module, we shall define the basic concepts in historical archaeology of Eastern Africa and encourage you to develop your own understanding historical archaeology. The module also introduces the historical methods and the subsequent historical archaeology that has been constructed. The module takes you through the meaning of historical archaeology and other types of “archaeologies”, development of Swahili city States, the Great Zimbabwe civilization and the recent historical archaeology of Eastern Africa.

The cold war is the name given to the relationship that developed primarily between the USA and the USSR after the World War II up to 1990s. The Cold War was a result of a clash between communism and capitalism, which were the main opposing ideologies or world-views. The USA with its capitalistic ideology believed that capitalism was the best and that communism was non democratic. Similarly, the communist Soviet Union believed that capitalism was exploitative and non democratic and therefore its spread to the rest of the world needed to be checked.

Geography; It’s concerned with the relationship between man’s way of life and the places in which he lives. Geo tries to study the earth as the world of man. It deals with differentiation and integration of places. Describing location of places.

Rural sociology is one of the various aspects of general sociology such as urban, medical, family, race, relation, criminal, religion sociology etc. To define rural sociology we must first define general sociology. Sociology may be defined as science that deals with the study of the structures and changes of human groups in relation to other members and other groups. Man is a social being and interacts with other groups. This interaction usually takes some form of repetitive patterns that culminates into larger groups with similar characteristics. In the process of these interactions with others, man enters up forming other patterns that gives rise to Social groups when these social groups which usually tend to be interrelated and overlap as considered as whole they form a large social group with similar characteristics known as Society

The topic will give definitions of the concepts that will used throughout in this module, and their application in gender and development studies. These include:development, economics, economics policy, economic planning and economic empowerment, economic growth and development.

SOIL is a naturally occurring unconsolidated material on the earth surface that has been influenced by parent material, climate, organisms and relief, all acting over a period of time to produce a soil that may differ from the material from which it was derived from in terms of physical, chemical, mineralogical, biological and morphological properties. Soil is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and mechanical processes that include weathering, erosion and precipitation. Soil is altered from its parent rock due to interactions between the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and the biosphere Soil therefore is a dynamic and complex media developing under the influence of external factors i.e hydrosphere (water), atmosphere (air) and biosphere (flora and fauna). Soil science. Is the study of properties and reactions of soils and materials, its relationship with man and how it can be used in the benefit of man.

Soil fertility: Is the ability of the soil to supply elements/nutrients essential for plant growth (From germination to physiological maturity) without toxic concentration of any element i.e. in the required amount and at the required time. Soil productivity: Is the ability of the soil to produce a particular crop or sequence of crops under a specified management system. NB: Productive soils are fertile for the crops being grown. However, many fertile soils are unproductive because they have poor climate.

The course is designed to present and discuss the methodologies of the best known analytical frameworks which have been used to integrate gender considerations into development initiatives. It gives practical examples of each framework, and provides accessible commentaries discussing the frameworks' potential uses, advantages, and limitations, as well as recent adaptations.

Crop improvement can be defined as i. An art, a science, and technology of improving the genetic makeup of plants in relation to their economic use for the mankind. ii. The art and science of improving the heredity of plants for the benefit of mankind. iii. Science of changing and improving the heredity of plants 2. Genetics The study of heredity and the variation of inherited characteristics, the science of genetics enables plant breeders to predict to varying extents the outcome of genetic manipulation of plants. The techniques and methods employed in breeding are determined based on the genetics of the trait of interest, regarding, for example, the number of genes coding for it and gene action. For example, the size of the segregating population to generate in order to have a chance of observing that unique plant with the desired combination of genes depends on the number of genes involved in the expression of the desired trait.

In this unit, we will learn that gender describes those characteristics, roles and behavior patterns that distinguish men from women and are socially and culturally defined. These perceptions are quite in contrast to sex roles that are biologically determined. We therefore learn that there is a distinction between gender and sex.