if you use mercurial's mq extension you get the equivalent of a staging area if you really want one[1]. There is qcrecord to get git add -p functionality with mq.

Personally, I have stopped using queues and I use rebase and histedit extensively now. I see no need for patch queues or a staging area when you can edit and rearrange commits easily.

1. http://stevelosh.com/blog/2010/08/a-git-users-guide-to-mercu...