departmental newsletter

Index  

No 1, April 1997  
No 2, July 1997  
No 3, October 1997  
No 1, March 1998 
No 2, June 1998 
No 3, October 1998  
No 1, April 1999 
No 2, November 1999
No 1, June 2000
No 2, November 2000 
No 1, April 2001

Welcome to our first Newsletter for 2001!

Most of our students are likely to be aware that the Faculty of Arts is in the process of converting from a year-course system of tuition to a semester-based modular system. Last year archaeology introduced their new third-level modules and this year the first-level anthropology modules were introduced. Other levels will be phased in over the next two years. Also in the pipeline is the introduction of a coursework or structured Master's degree which is likely to incorporate the existing Honours program. These are important changes and are in line with developments at other South African universities. We hope to attract more students once they have been introduced, since as ever, both anthropology and archaeology have particular relevance for contemporary South African society. Recently we were notified of the final numbers of students who registered for anthropology and archaeology for the 2001 academic year, and unlike many other departments at Unisa, our Department has shown a very encouraging, albeit slight, increase. This is excellent news, since it means that the significance of the disciplines we teach are being recognised among the public at large, and that our efforts at marketing our disciplines are beginning to pay off.

Write to us with you views, ideas, complaints - any matter which you wish to share with other students will be welcome. The more you contribute, the more successful the Newsletter will be. Send your comments, items of information or articles to

The Editor
Newsletter
Department of Anthropology and Archaeology
University of South Africa
Box 392
UNISA 0003

Tel: (012) 429-6418 or 429-6788
Fax: (012) 429-6091
Email: herses@unisa.ac.za

The views expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the Editor, the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, or of the University of South Africa.

IN THIS ISSUE

• INTRODUCING THE DEPARTMENT
• THE SECOND ADVANCES IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH CONFERENCE
• MARKETING UNISA IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES
• THE JOINT AASA/SASCA CONFERENCE
• HONG KONG'S HOUSING SOLUTION
• ARCHAEOLOGY STUDENTS VISIT QUADRU
• MUSEUM VISITS BY PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS
• CHANGES IN PERSONNEL
• LAPALALA WILDERNESS EXCURSION
• LETTERS FROM STUDENTS 

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INTRODUCING THE DEPARTMENT

Few students are for some reason or other, able to visit the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, so for the benefit of those who cannot, we place photographs of 'well-known' names and divisions in the Department. Our Department is rather complex: not only does it include both anthropology and archaeology as separate disciplines, but it also incorporates the Centre for Culture and Heritage Studies (ACACHS) and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

THE SECOND ADVANCES IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH CONFERENCE

The Second Advances in Qualitative Research Conference, organised by the International Centre for Qualitative Research at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, was held from 21 to 24 February 2001, and was attended by Drs Eulalie van Heerden and Stephné Herselman. Both presented papers on recently completed qualitative research. This conference, and similar initiatives in North America, drew welcome attention to the relevance of and developments in qualitative research, while at the same time focussed people's attention on the pitfalls of conducting qualitative research. Regretfully qualitative research is often regarded as an 'easy option' - just conduct a few interviews and your research is done. This conference served to remind us that such perceptions are not only short-sighted, but also dangerous since they provide researchers with a false sense of academic or scientific credibility and cannot be justified in any way.

The theme of the conference, which was attended by 516 delegates from countries across the world, was of course qualitative research. Such a large number of diverse participants necessarily meant an exciting range of presentations. From the papers that were presented, the following general themes could be discerned:

• innovative procedures in qualitative research
• theory-building emerging from qualitative research
• reports on research projects based on qualitative research methodology.

The conference was held at the Fantasyland Hotel which forms part of the West Edmonton Mall, the largest shopping mall in the world. Just over 800 shops are included under a single roof, truly a shoppers' paradise.

Eulalie van Heerden's paper, entitled, 'Do they know that it isn't Christmas? Reflections on the Emergent Disquiet of Doing Qualitative Research', focussed on problems in desegregated schooling in South Africa, and aimed to identify factors that influence interaction and acceptance between socioculturally and racially diverse learners. Her discussion centred on various methods of data collection and analysis, with particular focus on learners' attitudes towards and perceptions of one another and of desegregated schooling. A particularly significant aspect of Eulalie's presentation was the comparison she drew between her own qualitative research and similar research conducted under the auspices of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC). The comparison draws to attention the importance of conducting thorough qualitative research through which research participants are, as it were, given the opportunity to 'speak their minds', and to the importance of ensuring a holistic, unbiased and objective evaluation of the topic of investigation. When compilers of a research report, such as those of the SAHRC Report entitled Racism, 'Racial Integration' and Desegregation in South African Public Secondary Schools (1999), admit to a lack of objectivity in their work, implying a one-sided subjective investigation of the topic of research, the validity of the project immediately becomes questionable, and more so, if the research in question is used to inform Government policy.

Stephné Herselman's paper was entitled 'Whereto from here?': A Qualitative Evaluation of 'Cultural Collisions' as Outcomes of Workplace Diversity. It approached the idea of sociocultural diversity from the perspective that it consists of three dimensions, namely primary dimensions which include people's physical traits; secondary dimensions including education, religion and wealth, and tertiary dimensions, including perceptions, beliefs and attitudes. The paper evaluated the outcomes of interaction between socioculturally diverse employees of a particular company as 'cultural collisions', that is as conflicts arising from contact between socioculturally diverse persons, and their impact on the operations of the company.

MARKETING UNISA IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES

Unisa, being one of the twelve mega-universities in the world, has an African Outreach Programme with the objective of introducing the University to and recruiting students in countries beyond the borders of South Africa. This is done not only to increase our student numbers but also to contribute to the development of human resources across the entire continent. Countries included in this initiative are Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Kenya. Although these countries do have universities, these are smaller institutions which accommodate limited numbers of students and cannot provide distance education on the scale that Unisa can. Unisa has much to offer due to, amongst other factors, its tried and tested system of distance education, quality tuition, wide range of courses and programmes, and the fact that its qualifications are recognised internationally.

As a member and representative of the Faculty of Arts Marketing Committee, Dr Eulalie van Heerden visited Zambia during the week 27 November - 4 December 2000. The marketing team included representatives of the Faculties of Education, Law, and Economic and Management Sciences. Advertisements were placed in the Zambian newspapers and on radio as regards the dates, times and venues where and when the Unisa personnel would be available to assist potential students. The response was excellent, with up to 300 potential students visiting the Unisa exhibitions every day. Many people also made enquiries on behalf of friends and relatives, and according to the number of brochures, calenders and registration forms distributed, Unisa will soon be a well-known institution in the rest of Africa!

The first stop was Lusaka, and as the delegates exited the airport parking lot in a rain storm in a hired vehicle, another motor car drove into them from behind! This necessitated the Unisa group to criss-cross the outskirts of Lusaka in search of a police station to report the accident, or rather incident, since fortunately it was not serious. After this unfortunate introduction to Lusaka, the group was prepared to face whatever other surprises came their way. But the gods (and goddesses) smiled upon them and the rest of their stay was pleasant and fruitful. Due to their hectic schedule there was little time to see the city since the group interviewed potential students from 09h00 until about 19h00 every day. They were invited by and spent a pleasant evening with the family of a professor who was a member of their management team and who originates from Zambia. The highlight of the evening was the traditional meal consisting of rice, nshima (pap), potatoes, a variety of known and unknown vegetables, chicken, red meat, capenta (very tiny fish), and worms (similar to mopani worms). The latter did not go down too well with the foreigners, but Eulalie being an anthropologist, attempted to overcome the culture shock! It did however, help to cover the worm's eyes with the fingers while bringing it to the mouth, with the mind racing to generate enough courage to actually chew and swallow it!

From Lusaka the group drove through beautiful countryside to Kitwe, a large town in the Copperbelt. Along the road in the rural areas people sell fruit and vegetables, wild honey and firewood, wooden doors and furniture, and giant white mushrooms which on average are the size of a dinner plate. However, nothing prepared the Unisa delegates for the giant mushroom they came across just as the motorist who bought it was about to load it into his car. It was the size of an umbrella! On this particular road, academic concepts seemed to acquire new meanings, with the order of 'degrees' being somewhat reversed. For instance, the Unisa academics realised that to avoid becoming a MA (Master of Accidents), one first has to obtain a PhD (a degree in Pothole Dodging). Luckily most of the other motorists as well as the officials at the numerous road blocks did not have a BA (Bad Attitude)!

In Kitwe, as was the case in Lusaka, the group was too busy to explore much of the town and surrounding areas. People came from all over to obtain more information about Unisa. One afternoon on their way to the supermarket a lady tried desperately to sell the group grasshoppers for their lunch, but this time no one wanted to try the 'delicacy'!

Then it was back to Lusaka for the flight back to South Africa. The group had time to visit the famous Soweto market where one can buy literally anything (new and secondhand). Goods are displayed alongside and on top of each other, and include clothes, vegetables and traditional medicine, music tapes and shoes, suitcases and raw fish, cosmetics and meat from recently slaughtered animals, cool-drinks and wedding-dresses, to name a few. Here the group bought a snack of barbecued termites (relatively tasty)!

All in all, the trip was a very successful marketing exercise. As regards the degree programs offered by the Faculty of Arts, by far the most popular interest was in community development/developmental studies within the broader field of Human and Social Studies. This puts anthropology firmly on the priority list and we look forward to illustrating the valuable and essential contribution of our discipline to development and growth of Africa as a whole.

THE JOINT AASA/SASCA CONFERENCE

From 9 to 11 April 2001, our Department hosted the Joint Conference of the two existing associations for anthropology in Southern Africa, namely the Association for Anthropology in Southern Africa (AASA) and the South African Society for Cultural Anthropologists (SASCA). A historic occasion in the history of anthropology in South Africa, the conference saw the dissolving of these two associations, and their amalgamation into a single association known as Anthropology Southern Africa (ASA). The initiative was a joint venture of the two associations and marked the beginning of a new era for anthropology in Southern Africa. Not only does the establishment of a single association enhance the credibility of anthropology in our country and the region as a whole, but it also allows anthropologists to speak with 'one voice' as it were, following healthy debates about matters which are of both anthropological and national significance.

The following persons were elected as members of the Management Committee of the new association:

Office bearers

Prof Mike De Jongh (Unisa): President
Prof John Sharp (University of Pretoria): Vice-president
Prof Louis Vorster (Dept of Indigenous Law, Unisa): Secretary
Prof Henk Pauw (University of Port Elizabeth): Treasurer

Additional members

Dr Eulalie van Heerden (Unisa)
Prof Robin Palmer (Rhodes University)
Dr Diana Gibson (University of the Western Cape)
Ms Pearl Sithole (Natal)

The theme of the conference was 'Anthropology's Challenge for Southern Africa', and, in addition to hosting international specialists and trying to achieve unity in anthropology in Southern Africa, its aim was to address current issues and problems in the discipline and in the region. Discussions accommodated both theoretical and applied perspectives. The conference afforded anthropologists a valuable opportunity to meet and establish networks, as well as exchange ideas regarding developments in the discipline and developing its relevance in contemporary Southern Africa.

Highlights of the program included the operating address by Prof Cheryl de lay Rey, Chief Executive Officer of the NRF who emphasised the importance of research and development in the social sciences and humanities in South Africa. Prof De lay Rey's presentation was followed by key note addresses by Prof Francis Nyamnjoh of the Department of Sociology at the University of Botswana, Gaborone, and Prof Adam Kuper of Brunel University in the United Kingdom. Prof Nyamnjoh emphasised that much is to be gained by going beyond the traditional western explanations of witchcraft and occult practices as realities in Africa, and that popular understandings of witchcraft complement the western explanations. Prof Nyamnjoh argued for a more rounded conception of reality that accommodates both the visible and invisible dimensions of our world in attempts to understand the relationship between witchcraft and development. The way in which people understand such phenomena he said, depends upon their theoretical and methodological frames of reference.

Prof Kuper referred to the unique position of South Africa as having two major traditions of anthropology. Despite polarisation between these two trends, South African anthropologists generally addressed (and still do) issues which were shaped by policies and the ideology of the state. Much of the anthropological discussion in South Africa therefore focusses on issues emerging from apartheid. Prof Kuper asked the essential question whether the new 'national policy agenda' of South Africa will determine the direction of anthropological discourse in the 'new' South Africa.

The welcoming address given by Prof Mandla Makhanya, Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of South Africa, during the reception held on 9 April, set the scene for the lively and stimulating presentations which followed during the three parallel sessions over the next two days. Subthemes of the conference included The State of Anthropology, Indigenous Knowledge, South African Archaeological Heritage, Population Mobility, Contemporary Cultural Studies, Identity, Tourism, and various topics relating to health care, including HIV/Aids. Members of our Department who presented papers were Mike de Jongh (Deconstruct, Reconstruct or Self-destruct: The State of Anthropology in Southern Africa), Frik de Beer (Indigenous Knowledge and Local Perceptions of Biodiversity), Stephné Herselman ('Uneasy Bedfellows': Sociocultural Alienation as Explanatory Framework for Employee Disassociation) and Andrew Salomon and Sid Miller (Anthropological Involvement in South African Heritage Management: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Material and Sociocultural Issues). The range of themes left many delegates with the difficult decision of having to weigh up sessions against each other, deciding which to attend, but there is no doubt that the conference was highly successful.

We hope that the conference will have heralded a new era of constructive engagement between anthropologists in South Africa, and will lead to meaningful developments which will assist our discipline to take its rightful place in contributing to the development of the new South African society.

HONG KONG'S HOUSING SOLUTION

En route to the previously mentioned conference in Canada, Eulalie van Heerden and Stephné Herselman stopped over in Hong Kong. On arrival in this incredible city, three images strike the visitor: the magnificent new Chep Lap Kok Airport, opened two years ago on land reclaimed from the sea; the beautiful natural setting of Hong Kong Bay, and the rows and rows of high-rise buildings, some of which are precariously situated on hill-sides, leaving one wondering how the developers ever managed to construct them. Many of these massive concrete towers are blocks of apartments or 'flats', or subsidised public housing provided by the government for Hong Kong's vast population. The apartment buildings are easily distinguished from office blocks by the flapping rows of laundry hanging from bamboo poles protruding from windows or balconies.

Hong Kong is also a city of great contrasts, with modern department stores and hotels standing just around the corner of the bustling shopping areas of old Hong Kong. Here it is possible to hide or get lost in the alleys and narrow streets where rows and rows of shops compete for the patronage of thousands of customers. No one will ever find you there!

