An ancient social safety net in Africa was built on beads

Recommendable!

The headline of this article is quite misleading! Welfare states or anything like it did not exist some 30,000 years ago during the age of hunter and gatherers! What we are dealing here are probably economic or gift exchanges or more sinister plunder and loot. Plus, the region of what is now the small state of Lesotho does not represent Africa!

"Some of these carefully crafted beads — excavated at two high-altitude rock-shelters in the African nation of Lesotho — were found to have originated more than 100 kilometers away, while others came from more than 300 kilometers away ... Beads may have been given as gifts to create a sense of indebtedness and unity across groups, thus damping down cultural differences between disparate hunter-gatherer populations."

"Geological studies have indicated that sharp climate fluctuations between around 58,000 and 24,000 years ago caused ecological havoc in inland Africa" 
Notice, this was long before humans produced any CO2 in large quantities! Or where humans then slash and burn large areas?

An ancient social safety net in Africa was built on beads | Science News: A Stone Age network of communities across southern Africans was established using ostrich shell beads by around 33,000 years ago. Ostrich eggshell beads suggest the long-distance network was established by 33,000 years ago