The existence of subsidised public housing may be surprising in this obviously capitalist environment, yet Hong Kong's authorities aim to provide a home for everyone in this bustling city, and have also set themselves the task of providing homes for poorer members of society within certain time-frames. This is a remarkable objective if one takes into account the limited land space in the city. The public housing program started in 1953 after a fire destroyed many squatters' shacks, but this was also a time of great privation in the former British colony which had to accommodate large numbers of refugees fleeing from the Communists in mainland China. Something had to be done to accommodate them, and the housing project was the obvious solution.

The subsidised housing blocks offer affordable accommodation for two million of Hong Kong's residents. Over 108,000 people remain on waiting lists, either to buy or rent flats from the authorities. Flats are reserved for persons in 'genuine need' or classified as 'low income' earners, so that for instance, a family of four with a combined income of more than HK$17,700 (approx. R17,700) per month is not eligible for a government subsidy. This decision has however, turned into a contentious matter since private homeowners insist that people not much poorer than themselves are being subsidised while they had to pay the full free market price for their properties. Housing developers as well as private homeowners have seen the value of their properties fall as the Government builds more and more cheap housing. As a result of the objections, plans to build an additional 85,000 flats in the city have been scrapped. Nevertheless, the waiting lists are five-years long, although the government hopes to reduce it to three years by 2005.

These massive public housing estates appear throughout the city. Most of the residents are members of family units, but some tenants are individuals, often immigrants from the mainland. For many, the subsidised blocks are the only alternative to a proper home and provide far better accommodation than what they had known previously. The flats are small. Children sleep on bunks and jackets hang on the backs of chairs. A small kitchen is often hidden behind an alcove, separated from the living area by a curtain. Flats are clean and cosy, and are often decorated with calendars and other ornaments which add to their homeliness.

With Hong Kong's growing population and extremely limited land space, there is a desperate need for housing, and the only place to go is 'up'. Clearly, the public housing developments hurt the city's property market, but other aspects of the situation do make it attractive for the capitalist way of life. Although property and rents are high, prices of other goods and services are comparatively low. If such pricing is to become a permanent feature of Hong Kong's economy, the city's poorer citizens must be assisted to find a decent place to live. While the supply of subsidised housing will be adjusted to the level of private homeowners' protests, public housing is clearly there to stay.

ARCHAEOLOGY STUDENTS VISIT QUADRU

On Monday April, 30 2001, several archaeology students and lecturers from UNISA interrupted their long weekend to visit QUADRU, the Quaternary Dating Research Unit, at the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) in Pretoria. Drs John Vogel and Siep Talma explained the processes of radiocarbon and luminescence dating which are often used to date archaeological sites and artefacts in South Africa. The group was also taken on a conducted tour of this impressive unit.

Tips on what constitutes the most desirable type and amount of material required from archaeologists to obtain a sound date were provided, and the calibration of radiocarbon dates, as well as the role of dendrochronology in this process were clarified. Most of the students - and lecturers - were surprised to hear that besides archaeological samples, QUADRU also deals with the analysis and age determination of ivory, ground water, and even alcohol. Hopefully this educational visit will become another UNISA archaeological tradition.

MUSEUM VISITS BY PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS

During the first semester five groups of primary school learners from Pretoria visited the Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. For an hour and a half, each group, consisting of approximately 50 grade 5 and 6 learners, were instructed by Mr Sidney Miller, Acting Curator of the Museum. He described the purposes of the Museum, namely collection and preservation of artifacts, research, and education, before explaining to the groups aspects of early Southern African 'landmark' history, including the Stone Age, the more recent Iron Age, followed by the arrival of whites about 350 years ago. The learners also participated in a 'project' in which they could select and then draw four artifacts from the Museum's collection. The nature and purpose of the artifacts had been explained to them so they understood the meaning and significance of the objects which they drew.

We intend to extend this program and would like to invite other schools to visit us since the program falls within the ambit of outcomes based education. Should you be interested or know of any schools which may be interested, please inform them of the program and contact Mr Sid Miller at telephone number (012) 429-6297 or by email at millesm@unisa.ac.za to arrange a date and time for a visit. Alternatively, you can contact Mrs Ina baker, Department Secretary, at (012) 429-6418 or by email at bakerlk@unisa.ac.za. A fee of R3.00 is charged per learner.

CHANGES IN PERSONNEL

At the end of January Mrs Janine Janse van Vuuren, temporary junior lecturer in anthropology, resigned to follow a course in computer programming. In her place we welcome Ms Cherre Hill who will share responsibility for teaching SKA201-3. Cherre has just completed her BA Hons degree in our department, having obtained a distinction for her research article entitled Sgodi Phola: a Sense of Place. Spatio-cultural organization of Dwellings in a Temporary Informal Settlement. Dr Eulalie van Heerden and Prof Mike de Jongh were her supervisors. We congratulate her on this excellent achievement.

LAPALALA WILDERNESS EXCURSION 16-18 MARCH 2001

by Jan van Niekerk

'Lets do a weekend excursion to Lapalala Wilderness in the Waterberg region together with ROCUSTOS. Sounds like a swell idea! Friday afternoon, meet at African Window Museum. Friendly new faces, introductions and great expectations.'

Mr Clive Walker, the director of Lapalala, invited ROCUSTOS to explore some of the reserve's archaeological and rock art sites. He and his wife started Lapalala some 20 years ago with the idea of using it for educational purposes for school children. The 36 000 ha of almost unspoiled nature is probably the only place left in South Africa where such a venture is possible. The more than 40 000 children that have completed his wilderness schools can vouch for this. Black and white rhino, sable antelope, and any other imaginable bushveld animal can be found there with the exception of lion and elephant (thank goodness!) The biodiversity of this area as well as the importance of its cultural heritage are demonstrated to groups in real life situations. It is not often that one gets the chance to touch a black rhino.

Lapalala, one of South Africa's best-kept secrets, revealed a few of her beauties to the privileged few that went on the excursion. Rock art known as 'Late Whites' as well as the earlier drawings by San people were seen. For some it was their first experience of seeing real drawings. The look on Rex's and Josephine's (from England) faces, gave expression to all our feelings when we realized that some of those drawings could be as old as 10-15 000 years!

Two very rich Iron Age sites were also visited, of which Malore ('Mountain of Ash') was the most impressive with its stone walls on top of the mountain. The interesting way in which Sidney (Miller, Acting Curator of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Unisa) explained the social patterns and layout of the site revealed the way of life of early residents. This was difficult to imagine at first, but when we began to use our imagination, and with Sidney's help and questions from the group, an almost clear picture of how these people lived 1000 years ago could be formed.

The other site on the eastern side of Lapalala is typical of many Iron Age sites. Remainders of mud huts, grinding stones, small fragments of iron and of course many potsherds could be seen. What was fascinating was the way in which we could form a picture of the living environment and ways of life of early inhabitants by interpreting just a handful of evidence provided by Sidney and the field guides. It was clear that this site could reveal many more interesting things, if only we had the time to explore it.

A sincere word of thanks to our two knowledgeable field guides, Marlene and Elias, to Sidney and Ansie who organized the outing and last but not least, to Clive Walker for making this wonderful resource available to ROCUSTOS. We had the privilege of presenting Mr Walker with a contribution to one of his ongoing projects, namely his research on one of South Africa's great poets who hunted in the area and who was greatly inspired by the region. I conclude with a poem written by Eugene N Marais. Having experiencing the cloudburst on Sunday afternoon, I am sure we can all relate to this wonderful piece of literature (apologies to English-speaking readers).

LIED VAN DIE ReëN (van Krom Joggom Konterdans)

Eers oor die bergtop loer sy skelm,
En haar oë is skaam;
En sy lag saggies.
En van ver af wink sy met die een hand.

Haar armbande blink en haar krale skitter;
Saggies roep sy.

Sy vertel die winde van die dans.
En sy nooi hulle uit, want die werf is wyd en die bruilof groot.

Die grootwild jaag uit die vlakte.
Hulle dam op die bulttop.
Wyd rek hulle die neusgate,
En hulle sluk die wind;
En hulle buk, om haar fyn spore op die sand te sien.

Die kleinvolk diep onder die grond hoor die sleep van haar voete,
En hulle kruip nader en sing saggies:
"Ons Ousus! Ons Ousus! Jy't gekom! Jy't gekom!"

En haar krale skud,
Tot die oudstes op die slaapmatte wakker skrik in die nag
En gesels in die donker;

En haar koperring blink in die wegraak van die son.
Op haar voorkop is die vuurpluim van die berggier;
Sy trap af van die hoogte;

Sy sprei die vaal karos met altwee arms uit;
Die asem van die wind raak weg.
O, die dans van ons Ousus!

From: Dwaalstories Eugene N Marais (1959)

(Note: ROCUSTOS Friends of Rock Art is an independent society concerned with the protection, appreciation and study of rock art in all its facets.)

LETTERS FROM STUDENTS

Towards the end of last year, we received the following letters from students and with their permission, place them here. If you would like to comment on them, please do so and indicate whether you would be willing to have your correspondence placed in the second Newsletter which will appear later this year. (Letters are partially edited or unedited.)

The Editor,

I wrote my first anthropology exam this year. During the year I found the lectures a lot of work but enjoyed submitting the assignments and found it a challenge, I just could not understand why we did not have any workshops in Bellville. I felt as though I was all alone and there was no one else in the Cape doing Anthropology. To my surprise on the day that I wrote there were a lot of students writing Anthropology. Why are we neglected here in the Cape?

hile writing my exam I suddenly had the most fantastic experience, the whole subject just fell into place and I suddenly realised what an important subject it is and how much I had actually learnt, this made the whole experience of writing the exam a fun one. ( I only hope that after that experience I have passed.)

Keep up the good work and I am really looking forward to doing my second year (if I pass).

Mary Austin
CENTRAL RESEARCH FACILITY

Editor's comment: Regretfully we have too few students in the Cape to justify the expense of sending lecturers for discussion classes. The University has set criteria for holding discussion classes, and unfortunately we do not meet all of these.

Hi there

Firstly, thank you for the interesting newsletter - it really gives one a sense of community to have such a letter on a regular basis. At least one feels that one is not operating in a vacuum.

I have just completed my first year anthropology, as part of my BA in psychology and am finding the combination extremely useful. I am also taking Sociology and will decide next year whether SKA or SOS will be my other major. (I've already completed PSYIII)

Just a remark on the Study Guide for SKA100 - I found it rather inconvenient that there was no glossary or key concepts index included in this study guide. Often when one wants to quickly look up something one has forgotten, it is simpler to go straight to such a glossary. But perhaps that was deliberate and a way of forcing us to do this ourselves? I did this as I was doing my final revision and now have a rather comprehensive list, based on the key concepts identified as important at the end of each module. This list of key concepts (at the end of each module) however did not help when trying to find some of the indigenous terms identified as important in your last tutorial letter, which involved reading the entire study guide through again, to find. Perhaps this could be remedied.

If you would find this list I compiled at all helpful, please let me know and I can e-mail it to you. I have separated it by chapter, in alphabetical order but can combine it and sort it alphabetically for the whole study guide (excluding the sections we did not have to cover of course)

The second comment on the study guide is that printing the anecdotes or case studies in grey almost gives the feeling that these sections are of lesser importance. Yet some of the most important facts were to be found in these sections and some of the exam questions came from them. Perhaps in future these can be highlighted in a different way (I know the use of colour would be too expensive) but perhaps the use of italics or segregation by means of a box would have the desired effect. I am no longer so young that the lightness of the print did not pose a visual problem as well. I can imagine that to those students who do not have access to adequate lighting in their homes or dwellings, the light print must have posed a problem.

Thank you for the interest in our studies and I look forward to receiving my results! and to continuing my study of anthropology next year.

Esmé Edge
E D Edge, Student No 3075-705-3

Editor's comment: We are grateful for comments such as these since they help us improve our tutorial material. The Study guide in question was phased out at the end of 2000, but issues such as those mentioned can be considered by the lecturers as they prepare new study guides.

We asked one of our Honours students, Mr Simon Waldherr, to share with us his experiences of living in Oaxaca in Mexico and studying through Unisa. We hope you enjoy reading the descriptions taken from his correspondence to Dr Van Heerden:

Dear Dr Van Heerden!

I was born in Hamburg, Germany but was raised in the southern part of Germany, that is in Bavaria, close to Nurnberg. I have been living permanently in Oaxaca since 1989, and been involved in my work since January 1992.

I do not have a job in the conventional sense, that is being employed in an office, etc, but own and work in a small enterprise that produces and sells German delicatessen, such as German sausages, different types of ham, smoked chicken and salmon etc. These things are manufactured in a traditional way, either without using preservatives or only a small amount. We also sell our products, either to private households or restaurants. The business is quite small, mainly because producing in a natural way does not allow for mass production.

Why Mexico? Well, I liked the idea of living in a place that was not as industrialized as Germany or Western Europe, a place where the pace of living was not dictated by the clock. Besides, Mexico in general and Oaxaca in particular are very beautiful and you can still find unspoiled places, although modernity with all its negative effects has had its impact on Oaxaca, especially in the last 5 years.

I started my studies with Unisa in 1991, and hope to finish my Hons BA in anthropology this year. I decided to study through Unisa, since I wanted to live in Mexico, but at the same time study. This is/was very difficult with Mexican universities and their academic level was/is more than doubtful. There are good universities in Mexico, but these are privately owned and therefore very expensive. I had also tried previously to study through distance education with a German university, the Fernuniversitaet Hagen. However, for several reasons, among them great technical difficulties, I had to abort this enterprise after the first semester. Then I learned about Unisa through a friend, the then coordinator of the language center of the local university, who intended to do a PhD through Unisa. I decided to enroll with Unisa and despite all odds (again technical problems, such as the study material arriving late), it worked out.

So I decided to do my bachelors degree with Unisa, and I have to say that the experience was on the whole positive and rewarding for me as a student. I am convinced that under the given circumstances it would not have been possible for me to complete my degree with another university, simply for technical reasons. In my experience the lecturers were almost always understanding of the problems of distance learning and supported me, so that I could always continue my studies.

All in all my study experience has been very positive and I consider myself privileged to be able to study with Unisa. I read a lot of critique these days about Unisa, especially by students in SA, but for me as an overseas student a lot of this critique misses the point and does not acknowledge the fact sufficiently that Unisa offers a unique chance for people who work and study simultaneously, thus enabling them to obtain an academic degree. Secondly I understand that distance education demands more of you, since most of the times there is no peer support or direct contact with the lecturer, except through the written medium. This is definitely a disadvantage, but on the other hand if the university is not exclusive (and therefore expensive) then you will study with hundreds of people lacking the necessary privacy. Thus, in my opinion it is necessary to balance both aspects, and in my case I have been quite comfortable studying the way I did. This may be due to my personal idiosyncrasies, since I like to read a lot, and perhaps Unisa's method of tuition also matches my personal interests. Thus all in all I think that Unisa is a good institution and should receive more support and less critique especially from the students and groups foreign to the university.

Why anthropology? My original interest was with universal history, but since Unisa offers only ancient history I did not pursue this line further. I came to anthropology in my second year of studies and liked it, since it added a different perspective to my studies. First of all I think anthropology as an academic subject fills a gap between the other social sciences, which usually focus on a macro-scale. Anthropology always focuses on the human [being] in [his/her] immediate context and environment, and poses a healthy counterweight to a world that becomes more and more abstract and dehumanized (as we can see in the increase in violence). I sincerely hope that anthropology will make a difference and brings back into our consciousness the human aspect, which is now so lacking in modern life. Second I personally like the small scale focus of anthropology, its qualitative methods, its emphasis on the interrelatedness of all human behaviour. Again, this is absent in the other social sciences, be it history, sociology, or political sciences, which are concerned with humans, but no longer with the individual him-/herself. I hope that the other social sciences can profit from anthropological lessons and assimilate some its profound insights.

As I mentioned earlier the anthropological perspective opened up another dimension, since it forces you to focus on microprocesses and contextualize your experiences, knowledge etc continuously. History or sociology are also contextual but focus on macroprocesses, events and structures and the human perspective is often lost in this way. I am convinced that anthropology has a lot to offer in this field, to the other social sciences and to the natural ones such as biomedicine as well. The fact that qualitative research methods, which are the hallmark of socio-cultural anthropology are now adopted by the other social sciences, is a sign of the continuing relevance of anthropology.

Mexico is definitely a country which has always interested anthropologists, perhaps because there are [people from] so many different ethnies [ethnic groups], and vivid syncretistic cultural forms. Thus you may well see and experience what you had only read in a study guide or textbook. Insights derived from anthropology have helped me into a greater understanding of the diversity of human lifestyles and cultures and have also helped me to become aware of my own ethnocentrism and hopefully to overcome it. I would say that my studies in anthropology have contributed considerably to a change in my worldview, perhaps to a greater openness and tolerance to people who are different, thus not (or at least trying not to) judge them for merely not being European. This has not always been easy, since Mexico, although it is considered a threshold country, is very different from my own cultural background. Thus you come to see strange habits as a distinct cultural expression and not something that is to be rejected.

As an example I could give Mexican's attitude towards time. In the western world you live by the clock and punctuality is everything. Yet there are other approaches to time in general, as you learn once you live in Mexico. Time in the western sense does exist, but it does not matter. Thus you learn about a completely different time perspective, and this shows you that your perception is not the only one. Understanding this relativity helps you to learn more of the other culture and ultimately yourself, surely something that anthropologists would encourage.

On the one hand Mexico is undergoing tremendous change, which also puts considerable strain on the country. You see more and more cars, people dressed in a western fashion which emulate the western life style. There are however, more serious and negative aspects of this change and modernity. One negative aspect that comes to mind is the excessive growth of Oaxaca, due to the population explosion. Oaxaca is the capital of the state of Oaxaca, with approximately 1,6 million inhabitants. The growth of the city has been tremendous since the turn of the century, when the official figure was given as 27 thousand people! Although the historical center has been restored so that it is more attractive for tourists, there is very little money spent on the barrios [informal settlements] on the fringes of Oaxaca, to develop the necessary infrastructure, such as paved roads and a sewage system. Housing is often very inadequate and the crime rate is soaring in these districts. On the other hand there are more and more cars, buses etc with concomitant traffic congestions, since the road system has not been expanded sufficiently. All in all one is under the impression that the 'system' is under great strain, and may even collapse in the future. All this is of course related to two factors: the demographic explosion and globalization. Both are causally linked. The rapid urbanization and migration from rural areas (some parts of the interior are virtually deserted, with only old people remaining) are symptomatic of the modernization process that Mexico is undergoing currently.

The birth rate is still very high (two percent annually) and this exacerbates all problems, since there are not enough jobs, schools, housing etc. At the same time the globalization process has lead to a restructuring of the Mexican economy, with more and more foreign capital entering the country, an increasing debt burden etc. Thus although people leave their villages in search for work and ultimately a better life they usually encounter only misery once they settle in the cities. Job opportunities are restricted, wages are low, and there is little demand for unskilled labour in general. People are often forced to accept dangerous and poorly paid jobs. Since women often have to raise their many children alone, and jobs are even more limited for them, they are forced to exchange sex for money or other favours, accept multiple partners [who are] dependent on them. This has lead to unsafe practices and a steep rise in the incidence of STDs such as HIV/Aids. Many of these people die of the disease undiagnosed since they cannot even afford to visit a doctor regularly, lack health insurance and basic knowledge about the disease. There is little basic and applied research concerning the prevention of Aids among the most marginalized (who constitute the highest risk group), despite government efforts to stem the Aids epidemic. There is an identifiable need for research into the complexity of the cultural transmission of STDs, and the development of strategies that help people identify the risks and protect themselves against them. Given the fact that the health department suffers a chronic shortage of funds and qualified personnel, the solution lies in the participation of the people themselves to address their needs and learn to protect themselves against the Aids pandemic. Since women are the weakest link in the chain of transmission, empowerment strategies have to be directed at them that allow the reduction of their risks.

Another unintended consequence of the modernity process is the lack of adequate housing. These people, who have migrated from the sierra (the mountainous interior, and the most marginalized region in the state of Oaxaca) have no other option [but] to settle on a previously unoccupied piece of land, and make it their own (squatter rights), thus contributing to the tremendous growth of Oaxaca. This growth has not been orderly or planned, and people lack even the most fundamental services such as a regular water supply, so that the poorest of the poor have to buy the water for horrendous prices. The problem of water shortage will increase even more in the future, since there is no way currently of recycling the sewage waters, which are allowed to flow into Oaxaca's rivers uncleared, thus polluting open water sources and in turn contributing to infectious diseases of gastrointestinal nature, which can also reach epidemic proportions.

These are definitely negative aspects of the modernity process. On the other hand public money is spent on prestige projects, such as the restoration of Oaxaca's baroque churches, to attract foreign tourists and to create government paid jobs for a few highly skilled people. Unfortunately there is relatively little research on this aspect; the anthropological perspective with its emphasis on culture and culture change could definitely be useful in shedding some light on this whole interrelated complex.

Oaxaca, and its people, still cherish their traditional lifestyles. This is expressed in the annual guelaguetza, which is a competition among the seven regions of Oaxaca for the best dance performance and traditional dress. Of course this has also become a great tourist attraction, but it also serves to maintain the cultural forms that reach back to the period of conquest by the Spaniards.

There are many villages near Oaxaca, which since the Spanish conquest have specialized in the production of certain items such as weaving and pottery etc. These productive efforts still exist, but items manufactured in a traditional way are replaced more and more by modern artifacts (synthetic clothes, plastic dishes etc), thus leading to the gradual disappearance of these traditions in the valley of Oaxaca. Until recently the population of Oaxaca consisted mostly of peasants, with very little trade and commercial activities and a complete absence of industry. Thus although Oaxaca exhibits a rich cultural variety of distinct life forms, the material aspects of life have been rather neglected.

This may be due to the aftermath of the Mexican revolution when the hacienda system was dismantled by the victorious revolutionaries, this [system] having been the main unit of cultural and material production. Ruins of the haciendas can still be seen in the vicinity of Oaxaca, mute witnesses of a past epoch (such as Monte Alban for the prehispanic period). Historically Oaxaca has lost its significance as a center for political decision-making as it had been since the Spanish conquest, mainly because the last dictator Don Porfirio Diaz was of Oaxacan origin. After the revolution, which began in the north, was successfully completed, Oaxaca fell into disgrace with the new men in power, and lost its importance as a political and economic center of Mexico. In this respect there is little change, with the commercial and industrial centers now being Mexico City and the northern part of Mexico. However, until recently this has enabled the indigenous populations to maintain their traditional way of life more fully than in other parts of Mexico, but also contributed to its marginalization on a national level.

With the advent of modernity, the existence of the various cultural forms, developed over a period of roughly 500 years and maintained ever since, are for the first time seriously challenged if not threatened with extinction. Perhaps anthropology can be part of the solution and help maintain a unique diversity of cultures. On the other hand Mexicans strive to conserve their cultural uniqueness and often 'Mexicanize' foreign customs, adding something peculiarly Mexican or Oaxacan to it, and thus coping with it. As an example there are the virgenes (de guadalupe or de juquila), or small altars which you will find in many buses and taxis and which, in the belief of the driver, will protect him and the passenger(s) from possible traffic accidents.

Syncretistic forms have perhaps found their most vivid and picturesque expression in religion. In anthropological terms, there has been a merging or syncretism of cultural elements, of both prehispanic and European origin. Today most Mexicans are Catholics. However, although the religious elements are the same as in other Catholic parts of the world, syncretism has taken place and can be seen in the worship of saints, which were gods or goddesses in the prehispanic period and which are culturally and geographically circumscribed, i.e. they belong to a particular tribe and area. Further, many of the Christian holidays can be seen as an expression of religious syncretism, for example the day of the dead (all saints day), which combines both indigenous and Spanish religious and cultural elements in a fascinating and colourful way. This holiday aides people in their mourning process and at the same time conserves the memory of the loved ones. People spend two successive nights at the graveyard, where they erect altars and offer flowers, beverages etc to the deceased. This custom is still very much alive, especially in the village where I live and attracts many tourists each year, who come to participate in this unique event.

In my opinion [therefore], religious life in Mexico today still expresses most vividly the merging of two culturally distinct entities (Hispanic and indigenous), whereas in everyday life syncretistic forms are rapidly disappearing especially in the great cities (and Oaxaca has now more than a million inhabitants). Therefore, as modernity has made great inroads into Oaxaca, syncretistic forms are waning as people adopt more and more a westernized lifestyle. This is perhaps best exemplified by the steep increase in the consumption of soft drinks, notably coca cola, which has replaced traditional beverages such as jugos (fruit juice such as orange juice) and agua de frutas (similar to juices, but diluted with water, often with an exquisite flavour). You may find culturally relevant syncretistic forms in the villages outside of Oaxaca, as in traditional dress, festivals, food consumption etc. As a general rule one can say that the further removed from the capital the lesser the influence of modernity becomes and the more traditional cultural patterns are still maintained.

Mexico and the state of Oaxaca possess many interesting archaeological sites, the most famous of which is Monte Alban (the Alban Mound) and which has only been partially excavated. An important part of Mexican cultural forms can be traced to this rich cultural heritage, which in a modified form continues to shape the life and worldview of Mexicans, especially here in the south of Mexico.

Another feature of Mexican culture is its exquisite cuisine, with its many local and regional varieties. Many of the dishes contain both indigenous and European elements, such as spices (notably chilli), vegetables etc. Should you ever have the chance to visit Mexico, you will surely find out for yourself. There is much more to mention, such as the breathtaking landscapes (the sierra), the jungle, the beaches, volcanoes ... Mexico as a country offers many opportunities for anthropological studies as does South Africa. Perhaps in the future I will in turn have the opportunity to work and live in South Africa as an anthropologist and learn for myself about its culture and people.

In the long run the same may happen as in the USA in the last century, namely that the indigenous cultures will disappear or be assimilated into the Mexican mainstream thus losing their unique cultural forms of living. Anthropology should actively contribute by helping to protect and preserve these ways of mankind before it is too late and they all have disappeared. The diversity of culture is a distinguishing mark of mankind, and thus the cultural survival of these groups must be ensured. Anthropology must definitely make a concerted effort by raising this issue to the attention of the general public, and thus avoid the extinction of these unique cultural forms.

As concerns the departmental newsletter, I always enjoy reading it and also read the whole content. At this point, I would like to comment on an article by Dr Herselman about the new practice in undergraduate studies, namely that assignments are no longer obligatory [compulsory]. I would like to mention that, as a long time Unisa student, assignments are extremely important, since they do not only provide feedback, but force you to transform what you have learned and read. Without this exercise, there is no transformation and reflection on the study material, which is critical for an understanding and internalization of the topics. Besides, in my experience exam questions are sometimes, but not always, based on previous assignments, and having done the assignment aids a lot in answering the exam question. Thus I think, that admission to the exams without having done assignments puts these students at a considerable disadvantage, since they have to write the exam, without knowing their strengths and weaknesses (which we all have). In my opinion assignments form an essential part of the study process, although they are sometimes tedious, time consuming and difficult to tackle, especially if you are on your own.

Simon Waldherr
Oaxaca
Mexico

Final editing: Stephné Herselman                      Photography: Andrew Salomon
Layout: Ina Baker

• Current Initiatives in the Department
• Cultural Tourism, Anthropology and Archaeology
• Visit to the Transvaal Museum, Sterkfontein and Swartkrans
• Excavations in the Pilanesberg National Park
• Museum Exhibition
• German Television Program

Current Initiatives in the Department

• We are planning the introduction of a third-year course in Archaeology, possibly in 1999. It is also our intention to restructure the curriculum for Archaeology in such a way as to allow students to take it as a major subject either in the Faculty of Arts or in the Faculty of Science. We have already had a very positive and enthusiatic response to our plans from alumni and currently enrolled archaeology students, and we greatly value their suggestions on the themes which should be included in the curriculum.
• It is important that anthropology and archaeology take up their rightful places in the 'new' South Africa. Both disciplines have much to offer South African society, so we have embarked on an active process of promoting and marketing the disciplines. A Public Relations and Promotion Committee has been established in the Department, with Eulalie van Heerden as chairperson. One of the Committee's aims for this year is to promote anthropology and archaeology amongst school children. Many young people do not know what these disciplines are about or what fields are open to anthropologists and archaeologists once they have completed their studies. Matters such as these will be addressed to audiences of school children later in the year. If you have any ideas in this regard, Dr van Heerden will be pleased to hear from you.
• The relevance of the arts, culture and heritage in the process of transformation of South Africa has in recent times become increasingly important. Our Department is involved in the establishment of a Centre for Arts, Culture and Heritage Development and Research, an inter-disciplinary and inter-faculty initiative to respond constructively and innovatively to the need to promote cultural heritage in South Africa. It has been proposed that the Centre be named after the first democratically elected President of the Republic of South Africa and be known as the 'Nelson Mandela Centre for Arts, Culture and Heritage Studies'. The main aim of the Centre is to provide in-service graduate and post-graduate education and training, and to conduct research in all aspects of arts, culture and heritage based on the changing needs of South Africa.

Cultural Tourism, Anthropology and Archaeology

Through Francois Coetzee our Department is actively involved in this initiative. Francois plans to develop the Pilanesberg National Park into an archaeological tourist destination so that visitors will not only be able to view the Park's scenic beauty and wildlife, but also experience its archaeological history. (Read more about Francois' project later in the Newsletter.You may also contact him directly if you want more information.)

If you wish to know more about Satour's campaign, you may write to:

Isabel Schoeman

Explore South Africa - Culture

Private Bag X164 PRETORIA 0001

Tel: (012) 347 0600 Fax: (012) 45 4816

Visit to the Transvaal Museum, Sterkfontein and Swartkrans

Excavations in the Pilanesberg National Park

Museum Exhibition

German Television Program

• The Sibikwa Community Theatre Project
• A thousand years of anthropology in Trondheim, Norway
• Students in far away places
• The lady from Pilanesberg
• Our ‘representative' in California
• ‘Having a voice': squatter camp children
• Biodiversity in the Northern Province
• Field-trip for third-year students of anthropology
• 'Comrade' Eulalie

The Sibikwa Educational Drama programmes dramatise amongst other topics, English school set works and important themes in South African history. The programmes are designed to bring the subject matter alive and to involve the students in a ‘living-learning' process. They also dramatise life in South African society and their present production, Uhambo, is in this mould. Set in the 1950s, Uhambo tells the story in musical form of a young boy's search for his parents in Johannesburg after the death of his grandmother. The production highlights the effects of apartheid and the migratory laws on the lives of ordinary people. Although not a comedy the production is very entertaining. The enthusiasm and professionalism of the players is outstanding and we highly recommend that you try to attend the performance. The Sibikwa players will be participating in the Standard Bank National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in July. Later in the year however, Uhambo will be staged at the Civic Theatre in Johannesburg.

If you wish to obtain more information about the Total Sibikwa Community Theatre Project or if you are a teacher and wish to arrange for your students to attend a performance of their Educational Drama programme, contact Lindi at Tel: (011) 422-4359; Fax: (011) 421-2346 or write to her at P O Box 3398 Benoni 1500.

A thousand years of anthropology in Trondheim, Norway

Prof de Jongh who presented a paper at a conference In search of the truth: anthropology and the media, was well received throughout his stay and was given unrestricted access to all places and events, and to people in all walks of life. This gave him the opportunity, amongst others, to not only liaise with colleagues in the Department of 'Sosialantropologi' at the local university but also to gain knowledge of the Travellers, Gypsies and the reindeer-farming Sami in northern Norway.

Students in far away places

Wynand (Eduardo) Koch, a Master's student in anthropology, has just completed his first stint of three months of fieldwork in the Peruvian Amazon in South America. He travelled for weeks and for hundreds of kilometres up the tributaries of the Amazon River to stay with and interview shamans (medicine men) who specialize in a variety of herbal medical treatments. At one stage Wynand was invited by a shaman, Don Francisco, to follow the two-week vegetarian diet specified for apprentice shamans. The shamans, some of whom are called ayahuasceros, and their practices have become a dying breed, hence as the topic of Wynand's (or Eduardo, derived from Eduard, as he has become known) Master's research, the shamans and their activities are particularly significant. Wynand was drawn into the research team of an internationally acclaimed bio-physicist, Prof Eleanor Smithwick, based at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America. At Unisa Wynand's supervisor is Dr Chris van Vuuren. During a forthcoming visit to South Africa Wynand will present a slide-talk show on his research at Unisa. If you wish to attend, contact Dr Chris Van Vuuren at (012) 429-6620 for more information.

Britte Eckert from Frankfurt, Germany has applied to register for the DLitt et Phil degree in anthropology. The provisional title of her thesis is Resource Management and Indigenous Knowledge in Transition: A Perspective from the Northern Province of South Africa. Prof Frik de Beer will act as promoter.

Britte recently completed a Master's degree at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, based on research which she conducted in Northern Nigeria. On contract to the European Community she followed up her Master's study with a further project on land tenure among the Hausa and Fulani, Islamic societies in Northern Nigeria. Britte has now turned her interests to South Africa.

The lady from Pilanesberg

The skeleton had been buried in the foetal position, and placed on the left side inside the main chamber of what appeared to be an ant-bear's burrow. Fragments of foetal skeletal material were recovered from the abdominal area of the skeleton, ready proof that the skeleton was that of a young woman. The age of the skeleton was ascertained by radio carbon dating and was calibrated to AD 1213.

Our ‘representative' in California

‘Having a voice': squatter camp children

On Saturday 17 May, sixteen of the children attended a workshop organised by the GUIC team and hosted by the Mayor of Greater Johannesburg, Councillor Isaac Mogase. Four of them presented the views of the children to urban planners, policy makers, organizations dedicated to the betterment of children's lives such as UNESCO and UNICEF, and various NGOs (non-Government Organizations). The workshop was recorded by the Unisa Department of Sound/Video and Photography for purposes of teaching and community development.

The children voiced their most crucial needs as

• being treated with respect rather than disgust by the community
• having improved housing so that, since they sleep on the floor, they don't wake up in pools of water when it rains
• having playground space and a place to do homework
• having toilets and more taps.

If you want more information on the international GUIC research programme, access the Internet at: http://childhouse.uio.no/childwatch/cwi/projects/growing.html

Biodiversity in the Northern Province

Field-trip for third-year students of anthropology

This year our venue for the field-trip is KwaNdebele, formerly a homeland, and now part of Mpumalanga Province. Situated between sixty and one hundred kilometres north of Pretoria, the majority of the area's residents are temporary or permanent migrants who are employed in the Pretoria-Johannesburg region.

The group will be accommodated at the SS Skhosana Nature Reserve and the members of the Mthombeni and Nduli households in Tshaluza and Kameelrivier have agreed to be the ‘guinea pigs' for students on this field-trip. The field-work area is also close to the royal centre of King Mayisha II at KwaMabhoko.

'Comrade' Eulalie

• Learning how to do anthropology: Report on the field-trip for third-year students of anthropology
• Report on the annual field-work excursion for archaeology students
• The 7th Pan-African Anthropological Association Conference
• Aids/HIV infection in South Africa
• Mandate from the Premier of Mpumalanga
• Visit to the Far East
• Good-bye to Welile Khuzwayo

Learning how to do anthropology: Report on the field-trip for third-year students of anthropology

Students, in groups of five, each with an interpreter, visited three households, and had their first taste of participant observation and personal interviewing. Some students were able to investigate a traditional wedding which was in progress. They were allowed to see the bride in isolation, covered in a blanket and seated behind reed mats in her mother-in-law's house while she underwent instruction in what was expected of her in her future role as a married woman, and to taste the food that was specially prepared for her. Preparations were being made for the wedding feast. Two recipes from the wedding feast are given below.

From the street, the students also viewed a colourful and vibrant traditional girl's initiation ceremony taking place in the front yard of a local homestead. The wording of one of the songs which the girls improvised, expressed appreciation of the audience, saying it proved the importance of the event.

Students reported the experience as stimulating and valuable to them personally; they were made aware of their lack of knowledge about everyday matters and customs in the lives of fellow South Africans and had to learn to deal with personal frustrations and occasional personality clashes with members of their teams. The value of the exercise was summed up in one student report-back:

... most of all it brought home the reality and importance of ethical considerations in any field situation in such a way that the literature I've read on the subject has not.

One of the students, Mrs Dot Soll, obtained the wedding feast recipes. We include them here for those of you who enjoy baking!

LETTIE'S WEDDING FEAST RECIPES:

Recipe 1:

1 cup grated carrot, ½ cup raisins or fruit mince, ½ cup margarine, 3 eggs, 3 cups flour, 2 Tbsps baking powder.

METHOD: Mix all together, seal in a strong plastic bag and cook for 1 hour in a pot of boiling water.

Recipe 2:

3 cups flour, 2 eggs, 1 cup syrup, 1 cup raisins, 2 Tbsps baking powder, milk Sauce: 6 cups water, 1 cup sugar, 2 Tbsps vanilla essence OR 2 litres coca cola

METHOD: Mix flour, eggs, syrup, raisins and baking powder with milk to form a stiff dough. In the meantime heat the sauce to boiling. Place the dough in the sauce and cook on top of the stove for 1 hour.

Report on the annual field-work excursion for archaeology students

The 7th Pan-African Anthropological Association Conference

• Gender and Development
• Health and Medicine
• Ethnicity
• Population and Reproductive Health
• The African Family in Crisis
• Political Systems and Processes
• Ecology and the Environment
• Poverty, Rural Development and the Economy

• Prof Onigu Otite (University of Ibadan, Nigeria): Rediscovering Anthropology as an Instrument for Development.
• Prof KE de Graft-Johnson (University of Ghana, Legon): Gender, Family and Development: An Anthropological Overview.
• Prof Maxwell Owusu (University of Michigan, USA): Insider Anthropology: A Re-appraisal.
• Prof Esther Goody (Cambridge University, England): Education and Development.

• The Military, Ethnicity and Democracy in Nigeria
• The Sexual Network of Female University Students and the risk of HIV Contraction
• The place of secret societies in rural democratisation
• Rural poverty in Ghana: the failure of the call on the youth 'to go back to the land'
• The vanishing sexual organ phenomenon in the context of Ghanaian beliefs

Of particular interest was a special symposium involving senior traditional chiefs who focused on The Role of Traditional Institutions in Contemporary Africa. During the symposium they presented persuasive arguments for traditional institutions, especially the chieftainship, to play an integral role in African development.

The anthropologists attending the conference also had the opportunity to go on field trips, one to Kumasi, the heart of Ashanti country, and another to Elmina and Cape Coast where many of the castles used during the dark days of slave trading can be visited. Wherever they went, whether to these outlying areas or to the vibrant downtown market of Accra or just walking around the palm-lined campus of the University of Ghana, the visiting anthropologists came away with one overriding impression of the people of this land of Kwame Nkrumah - they must be the friendliest in the world!

Aids/HIV infection in South Africa

Mandate from the Premier of Mpumalanga

Visit to the Far East

There seem to be few contrasts between eastern and western culture in Hong Kong and Singapore, probably because these cities cater for the needs of world citizens. However, places such as the street markets in certain areas of Hong Kong where the local people shop, mainly for their daily requirements of fresh produce, were an eye-opener to a South African used to buying neatly packaged foodstuffs in a supermarket! Alongside masses of beautiful flowers, strange vegetables and fruits, one finds all kinds of live sea creatures destined to be someone's next meal, while carcasses of various animals, especially pigs and chickens, are cut up right on the pavement!

Thailand is often described as the land of smiles and this is an accurate description. In Bangkok for example, people remain strikingly friendly in spite of huge financial problems due to the depreciation of the Thai currency; the heavy toll on the infrastructure of the city imposed by its large population, and the fact that 9 million people compete daily to make ends meet. The traffic in Bangkok is unbelievable! Six million cars and motorbikes enter the city every day and during peak hours the traffic is so congested that the drivers of the vehicles often switch off their engines at robots since they have to wait so long for the traffic to move again. Bangkok is a place which really activates one's senses in terms of smells, sounds and visual images ( the Buddhist and Hindu temples for instance are beautiful). Rural Thailand is equally fascinating, with the peasants in certain swampy areas living in houses raised on stilts above the water level. The ‘streets' in such villages are canals which means that people use boats to get around town. Fresh produce and other goods are also displayed on canoes at the ‘floating market' where local people and tourists alike do their shopping.

The beautiful island of Bali, a province of Indonesia, is an anthropologist's dream. The cultural traditions of the island provide illustrations for many anthropological principles and theories. In fact it is the setting of that well-known study in symbolic anthropology by American anthropologist, Clifford Geertz, the Balinese cock-fight. In the coastal region of the island which is frequented by tourists there is a vibrant co-existence between western and local food, style of dress, shops etc, while the Balinese culture in all its richness and complexity rules inland. Religion plays an important part in the lives of the Balinese, and ceremonies and flower and food offerings to the gods are daily occurrences. Although the taxis drive fairly slowly and very responsibly, Dr van Heerden found it reassuring to notice the flower offerings for a safe journey placed on the dashboard of the motor car. In the true spirit of being an anthropologist Dr van Heerden tried to experience as much as possible, but when it came to sampling some of Bali's traditional food, such as very spicy strange vegetables mixed with fresh blood, her courage disappeared. Maybe next time!

(Editor's comment: Dr van Heerden's visit to Bali is important for another reason as well. Lecturers responsible for the second course in anthropology are in the process of revising the existing study guides. An ethnographic study of the Balinese will be included as part of the syllabus for SKA202-4 which will be introduced in 1999. Dr van Heerden's first-hand experience of this fascinating island will add an interesting perspective to the study.)

Good-bye to Welile Khuzwayo

• The Fourth Multidisciplinary Health Research Conference, Vancouver, Canada
• Paraguayan Mask Exhibition
• First Nations of Canada
• An ‘Egyptian Experience’
• Postgraduate Students on the Move
• Introducing the new Three-year Program in Archaeology

• The relevance of qualitative methods and techniques in research in health and the delivery of health services and how the findings of such research can influence medical practice and influence the development of health policy.
• Participation by academics who have specialised in nursing science, sociology, social work, anthropology, psychology and in various branches of medicine, emphasised the value of a multidisciplinary forum for the discussion of research findings and thereby promote meaningful discussions of a wide range of topics such as communicable diseases, development of theory, health-care and postmodernism, and the relation between qualitative and quantitative research.
• Health researchers apply a range of methods to achieve the aims of their projects. Participants called for innovation in health research, for the recognition of new approaches in qualitative health research, as well as for the need to publicize the relevance of research findings to promote understanding of problematic issues in health-care and the delivery of health-care services.
• Many of the participants were doctoral students and young researchers who made use of the opportunity to discuss aspects of their research - using other scholars as ‘sounding-boards’ as it were, to test their work.

A representative collection of these masks, from recent celebrations of San Baltazar, will be exhibited at Unisa's Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology, under the joint auspices of the Museum, the Unisa Centre for Latin American Studies, the Embassy of Paraguay, and 'Luis Fernández García Cultural Entrepreneurships'. The exhibition which was opened on Friday, 20 March, will be open to the public in the Theo van Wijk Building, 4th Floor,  Room 160 until 31 October 1998.
 

With their arrival in western Canada in 1792, settlers from western Europe found an advanced culture characterised by skilful carvers who built ocean-going dug-out canoes. The local inhabitants were also skilful weavers who made garments from wool which they obtained from mountain goats and small white dogs which were kept for their coats. Then, as a result of the discovery of gold, a small pox epidemic, the construction of a trans-Canadian railway, industrial and commercial developments, zealous Christian missionaries and other aspects of British colonization, the ancient culture of the local people which had developed over approximately eight centuries was all but destroyed in a relatively short period of time.

The remaining First Nations of the coastal areas of British Columbia have attempted to maintain a complex social and ritual way of life, but little actually remains of their culture. Visible to ‘outsiders’ is the group of totem poles in one of Vancouver’s parks and a collection of archaeological material and ethnographic objects at the Museum of Anthropology on the campus of the University of British Columbia. The ethnographic objects include wooden boxes made in a unique manner by grooving, steaming and bending a single plank of cedar wood. Large bowls and dishes which often have the form of mythical beings were also made. These bowls and dishes
were used during feasts known as potlatches (potlatch literally means ‘to give’) which formed a central part of the existence of every community. During a potlatch gifts were given by a host to his guests who were present to participate in marriage ceremonies and ceremonies in honour of the dead, dedication of houses and raising of totem poles. Potlatches were banned between 1888 and 1951 because they were regarded as ‘satanic’ by colonial authorities. To-day pole-raising ceremonies are again accompanied by potlatches.

Traditionally totem poles were either free-standing or formed part of the structure of a house. The poles were erected in honour of deceased chiefs, but they also symbolised their owner’s status, lineage and clan identity, as well as the resources and territories they claimed as their own. Poles associated with different groups can be identified by their carvings, but the meaning of the symbolism of the figures carved into the wood is not apparent to everyone.

The establishment of Indian Reserves in Canada was a highly controversial matter. Today the control over resources and traditional land is the subject of ongoing legal argument across the country. Many First Nations people adopted ‘western’ names, but this is changing as people once again use indigenous names. In addition, the former names of languages and ethnic groups, which were anglicized, are also being recalled in a process of re-establishment of a once proud identity and heritage. In the forefront of this movement is the emergence of an art tradition which symbolically depicts the history, ritual significance and clan origin of the First Nations. In many of these art works Raven features prominently. The new art tradition also serves as a reminder of the importance of cultural understanding and tolerance.
 

The Krugers’ trip to Egypt commenced with a visit to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo where they saw mummies dating back thousands of years as well as the treasures of King Tut. The citadel in Cairo, erected as a fortress in 1176 to fight the Crusaders, served as the seat of government for almost 800 years. Subsequent rulers added mosques and palaces within its walls, the most famous of the mosques being the Turkish-style Mohammed ali Mosque where visitors must wear long garments to cover their bare arms and legs and remove their shoes before entering.

At the Khan El Khalili Bazaar, the largest in the Middle East (possibly in the world), the visitors sharpened their bargaining skills and shopped for fascinating goods. A special occasion was dinner at the Naguib Mahfouz Restaurant where to the amusement of others in the restaurant, guests may try their hand at smoking the waterpipe. A visit to a papyrus factory, where making of papyrus is demonstrated, was included in the tour itinerary.  Also of interest at the factory is the world’s most famous papyrus document - The Final Judgement.

From Cairo the Krugers continued to Luxor. Here they boarded a river boat and sailed up the Nile River to Aswan (a distance of 240 kilometres). En route they visited the tomb of King Rameses IX in the Valley of the Kings, as well as a great number of Temples, including the Queen Hatshepsut Temple. It was here that tourists were gunned down by Muslim fanatics. In fact,  this incident occurred the day after the Krugers had visited the Temple.

The tour continued to the High Dam on the Nile river, one of the world’s outstanding engineering feats of this century; the granite quarries and the temple of Philae. At Aswan the visitors embarked on a Felucca boat tour. The last night on the river boat was enlivened by a Nubian folklore show where Nubian dances were performed and songs depicting aspects of the culture of Upper Egypt were sung. For the occasion the visitors dressed in their Galiya outfits.

From Aswan the tour returned to Cairo, for one of its highlights, namely a visit to the Sphinx and the Pyramids at Giza. Here the tourists rode on the backs of camels and took part in a treasure hunt in the Western Desert in four wheel-drive land cruisers. This was followed by a magnificent night-time ‘Sound and Light‘ show performed at the foot of the Pyramids of Giza.

Mrs Kruger also pointed out that Egypt has an unemployment rate of 25% in urban areas and 40% in rural areas. There is no ‘middle class’ as such - Egyptians are either wealthy or poor. Apartments in the poor areas of Cairo, one of the world’s megacities, do not have glass windows and are very small. Apartment blocks are characterised by hundreds of television aerials! In a cemetery in a poor district of Cairo houses are built on graves of forefathers. For each daughter an additional section is added to a house where she will eventually live once she is married. On top of these sections a reed structure is erected where people sleep during the hot summer months.
 
 

Britta’s study is in the field of ecological anthropology and focuses on the contribution which the application of  indigenous knowledge, together with western initiatives concerning resource management and sustainable development, can make to check the deterioration of the natural environment in the Northern Province.  Britta  has already completed the first three months of her fieldwork despite sweltering heat, but, she says, the wonderful co-operation she has received from the Langa of Mapela, north of Potgietersrus, has more than compensated for the 'unfriendly’ weather.

We wish Britta success and look forward to hearing about her experiences in the field and reading the outcomes of her research Wynand Koch and Jackey Wouters, both registered for a Master’s degree in our Department, are planning  to conduct research in the Peruvian Amazon during July and August this year. Their
research will focus on contemporary shamanism, and they will endeavour to assist contemporary shamans (medicine men) develop new models of coping within a western-oriented environment and a changing society. Shamans with all their empirical knowledge, are on the verge of disappearing, so Wynand and Jackey will also investigate ways of presenting a vegetalista (a type of shaman) to the outside world as a person of exceptional knowledge, and of unmistakable importance in the study of ethnobotany, ethnomedicine and transpersonal studies.

Wynand Koch has been conducting  research on shamanism in the Peruvian Amazon since 1996. Jackey Wouters is a junior lecturer in anthropology and shares responsibility for the first-year course.
 
 

The first course offers an introduction to the scope, aims and methods of archaeology. Students are introduced to the aims and interdisciplinary nature of archaeological research, the nature of the archaeological record,  methods employed in locating archaeological sites, the preservation of organic and inorganic material in archaeological deposits, the most important relative and chronometric dating techniques and guidelines for the classification and analysis of material cultural remains.

Also part of the first course is an overview of Southern African prehistory, from the earliest hominids about three million years ago to the beginning of the colonial era. This includes a discussion of the environment during the Pleistocene and the Holocene, the Early and the Middle Stone Age inhabitants of Southern Africa,  Later Stone Age hunter-gatherers and the prehistory of the San, the Khoekhoen and the archaeological evidence for the advent of herding at the Cape, the settlement and expansion of farming and metal-working communities  (Bantu-speakers)  in Southern Africa during the Iron Age.

The second course consists of two papers: the first paper comprises a discussion of fieldwork techniques and laboratory analyses in archaeology, as well as the way in which the research data can be used in the reconstruction and interpretation of past lifeways and cultural patterns. The following themes are covered: the mapping and surveying of archaeological sites, excavation techniques, curation of archaeological finds and collections, classification and analysis of material cultural remains, for example stone artefacts, pottery, metal objects and glass beads, floral and faunal analyses, the reconstruction and interpretation of prehistoric diets and subsistence patterns, as well as the study of settlement patterns and social organisation.

The second paper focuses on human origins and evolution. In it the archaeological and physical- anthropological evidence for human evolution in Africa and other parts of the world are discussed. Themes included are the theory of evolution, the principles of genetics, biological classification systems, the relation between humans and fossil and modern primates, models for human evolution, the fossil evidence for human evolution,  the Australopithecinae, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, the Neandertals and Homo sapiens.

The third course consists of three papers. The first paper on the theory and practice of archaeology will deal with the historical development of the discipline and the main trends of thought and theoretical perspectives currently distinguished in archaeology (these include the culture-historical approach, processual and postprocessual archaeology, structuralism and cognitive archaeology).  The second section of the paper concerns applied archaeology, comprising themes such as  heritage legislation and conservation, cultural resource management,
archaeotourism and contract archaeology.

Paper 2 deals with selected topics from Southern African archaeology. In it major issues and themes in the archaeological study of  the prehistory and early history of  hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, farmers and colonists in Southern Africa are dealt with. More specifically this includes a discussion of the study of the meaning of the rock art of the San, as well as that of Iron Age farmers, social relations among the San and their archaeological markers, views on cultural chronologies and migrations during the Early Iron Age, explanations for the emergence and decline of early states such as Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe, the combination of
archaeological data and oral traditions in the reconstruction of the later prehistory of the Venda, the Sotho-Tswana and the Nguni, and historical-archaeological studies of the impact of  slavery and colonial expansion.

The third paper focuses on selected topics in the broad field of world archaeology. The first part of the paper comprises a discussion of  the spread and way of life of hunter-gatherers around the world from the Lower Palaeolithic to the Mesolithic. Since other papers focus on the Stone Age of Africa, the emphasis is on early human adaptation and cultural development outside Africa. Themes discussed include the spread of Homo sapiens populations throughout Europe and Asia, their settlement and development in America and Australia, the way of life of Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers, as well as increased cultural complexity during the Mesolithic.

The second part of the paper comprises a discussion of  the  origin of  food production and the development of complex societies (states and civilizations) in different parts of the world. This includes a discussion of theories on the origin of the domestication of plants and animals, the archaeological evidence for the advent and development of food production in various parts of the world, amongst others the Near East, Europe, Asia and America, theories on the origin of complex societies (states and cities) and the archaeological evidence for the origin, development and nature of complex societies in Europe, Asia, Mesopotamia, North Africa and America.

Practical training in archaeological research techniques will be provided during discussion classes, visits to archaeological sites and departmental excavations.
 
 

• Postmodernism
• Outstanding achievements by lecturers
• News of former students
• Discovering our roots
• The Hindu wedding
• The Bible according to kids
• Lecturers’ research
• Letter from a student

Postmodernism literally means ‘after modernism’, but that does not help us very much unless we know the meaning of ‘modernism’. Both modernism and postmodernism refer to particular trends of thought; moods or frames of mind in which people view life and society; a process in contemporary society, or a particular methodology, meaning a way of interpreting phenomena. This means of course that it should be possible to discern particular features or phenomena that can be described as ‘modern’ or ‘postmodern’. For instance, typical of modernism are the views that people are free to think rationally; that they are autonomous and individualistic beings, and able to make up their own minds free of restrictions imposed on them by culture or society. Modernism is also characterised by the belief that societies are destined to develop into ‘perfect’ units through the use of technology and science, and by the introduction of democracy.

In contrast with modernism, postmodernism regards people as social beings or as products of their culture (which means that they are not autonomous, although they may think they are); all forms of reason are influenced by bias or by ideas and beliefs inherent in the individual which means that truth is not objective (that is outside of the individual). Instead truth is created and determined by the individual and hence is relative in the sense that each persons has his/her ‘own truth’. Truth is therefore always influenced by the individual or by culture. Postmodernism is also characterised by the idea that progress should be interpreted in terms of domination of non-western societies by (primarily) western societies.

No one can say definitely when the period of ‘postmodernism’ emerged, but it seems reasonable to suggest that this was sometime after World War 2, perhaps as late as the 1960s. It affects all aspects of life, the most apparent probably being in the fields of health-care, literature, and education.

In recent times we have seen the emergence of alternative systems of medicine such as Ayurveda and acupuncture, not as new forms of medicine because they are ancient, but as alternatives to mainstream biomedicine or western medicine. Such forms of medicine are being taught at universities, particularly in the United States, even though their effectiveness cannot necessarily be proved scientifically and they have an important spiritual element. We have also seen the development of the health-food movement characterised by the proliferation of health shops; consumption of vitamins and minerals as food supplements or to ‘keep the body healthy’, and the use of natural products, particularly plant materials, as either food supplements or for treating various ailments. In the forefront of postmodern health-care is the American writer and practitioner Depak Chopra, who has published widely, has many followers all over the world including well-known film personalities and political leaders. He recently visited and lectured in South Africa. Depak Chopra is both a medical practitioner and a proponent of Ayurvedic Medicine. Ayurveda, which originated in India, actually means ‘science of life’ and its basic premise is the integration of a person’s mind, body and spirit. Its aim is to help people to become spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced through  procedures such as massaging, meditation, aromatherapy, yoga and eating ‘proper’ foods.

As regards literature, the influence of postmodernism has been particularly profound and its relevance for anthropology is probably most significant in this regard. In postmodern interpretation of literary works, the author, text and the target group (that is the people for whom the work was written or its readers) are regarded as separate entities. This implies that what the author has written cannot be interpreted as his/her ideas, but should rather be interpreted in terms of what readers ‘read into’ the text. Postmodernist readers therefore, should interpret and give meaning to the text in their own way. This procedure is referred to as ‘deconstruction’ of the text. It results partly from the idea that no text is ever written free from the influence of the author’s
bias or culture. The idea of ‘deconstruction’ of texts has been the source of much discussion and  argument in anthropology, particularly as regards the interpretation of ethnographic works.  ‘Deconstructionists’ maintain that writing an ethnography, that is the way of life of a group of  people to which the ethnographer (anthropologist) does not belong, is influenced by the culture or bias of the ethnographer, and by his/her relationship with the people about whom he/she is writing. The ethnographer’s description of the way of life of other people is therefore always subjective and cannot be regarded as an accurate reflection of the culture concerned.  This debate has contributed to experimental forms of writing ethnography among anthropologists.

We should remember however, that scholars have been interpreting or ‘deconstructing’ literature for a very long time. Think of the setworks you studied at school. You will remember that you were required to deal with more than just their contents. Postmodern ‘deconstruction’ becomes problematic however, when people ‘deconstruct’ official texts such as the Constitution or legal documents and ascribe meanings to them as they wish. Meanings thus become relative, a situation which could for example, have the implication that the law is applied differently to different people.

Postmodernism has and also has had an important impact on education. One of the underlying objectives of postmodern education is to enable students to ‘create’ or ‘construct’ knowledge and values in the context of their cultures with the assistance of a facilitator who replaces the teacher. Besides constructing knowledge, students will also be assisted to develop various skills which will ultimately enhance their self-esteem. Such education is referred to as Outcomes-based Education (OBE), and besides focusing on reading, writing and calculations, it also focuses on diversity training. You are probably aware that the Government recently introduced Curriculum 2005 as the official education system in South Africa. It is a form of Outcomes-based Education and has the aforementioned objectives. It is therefore a form of postmodern education. OBE in South Africa has recently received much attention, both favourable and unfavourable, the media. What we should perhaps bear in mind is that while there is nothing wrong with fostering students’ self-esteem, we should consider the extent to which OBE will prepare school-leavers adequately for the job market. In addition, the question arises about the position of the exact sciences such as mathematics, physics and chemistry where students must be able to deal with theories, laws, theorems, formulas and fixed principles if they wish to master the subjects. To what extent will they be able to ‘create’ or ‘construct’ knowledge in terms of the objectives of OBE?

(Primary source: McCallum, D 1996. The Death of Truth. Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers.)
 

Archaeologist, Jan Boeyens successfully completed the DPhil degree at the University of Pretoria. The title of his thesis was  Die Latere Ystertydperk in Suidoos- en Sentraal-Marico (The Later Iron Age in South-East and Central Marico). Dr Boeyens’s thesis was awarded a distinction mark which is truly a remarkable achievement for a doctoral candidate.

Archaeologist, Maria van der Ryst’s Master’s degree, which she obtained with distinction from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1996, will be published in the second half of 1998 in the Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology. The title of Maria’s dissertation was The Waterberg Plateau in the Northern Province, South Africa, in the Later Stone Age. This too is an exceptional achievement.

Janine Cloete, who joined the team of second-year lecturers earlier this year, obtained her Honours degree with distinction during a graduation ceremony of the University of Port Elizabeth in April. Janine has indicated her intentions to proceed with a Master’s degree and is particularly interested in educational anthropology.

Congratulations to all three lecturers.
 

Mrs Lynette Dijkstra, a former Honours student in anthropology, wrote her Honours article on research she undertook in an AIDS hospice for young children in Kwa-Zulu Natal. She was subsequently invited to write a short article about the hospice which was published in the AIDS Bulletin, vol.6 no. 1/2, May/June 1997. Lyn, whose interest and involvement is in issues concerning children with AIDS and AIDS orphans (children whose parents or guardians have died of AIDS), attended the CINDI (Children in Distress) Southern African Regional Conference on ‘Raising the Orphan Generation’ in Pietermaritzburg 9-12 June 1998.  She sent us the following information from the Conference:
 

The problem of AIDS is generally believed to be greater in Kwa-Zulu Natal, although HIV prevalence in certain other regions of South Africa, for instance the North-West Province, is currently higher. AIDS specialists estimate that for every child that dies in Kwa-Zulu Natal, more than nine adults will die, many of whom will be parents of uninfected children. The current estimate of the number of AIDS orphans in Kwa-Zulu Natal by the year 2000 is 335 000. This could eventually mean an unbalanced population, with children between the ages of 5 and 10 years, and adults over the age of 50, forming the bulk of the population, and thus producing a dramatic disproportion between dependants (children and the aged) and  breadwinners/care-givers.

Mrs Carol Carver has taken on a position at Holmes & Mann Associates SA, and found her degree in anthropology helped in obtaining this position.

The firm focuses on quality management systems and support training in the Industrial, Service and Administrative sectors.  The firm organizes both public and in-house courses for groups of 7 to 18 persons.

Carol presents modules on work perception, teamwork, communication, motivation, conflict resolution, problem-solving, stress management, decision-making, presentation skills and leadership. The modules are all interactive and use group exercises and actual case studies to convey their messages.
 

The marriage of a man and a woman in the Hindu tradition has remained virtually unchanged as a ritual for the past five thousand years. The Hindu marriage is one of the most colourful, fascinating and elaborate ceremonies in the world, consisting of rituals, customs, music and dancing which are all described in detail in the Rig Veda, the world’s most ancient book of knowledge. Marriage is one of 16 sacraments associated with the life cycle, and is the most important rite of passage among the Hindus. In terms of Vedic law, marriage is regarded as a religious obligation and not as a contract. It implies a biological, and moral and spiritual union between a man and a woman.

Geet Gawai (Women’s singing session)

Two days before the actual marriage ceremony, the Geet Gawai takes place, both at the bride's and groom's homes. Women of the family and neighbourhood sing traditional wedding songs and dance the circle dance or Jhumar, swinging their hips and hands rhythmically. This lasts until the early hours of the following morning and is ended with choruses from the women's repertoire.

Tilak (sandal paste)

The Tilak is a prelude to the actual marriage ceremony. The Tilak (sandal paste), placed on thegroom’s forehead, marks his acceptance by the bride's father or brother. It also makes the engagement official.

The Haldi ceremony

Smearing of bride and bridegroom with a mixture of turmeric root paste and mustard oil is an old Indian tradition. Because of its yellow colour, turmeric is regarded as a spiritual plant which provides a divine glow and shine. On Haldi day, the bride and bridegroom are smeared with haldi (turmeric paste), first by the priest and then by male patrilineal kin, female relatives and friends. As the haldi is smeared on the heads, shoulders, knees and faces of the couple, women sing wedding songs. The guests are then invited to a typical wedding dinner served on banana leaves. The Haldi ceremony takes place at the bride’s and groom’s residences at the sacred ritual space under the Mandap (wedding canopy).

Vivah (The wedding ceremony)

The bride is dressed according to the Sola Shringars which  refers to sixteen modes of Indian aesthetics. She wears a rich brocaded red or yellow silk sari with flowers in her hair and jewellery on all the parts of her body which are exposed. Her hands and feet are dyed with complex designs of Henna or Mehendi, and the darker the Henna, the deeper, it is believed, will the love between the couple be. The groom is also dressed in traditional clothes. The wedding ceremony starts with the offering of incense, lighted camphor, flowers, fruits and ceremonial powder known as Kumkum (red) to the Gods.

Vastra Samarpan

The groom gives the bride clothing, flowers, cosmetics and jewellery, while the priest chants hymns from the Vedas which are actually prayers to God to give the bride a long life.

Kanya Dan (Gift of the daughter)

This ceremony is particularly moving since during it the parents give their most precious gift, namely their daughter, to the groom. The husband now takes over responsibility for and care of the bride from her father. The bridegroom accepts and thanks the bride's father for the great honour and he assures him that she will be the pride of the family. The father speaks the following
words to the groom: 'My daughter, Sir, is not to be by-passed in the attainment of health, desire and piety'. The bridegroom then promises: 'I shall not by-pass her'. This promise is made three times.

Agni (The mystic fire)

The priests call for the presence of the Gods who are present in the Divine light of fire. The couple burn all their impurities and prepare themselves for the responsibilities of a new life in the mystic fire. Agni also symbolises the Fire of Life that unites a man and a woman.

Laja Homa

The couple offer puffed rice into the fire to symbolise that, just as rice must be transplanted as a seedling to the paddy field to produce a good harvest, the bride is given away to her husband where she will prosper, flourish and rear her family. Rice is a good omen and a sign of fertility.

Agni Parikrama

The bride leads the groom around the sacred fire three times while the priests chant wedding hymns. After each round puffed rice is again offered to the sacred fire.

Saptapadi (The seven steps)

The bride now makes seven steps with the groom. Each step refers to a specific vow:
 

• Towards food and necessity of life
  'I shall guard your family and home, ever speaking sweetly to you, patient in sorrows, joyful in comforts.'

• Towards strength and vigour
  'I shall ever beautify and adorn myself for you. In mind, speech and body, I shall be ever dedicated to you.'

• Towards prosperity and luxuries of life
  'I shall anoint you lovingly and adorn you with fragrance, garlands and ornaments.'

• Towards welfare and well-being
  'In your sorrow, I shall be unhappy. I shall share your joys and pains and I say truthfully I shall act according to your wishes.’

• Towards progeny
  'Wherever you are, there I shall be. You shall not transgress me nor shall I ever transgress you. I shall be your companion in the religious pursuits, in material means and in passionate desires.'

• Towards 6 good seasons throughout life
  'All the deities know your mind and mine. We have made these promises in truth.'

• Towards lifelong friendship and children
  'May we two, become companions. May I not be separated from your friendship nor you from mine. With utmost love to each other, gaining lustre, with mutual minds enjoying together our food, may we make our minds united in the same vows and thoughts.'

When he applies a pinch of sindour (vermilion powder) to her hair, the groom blesses the new status of his wife as a married woman. The priests bless them both with flowers and Vedic chants. The groom also places a wedding necklace known as the Mangal Sutra around the bride's neck.

Ashirvaad (Blessings)

The ceremony is concluded with a recitation of Vedic Mantras and a prayer of peace. The guests, relatives and parents give their blessings to the couple.

[Extracts from ‘Kanya Dan’, The Why's of Hindu Marriage Rituals. Sarita Boodhoo.]
 

OLD TESTAMENT
 

• In the first book of the Bible, Guinness, God got tired of creating the world, so he took the Sabbath off.
• Noah’s wife was called Joan of Ark.
• Noah built the ark, which the animals came on in pears.
• Lot’s wife was a pillar of salt by day, but a ball of fire by night.
• Moses led the Hebrews to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread without any ingredients.
• The First Commandment was when Eve told Adam to eat the apple.
• The Seventh Commandment is thou shalt not admit adultery.
• Moses died before he ever reached the UK.
• The greatest miracle in the Bible is when Joshua told his son to stand still, and he obeyed him.
• Solomon, one of David’s sons, has 300 wives and 700 porcupines.

• St. John, the blacksmith, dumped water on his head.
• Jesus enunciated the Golden Rule, which says to do one to others before they do one to you.
• He also explained, “Man does not live by sweat alone.”
• The people who followed the Lord were called the 12 decibels.
• The epistles were the wives of the apostles.
• One of the opposums was St. Matthew, who was by profession a taximan.
• According to the Bible, a Christian should have only one wife. This is called monotony.

• Prof FC de Beer is currently doing fieldwork on perceptions of sacred mountains and mythological animals among the Langa of Mapela and Bakenberg, as well as among the Bakone of Matlala in the Northern Province. His research data will form the focus of  a paper he will present at the 14th International Congress of the Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences to be held at the end of July in Williamsburg (Virginia) in the USA. After the conference Prof de Beer will attend a workshop on Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change in Bonn, Germany.

• Since 1991 Prof Mike de Jongh and Mrs Riana Steyn have been conducting research among the Karretjie People of the Colesburg district in the Karoo. The Karretjie People were largely 'unknown’ and 'invisible’ before, even to inhabitants of the area. Lack of empowerment, illiteracy and poverty typified the  context and lives of the Karretjie People. However, as itinerant sheep- shearers they render an indispensable service to the agricultural economy of many districts of the Karoo. The scope of Mike’s and Riana’s original research project has been broadened and earlier this year negotiations commenced to extend the research to the town and district of Victoria West. During July, Mike and Riana will be the guests of Charlotte and her husband Mannetjies Roux, legendary Springbok rugby player, on their farm in the Victoria West district from where they will study the Karretjie People in the area. Information obtained during this investigation will be included in an exhibition in the local museum. The aim is to create an awareness of the lifestyle and circumstances of the Karretjie People among residents of Victoria West and district.  

Mannetjies Roux has further connections with Unisa. It was Prof Chris Torr, of the Department of Economics and husband of singer Laurika Rauch, who composed the well-known Afrikaans song 'Stuur groete aan Mannetjies Roux’.

What a good idea the Newsletter is! I didn’t know anything about it at all prior to receiving it. Good Luck with it and I hope that all the students appreciate it and find it interesting and informative. [This sort of thing is one of the reasons that ‘you guys’ have such a good reputation amongst your students I guess, as per a doctor to
whom I was speaking last year!] Lesley Stuart, Cape Town (letter unedited).

Editor’s comment: Thank you for writing to us. I hope your letter encourages other students to do the same.
 
 

International visits by lecturers

Anthropology and the environment

Archaeological excavations at Olieboompoort, Fancy, Ellisras

Visiting professor from Nigeria

In July, Jill Kruger attended three conferences and workshops in The Netherlands where she made four presentations. All dealt with her current research area – children’s evaluation of their urban environments.

In Eindhoven, she presented a paper with Peter Rich from the Dept of Architecture, Wits University, at the 15th IAPS (International Association for People and the Environment), entitled: Breaking Down Barriers: Children’s Views on Improving Life in a South African Squatter Camp. There was strong interest in the presentation and many requests for copies afterwards. UNESCO has offered to publish the paper.

The next presentation was at the GUIC (Growing up in Cities) workshop for international research directors and was led by Professor Louise Chawla of Kentucky State University, the international co-ordinator of the GUIC project. At this workshop, Peter and Jill gave an overview of current developments in their work with children within the GUIC mandate.

This workshop and the one immediately following were held at a wonderful conference centre in the small town of Soesterberg. This venue had been converted from a convent school and was memorable for three things:
 

• The food! A chef of international fame was employed and the food was superb.
• The artworks! The centre was also an art gallery with a wonderful collection of ‘peasant’ art --  i.e. spontaneous sculptures, and artworks done on pavements, walls and other backgrounds which reflect social and political developments of the time rather than output from professional artists. The collection was international in scope with wonderful examples of pavement art from the African continent.
• The music! An  internationally acclaimed boys’ choir from Canada was there at the same time and  treated residents to periodic sessions of really beautifully orchestrated songs.

Towards the end of July Prof Mike de Jongh and Prof Frik de Beer had the opportunity to attend and deliver papers at the 14th International Congress of Anthropological Sciences which was hosted by the College of William and Mary in the historical town of Williamsburg, Virginia, USA.  Some 1500 anthropologists and other delegates attended the conference and they literally came from every corner of the planet.

While the general theme of the conference was The 21st Century: The Century of Anthropology, three specific objectives were identified; first, to reflect on the lessons of the past 100 years of anthropology; second, to examine the challenges of anthropology in the new millennium; and third, to explore the insights of anthropology to public policy, education, business, and human services. Collectively the intention was to discuss the role of anthropology in understanding human communities and the issues they face in the 21st century.

It is impossible for a single individual to develop a complete awareness or grasp of the different themes, trends and discourses which unfold during the course of a conference. The sheer size of this conference made the task even more daunting. In addition to the nearly 300 sessions, often 40 to 70 of them parallel, there were plenary sessions, business meetings, special events and an
Ethnographic Film Festival (Commission on Visual Anthropology) featuring some 60 films.

The sessions were organized by the different commissions and this gives some idea of the themes, issues and problems which were dealt with: Aging and the Aged; Human Ecology; Medical Anthropology and Epidemiology; Urgent Anthropological Research; Visual Anthropology; Museums and Cultural Heritage; Documentation; Women and Gender; Theoretical Anthropology; Urban Anthropology; Anthropology of Tourism; Nomadic Peoples; Anthropology of Food; Anthropology of Aids; Ethnic Relations; Anthropology in Policy and Practice; Folk Law and Legal Pluralism; and the Study of Peace.

Whereas Prof de Jongh’s paper, Democracy Without Citizenship: Rural Poverty and the Case of the Peripatetics of the South African Karoo was presented, and most of his time spent in the sessions of the Nomadic Commission, the central debates and issues there were echoed in many of the discussions of the other sessions as well. Some of the questions raised and the problems which were confronted included the following: the role and relevance of anthropology and anthropologists; the position of anthropologists vis-a-vis national and supranational organisations on the one hand and local groups on the other; the impact of globalization and the redefining of the stance anthropologists should take; should anthropologists be increasingly politically pro-active?

Before and after the conference Prof de Jongh visited Anthropology and other departments at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and the Universities of Florida, Gainesville and South Florida, Tampa in the USA. Discussions and consultations were held with various academics including those at the Centre for African Studies where he was invited to address the African Studies Forum, the Institute on Black Life and the Centre for Africa and the Diaspora. Prof de Jongh also presented a seminar at the International Affairs Centre at the University of South Florida
.
Prof de Beer’s paper which was entitled Mountains as Cultural Resources: Values and Management Issues was one of twenty contributions presented in a session which focussed attention on how and why knowledge generated by anthropologists in their study of the close interaction between humans and their environment should be regarded as crucial for the understanding of environmental problems and the seeking of solutions to solve these problems. During the biennial meeting of the IUAES Commission on Human Dimensions of Global Change which was also held in Williamsburg, Prof de Beer was re-elected as one of the two delegates to represent Africa on the Commission.

After the IUAES conference Prof De Beer embarked on a study tour and visited the University of South Florida in Tampa, institutions such as the United Nations in New York, the Smithsonian Institute and the World Bank in Washington. He also paid a visit to the Seminole Creek Indians in the Everglades National Park in Florida. A highlight of his tour was a visit to an Amish
community in the state of Pennsylvania, which he said was  very interesting and a pleasant experience. The Amish are an austere and religious group of Christians of German and Swiss origin who separate themselves from mainstream American culture. They usually intermarry and educate their children in their own house schools in order to preserve their distinctive lifestyle and
also to protect the youth against the influences of the American educational system and general way of life. After enjoying their hospitality for two days Prof de Beer’s overall impression of the Amish was that they are excellent farmers, honest and strongly idealistic people and devoted Christians who will sacrifice their lives for their beliefs. However, the idealistic way of life is
continuously under threat, both from authorities as well as the younger generation of Amish who pressurise their elders to adapt their lifestyle to correspond with mainstream life in the United States.

(If you wish to learn more about the fascinating way of life of the Amish, you can read the following sources both of which are available in the Unisa library: Hostetler, J A 1968/1980. Amish Society, 2nd & 3rd eds., Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press and  Hostetler, J A 1971. Children in Amish Society. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.)

After his visit to the USA, Prof de Beer together with  Prof LP Vorster of the Department of Indigenous Law at UNISA participated in the International Human Dimensions Workshop on Global Environmental Change from 19-21 August in Bonn, Germany. Approximately 27 papers were presented on environmental issues by scholars from Europe, the USA, Canada, India and South Africa. Their paper on Grassroots Perceptions on Biodiversity was well received by delegates, who were particularly interested in their bottom-up approach to addressing environmental problems. Delegates from Third World countries believe that this approach would go a long way to more ensure more active involvement in environmental matters by the people whose survival is at stake, as well as contribute to more sustainable use of the environment.

During September and October Dr Chris van Vuuren visited and lectured at a number of North American universities. The aims of his visit included meeting scholars who share this interest in ritual and performance studies and lecturing on his experience of Ndebele male and female initiation ritual. Dr van Vuuren lectured at Vermont University, USA, and was also the guest of the African Studies Programme, Folklore Institute and Semiotics and Performance Studies Centre at Indiana University, where amongst other distinguished scholars, he met the well-known performance expert Richard Bauman. In Canada Dr van Vuuren was the guest of Prof Charles Laughlin at Carleton University who pioneered studies in the neuro-psychological dimensions of
ritual. Laughlin conducted fieldwork in Northern Uganda. At Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada, Dr van Vuuren ‘picked the brain’ of Ronald Grimes author of a number of monographs on ritual studies and the founding editor of the international Ritual Studies Journal. Grimes established the Ritual Studies Lab and also works with experimental ritual. At Calgary University Dr van Vuuren lectured on Ndebele oral history and its role in current land claims. He also had the opportunity to exchange ideas with scholars who are familiar with the status and role of oral testimonies in native Canadian land claims.

From reading about Prof de Beer’s international visits you will have gathered that environmental issues are one of his main interests. Besides his international involvement Prof de Beer also attended the annual conference of the Indigenous Plant Use Forum organised by the Inland Resources Programme of the Sustainable Environment Theme of the Foundation for Research
Development held at the Schoemansdal Environmental Education Centre near Louis Trichardt from 30 June - 3 July 1998. Prof de Beer acted as one of the rapporteurs during the conference. The multi-disciplinary approach of the conference was obvious. Approximately 70 participants, including agronomists, ecologists, botanists, plant geneticists, pharmacists, biologists, nature
conservationists, anthropologists, indigenous legal experts and geographers attended the conference. The predominant theme of most of the papers was that a multi-disciplinary approach to ecological issues has become of paramount importance for sustainable use of the environment. One of the rapporteurs from the natural sciences also stressed the crucial role which anthropologists, with their holistic approach and knowledge of  indigenous cultures, will have to play in this regard.

Besides the stonewalling and middens on the hilltop the archaeologists also investigated a number of exceptionally well-preserved clay granaries built under overhangs and rock shelters lower down the hill. A few grass grain baskets, which over time have collapsed, are also to be found at some of these localities.  Sidney Miller, formerly involved with an archaeological project at Thulamela in the Kruger National Park, joined the group for a few days to assist with the installation of a permanent grid at the Olieboompoort site. A small but enthusiastic team excavated the Middle Stone Age deposits in the test trench, which ultimately reached a depth of 2m. The remainder of the group opened up a new area of  5 x 4 square metres and started on the excavation of the Later Stone Age occupation levels. Drienie Beukes from the Department of Archaeozoology at the Transvaal Museum took charge of processing the faunal remains. On the last day at the site the test trench of  5m x 1m had to be backfilled with the fine, ashy sifted material but even this daunting (and extremely dusty) exercise could not dampen the spirits of this particularly dedicated group of archaeology students!

The site of Olieboompoort, situated near a tributary of the Mokolo River which drains into the Limpopo, forms the current focus of research by archaeologists of the Department. Limited excavations undertaken by Revil Mason at the shelter during the 1950s revealed the importance of this site. Mason wrote that he “found a magnificent hoard of their [the Later Smithfield people’s] belongings at Olieboompoort Cave, a delightful shelter in a poort that gives an easy route between the hilly Waterberg and the Kalahari to the far west” (Mason 1962:310). He noted that an Iron Age bed overlaid the Later Stone Age occupation, below which was found a Pietersburg Middle Stone Age assemblage followed by an Earlier Stone Age Later Acheulian unit
(Mason 1962:159, 374). The Later Stone Age lithics were described as Later Smithfield and radiocarbon-dated to 870 BP.  The present investigations at the shelter have now shown that the sequence includes Post-Classic as well as Classic Wilton and also exhibits interesting elements such as decorated ostrich eggshell fragments. A marked difference is found in the raw material usage at Olieboompoort when compared with sites on the Waterberg Plateau. Relatively high numbers of polished bone tools appear to be characteristic of the Olieboompoort assemblage. The dry environment also ensured good preservation of plant material, mostly a variety of seeds and nut endocarps but also wooden objects such as a pointed  peg (Grewia sp.). Faunal preservation is also good. The rock paintings have not preserved well and in most instances are covered by graffiti. Handprints (plain) in red and yellow are prominent. Although glass beads and metal objects are rare, a large sample of Early Iron Age pottery was recovered, with decorative motifs in the pottery assemblage showing affinities with the Eiland/Broadhurst tradition. In contrast with the dates for the Waterberg Plateau, which indicate intensive utilisation after AD 1200 only, the dates for the Later Stone Age layers at Olieboompoort show that the shelter was in fact occupied by hunter-gatherers at least during the last 2000 years. The preliminary excavations seem to indicate no occupation during the mid-Holocene and early Holocene. A wide range of raw materials such as felsite, quartzite, mudstone, chalcedonies, quartz and other CCS materials were used for the Middle Stone Age assemblage. Ochre crayons were found in association with the Middle Stone Age lithics. Mason gives a date of 33 000 years ago for the Middle Stone Age. Dating of the Middle Stone Age material from the recent excavations is currently being done. It has been recognised for some time that Olieboompoort can serve as a key site to unravel the cultural sequence of the Stone Age in the Northern Province. This comparative regional study will also add significantly to the data available on the various aspects of the lifestyle of Stone Age hunter-gatherers.
 

(Reference: Mason, R 1962. Prehistory of the Transvaal. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand  University Press.)

During his visit to our Department Prof Oke participated in a departmental seminar during which he presented a paper on the topic Cultural Factors Influencing Participation in Diarrhoeal Disease Control: Examples from Nigeria . His presentation was based on a series of research activities of the HEALTH-COM program in Nigeria. The program which is sponsored by USAID, aims to provide technical assistance for strengthening federal and state health communication capabilities. The program is aimed at child-survival and seeks to reduce morbidity and mortality rates among children under the age of five.

Prof Oke’s fieldwork, based on focus group discussions, was carried out in Nigeria State, a sparsely populated area in Nigeria with many ethnic groups, the most important among which are the Nupe, Gwari and Hausa. Members of these groups were selected for the focus group discussions. The main target group consisted of the mothers of young children, who are primary care-takers of young children and make most of the decisions concerning diagnosis and treatment of illness. Older women and men were however, also included because of their high status and experience.

The primary concern of Prof Oke’s paper was the role of cultural factors in the control of diarrhoeal diseases in rural communities. He pointed out that culture is a dynamic factor related to virtually every state of health or disease and related practices. Using traditional concepts of disease (as a conceptual tool) Prof Oke indicated that the perception and resultant practices related to a disease are conditioned by cultural understanding.  Nevertheless, this is dynamic situation and subject to reinterpretation based on the perceived reality of the health situation in question.

The case studies revealed instances of the potential influences of and the need for anthropologists, health professionals and health workers to be more cautious in planning and executing an intervention program. There is also a need for thorough understanding of specific cultures or subcultures, as well as for active participation or involvement of the target group from the initial stages of a program. It was further observed that under proper planning and execution, the rural tradition-oriented communities will accept a health program or facility if they consider it more efficient than indigenous facilities.

• The crisis in Kosovo
• Research on desegregated schooling in Gauteng
• Excursion to the Waterberg, Northern Province
• World Archaeological Congress 4, Cape Town, 10 - 14 January 1999
• Honours students’ research reports
• The South African Journal of Ethnology
• New President of The Association for Anthropology in Southern Africa
• The Institute for Contemporary History
• The Quest for Ubuntu

Like all forms of human behaviour, war is also of interest to anthropologists (as students registered for SKA202-4 will be aware) so we provide some information on the Kosovo/Serbian conflict as background to the situation.

The Kosovo Albanians are descended from people who arrived in the Balkans more than 2000 years ago, long before the arrival of Christianity and Islam. Their language is believed to have originated at that time. In about the seventh century they were followed by the Slavs. With the exception of the Albanians, Macedonians and Slovenes, all the Balkan (Slav) groups speak dialects of Serbo-Croatian. In addition the majority are Christian, again with the exception of the Albanians (and a group in Bosnia-Hercegovina) who are Muslims. The vulnerability of the Albanians thus arises from the fact that they are the only non-Slavs in the Balkans and their religion differs from that of the majority of groups in the area. To-day the Albanians are being physically driven out of Kosovo by Serbia. This process is however, also taking place on paper since before they are allowed to leave their homes they must surrender their passports, driver’s licenses, and car registration plates to Serbian police who also destroy their property ownership records, marriage and birth certificates and any other documents which might one day prove their identity and their right to return to Kosovo. This process has been called “identity elimination” by NATO.

Serbia was an independent country until 1389 when it was defeated by the Ottoman Turks in the battle of Kosovo Polje in the province of Kosovo. In spite of their defeat, the battle became a focal point of Serb ethnic consciousness and identity, symbolising their defiance, independence and nationalist sentiments. Consequently, the area in Kosovo where the battle took place, became a shrine to Serbian nationalism, a sentiment which still exists today. In 1914 Serb nationalism was in world news when Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated by Serbs in Sarajevo, Bosnia, which formed part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The assassins’ intention was that Bosnia be given to Serbia. The assassination was used as the reason for the start of World War One. After the war the Serbs annexed Bosnia and then together with Croatia and Slovenia, formed a single state under the Serbian King Alexander to establish the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.   Yugoslavia’s geographical boundaries roughly coincided with ethnolinguistic and historical boundaries so that it consisted of six republics, namely Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Hercegovina. Kosovo was included in Serbia, but as an autonomous region. Soon after the establishment of Yugoslavia, conflict associated with the emergence of nationalist tendencies developed, and in 1934 Croatian nationalists assassinated the Serbian King.

The German Nazis supported the fascist Croatian government during the second World War, murdering hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies. After the war a communist government came to power in Yugoslavia under Marshal Tito who prevented all attempts at nationalist resurgence in the Balkans. After his victory over Croat fascists and Serb royalists, Tito united Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia (including Kosovo) into a single federation. In 1948 Tito broke his association with the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, after which  the west provided financial assistance for the establishment of a non-aligned Yugoslavia. Although Tito’s ruthless government prevented all surges of nationalism, it could not eliminate ethnic sentiments amongst the different groups in the Balkans. Consequently after his death in 1980  Yugoslavia began to disintegrate. The following year at least nine people died in Kosovo when ethnic Albanians, who then made up 90 percept of the population, rioted. They were demanding a separate republic. Later in 1990, the first free elections held in Yugoslavia brought nationalists to power across the country. Slovenia and Croatia declared independence in June 1991. Although Slovenia’s breakaway was largely peaceful, war erupted in Croatia which lasted for six months and killed 10 000 people.

In 1991 Macedonia also voted for independence and NATO was sent to the region to prevent bloodshed. The Muslim leaders in Bosnia declared independence in 1992, but Serbs and Croats living in the region fought to remain allied with their respective nations. The Serbian leader, Slobodan Milosevic, was accused of supplying the Serbs in Bosnia with military hardware. A three-year war involving Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia left hundreds of thousands of people dead and millions more displaced from their homes. A conference in the USA in 1995 produced peace in the Balkans, but it has since become apparent that a more permanent settlement remains outstanding.

The foregoing sketches the historical background to the Kosovo crisis which in reality actually began about ten years ago when the former Yugoslavia disintegrated. As this occurred, the trouble in the autonomous province of Kosovo resurrected the old Serb fears and emotions over the region associated with the battle of Kosovo Polje. This produced an ideal situation for Slobodan Milosevic, the Serb leader, to put his plan for Serbian nationalism into action. After a meeting in Kosovo in April 1987 he told a crowd of Kosovo Serbs that Yugoslavia did not exist without Kosovo and that Yugoslavia would disintegrate without Kosovo. In 1989 he forcibly ended the autonomy of Kosovo. Troops and tanks were sent into the province killing more than 40 people. Ethnic Albanian leaders declared independence in 1990, followed by widespread predictions of civil war. However, for the next eight years the people in Kosovo lived in a state of artificial peace as around them the former Yugoslav republics became involved in increasingly bloody wars, encouraged by the sentiments of nationalist leaders, particularly Milosevic. All that is left today of the original Yugoslavia are Serbia and Montenegro. Kosovo’s attempts to establish independence from Serbia represented a dream for the ethnic Albanians since the Serbian government has stated that it would never relinquish its hold on the province or the Serbian emotional and historical attachment to the area without a fight. As a result the Kosovo Albanians developed a separatist guerilla movement in 1997, which produced a severe reaction from Serbia later to develop into the Kosovo war.

It is clear that the situation in the Balkans is very complex, but we should see to what extent we can interpret it from an anthropological perspective. It would appear that there are elements of what anthropologists call absolute war in the conflict in that Serbian forces intend to destroy the ethnic Albanians completely. This is associated with aspects of so-called instrumental war since the Serbian initiative is partly based on their emotional attachment to the Kosovo area which was the scene of the battle of Kosovo Polje. Added to this are the language and religious differences between the Serbs and the ethnic Albanians, as well as the nationalist sentiments of not only these two groups, but of the populations of all the Balkan states. As the history of the area shows, these factors have been sufficiently serious to produce conflict on a massive scale. The situation also sheds light on the resurgence of ethnicity, a phenomenon which increasingly challenges the sovereignty of nation states. (A study of ethnicity is included in our Honours course.)

(This information is primarily based on a report in Sunday Times, April 4, 1999. We recommend that you consult a map of the Balkans as you read these notes.)

Two high schools, both well established and older than 50 years,were selected as centres for the research. One was a formerly Afrikaans-only school which now offers parallel-medium education in white Afrikaans-medium and black English-medium classes (‘together but separate’), with, at the time of the research, a white:black pupil ratio of 56%:44%. The other school was a fully integrated English-medium school with a white:black pupil ratio of 44%:56%.

Over a six month period Dr van Heerden was closely involved with both these schools, visiting them alternately on a daily basis. Her research methods included close observation in the classroom, staffroom and on the playground; individual interviews with pupils and teachers; focus group discussions with Grade 11 pupils, and completion of a questionnaire also by Grade 11 pupils to determine amongst other matters, pupils’ perceptions of the schools, their ideas about the advantages and disadvantages of desegregated schooling, aspects of adapting to a desegregated school context, the implications of racial differences in the schools, and their ideas about and perceptions of the behaviour of socioculturally ‘different’ pupils.

Dr van Heerden was well received by the teachers and pupils in both schools and thoroughly enjoyed the research. She found it encouraging to note the interest of the school population in the research, not merely because it represented an interest in the situation at the schools at ‘grassroots level’, but also because the anthropological approach of the research represented a novel
experience for both teachers and pupils. The teachers expressed their intentions to use the objectively obtained research data to change and address contentious issues in the schools, while the pupils used the discussions during the research as an opportunity to air their feelings and frustrations. The research ultimately impressed upon both black and white pupils how little they
actually know about each other in spite of attending school together.

The research showed on the one hand, that goodwill, acceptance, a desire to reach out to others and the establishment of friendships across racial and sociocultural lines were evident, but on the other hand, that problematic racial attitudes, sociocultural differences, misconceptions, wilfulness and stereotyping also exist, often exacerbated by typical teenage behaviour. A school represents a microcosm of the broader society in which it is situated, and the pupils themselves repeatedly
acknowledged that views and attitudes acquired at home accompany them to school. The situation in desegregated schools thus seems to reflect the complex racial and sociocultural environment which exists in South African society at large.

In all probability it will take some time for the post-apartheid South African society to emerge from its rites de passage, but contemporary South African society does provide exceptional opportunities for anthropologists to make valuable contributions to social understanding and development. Although scholars from various other disciplines undertake research regarding
education, with their characteristic methodology, holistic approach and people-orientation anthropologists reveal particular insights, and so can make special contributions to solving educational problems.

We strongly recommend that all students involved in teaching at desegregated schools read Dr van Heerden’s outstanding research report. It is available in the Unisa library as Van Heerden, ME 1998. What’s Happening in Practice? A Comparative Study of Teaching and Learning in two Desegregated South African Public High Schools. An article based on this research was also published in the latest edition of the SA Journal of Ethnology.
 

Saturday afternoon was spent investigating archaeological sites on Masebe, including a shelter with rock art, well-preserved clay grain storage bins built under a slight overhang and an Iron Age site on top of a dauntingly high hill. Although the climb to the latter site is steep, the archaeologists’ effort was well-rewarded by their finds, particularly of pottery with decorations
known as Moloko which are characteristic of a Sotho-Tswana occupation, as well as by the magnificent view of the surrounding area since the hills form the edge of the escarpment of the Waterberg Plateau.

Clive Walker the well-known conservationist of Lapalala Wilderness, and author of a number of books on the environment, elephant and rhino, gave an interesting talk on Sunday morning on the exhibitions in the Rhino Museum which forms part of his Waterberg Environmental Education Centre. Two Late Iron Age sites on Malore Hill situated within the Lapalala Wilderness were then explored. The site on top of Malore Hill, built in a defensive style, is marked by extensive stone walling which forms a complex arrangement of arcs and circular enclosures. Excavations at this locality point to a date in the eighteenth century. The presence of mainly undecorated pottery and the hut type on the hill site associate this occupation phase with Nguni speakers. A Sotho-Tswana settlement, dating to the nineteenth century, has been determined at the site on the saddle. Here an open-air copper quarry as well as the layout of the village were investigated. The remains of numerous collapsed huts, features with evidence of smithing activities, fragments of metal objects, broken pottery and two buried pots which appear to be complete, represent some of the structures and objects visible on the surface. During a salvage excavation at the saddle site undertaken in
1997 by the archaeologists from this Department, a similar clay pot eroding at the surface, was found to contain a human fetus together with a few undecorated pottery sherds and one glass bead. The pot itself was decorated with rim notching.

The excursion ended with a splendid lunch served in the restaurant which forms part of the Waterberg Museum Complex. It was gratifying that so many Unisa students (friends), as well as alumni among the ArchSoc members participated in the excursion.

The conference was structured around three broad themes. The first of these was time, which focused on landmarks in the long history of humanity which deserve contemplation as we approach the millennium. The second theme was archaeology in a global context which explored interconnections between the continents and new ways of looking at the world. The third theme addressed the future and specifically the question of where archaeology would be heading in the twenty-first century. Although the emphasis was on Africa, contributions on the archaeology of different parts of the world were presented. Topics dealt with by presenters included the effects of climatic change, the ethnographies of place, exchange, and barter and trade across the world with the focus on commodities such as ochre and gold. The identity of ethnic groups, land rights and the repatriation of cultural property were debated thoroughly. These issues were of particular interest to the Khoisan Indigenous Forum which was well-represented at the conference. Information technology and archaeology, archaeology and education, as well as the place of new technologies in archaeological research and explanation were some of the challenging issues addressed by a number of archaeologists.

Symposia, keynote addresses and workshops, arranged around fourteen themes, were presented concurrently throughout the conference. Workshops focused on specific archaeological techniques (for example, stone knapping) and policy issues or panel discussions on topics such as repatriation. The keynote addresses concentrated on major themes and issues in contemporary archaeology. The eminent scholar and African archaeologist, Desmond Clark, received a standing ovation after he delivered his keynote address entitled Fifty Years of African Archaeology: Retrospective and Response. Now in his eighties, Desmond Clark has been actively involved with archaeology for more than 50 years. He also participated in a post-conference excursion led by
Prof Andy Smith of UCT.

Jan Boeyens, Maria van der Ryst and Francois Coetzee presented the following papers:

• HISTORIC AND CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPES
  Jan Boeyens (with Sidney Miller)
  Schoemansdal, 1848-1867: The historical archaeology of a Dutch/Afrikaner frontier town in the South African Interior
• EARLY FARMERS
  Francois Coetzee
  Adapting to dynamic landscapes: Late Iron Age Tswana settlements in Pilanesberg, North-West Province, South Africa
• MODERN HUMANS
  Maria van der Ryst
  Stone Age research on the Waterberg Plateau and in the lower lying bushveld, Northern Province, South Africa.

• Ms Chiara Carcianiga:
  Leprosy and Anthropological Insights

• Mrs Antoinette Cronje:
  Ervaringe van enkele langtermyn swart pasiënte en hul beskouinge oor die teenwoordigheid van tradisionele praktisyns in ‘n stedelike privaat hospitaal

• Ms Lynn McClelland:
  Male Initiation Rites among Xhosa-speaking people

• Ms Collette Spicer:
  ‘An Anthropological Focus on the Socio-economic Relations of the Mooi River Horse Racing Industry’

Recently, a number of individuals have tried to unbundle the term ubuntu to which several meanings have been attached, although it is often unclear precisely what ubuntu means. In this article the writer reexamines the roots of the concept. The basic idea underlying proposals for reconsidering the concept of ubuntu is that many dilemmas in society, which are accentuated by violence and poverty, can only be eradicated by reestablishment of traditional values. Often writers have associated ubuntu with colonial ideology (Sono, 1994), but ubuntu can in fact be viewed as a reappraisal of the entire human phenomenon. We need to look at the roots of this concept and its relevance for today.

Political parties in South Africa have been grappling with the process of transformation, which rightly, has become a national preoccupation. But transformation is a fleeting concept on which to base a political alliance. Other issues must also be considered. Religion for instance, coupled with the political, cultural, historical and geographical context, continues to be a significant social force in South Africa. Religion cannot therefore, be separated from these contexts. This article provides a lucid and concise introduction to ubuntu, but unlike other introductions, it deals with the historical roots of the concept. It provides essential grounding for an understanding of current debates surrounding the topic of ubuntu.

Various African philosophers stress the fact that Africans have a human-centred philosophy of life. Humankind is central in the universe and nothing else is as important as human beings: “Munhu I munhu hi van hu wana van” (‘a human being is a human being through and because of other human beings’). This philosophy has often been romanticized and described as ‘negritude’, thus ultimately producing a negative attitude toward African culture. Mazrui (1980:11) has pointed out
 

'The mood of this branch of African thought is one of nostalgia, yearning for an innocence which is eternally lost. All that can be done now is to make the best of a bad job, try to save some of the values of old Africa, and find synthesis between these and the influences which have come with colonialism and modernity.'

Origin of the term

The Swazi, Zulu and Xhosa people were pastoralists (isitu) who originated around Central Africa which was rich in arable soils, lush grazing grounds, and had abundant water. The ancestors of these people came from one source area in the region from where, influenced by travellers, they moved south.

Ubuntu is the age-old philosophy of the abantu. It comprises a code for living, ingrained respect for others, and an honourable manner of deportment. It is tied to the abantu religion of ancestor worship, which is also a means of petitioning the supreme being, too distant for direct worship. Many non-African people, including westerners and easterners, have attempted to conform to the principles of ubuntu, but because it is not an inherent part of their upbringing, they invariably fall short of its requirements for an acceptable way of life. In terms of ubuntu, respect is shown to all people, regardless of who they are, but respect ceases when provocation demands retaliation as in war or faction fighting. Among African peoples a custom in war was to open the belly of the vanquished after death so that the spirit could escape and not be left to torment those who remained behind. This explains the respect for the spirit of an individual until such time that he/she causes cessation of that respect by transgressing the ‘rules of respectful coexistence’. It is therefore clear that common values underlie ancestral religion. In the notion of ubuntu
 

'Lies (in) a pragmatic emphasis on contemporary rewards and its roots in social structure, membership of a cult group being determined by descent, and cult spirits being contained within existing boundaries. These spiritual agents are of human origin, an element of the living ensemble surviving death to inhabit an afterlife’ (Prozesky et al 1993:21).

The adherence to ancestor worship is considered a vital form of achieving harmony and contentment in this life. The ancestors who exert a major influence on the lives and lifestyles of the Bantu-speaking peoples frequently demand acknowledgement and respect through dreams or through diviners if they are visited to determine the cause of discomfort, anguish or loss. Frequently, it occurs that an individual will be requested to perform a ritual in order to appease the ancestors, thereby reinstating the essential lifestyle of harmony and contentment. This reveals the religious priority among the people concerned and the belief that firstly, the spirit within the person is automatically respected, and secondly, so is the person him- or herself until a specific
reason for doing so is provided.

The term ubuntu has however, been so widely used that it has lost much of its meaning. For instance many financial institutions and businesses in the corporate world have appropriated the term to nourish their visions and missions, and to ensure that ‘worth is added’ to their services. Through the Masakhane program¹, the Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP)² has often been associated with ubuntu. In their so-called quest for ubuntu, the term has been misplaced, misused and misquoted. For many financial institutions and municipalities the rationale behind ubuntu is that people should pay rents and mortgages. Masakhane is not an aspect of culture nor does it relate to tradition, and associating it with ubuntu as a form of African philosophy, represents manipulation and castigation of the latter concept by financial institutions. Clearly financial institutions and other businesses do not understand or in fact, do they appear to be particularly interested in the ubuntu philosophy.

African values are based on social solidarity and the recognition that individualism cannot overpower the value and significance of collectivity. Thus we need to ask whether ubuntu is holding black people from so-called intellectualism and critical thought. What is implied is a departure from African culture and movement towards a new age of African reason. One needs to understand that cultural foundations hold a reservoir of untapped human and social values which can range for instance from the philosophy of ubuntu to a sense of social solidarity. In essence, after its denigration during colonialism and apartheid this culture of respect and tolerance needs to be revived and re-established as the centrality of human dignity.

Conclusion

The concept of ubuntu is likely to become more important as we approach the 1999 elections. Looking back, the South African system has a number of shortcomings in terms of its political and judicial system. The human violations and atrocities of the past have not done much for the legitimacy of or respect for South African law. Now that constitutionalism has become central to
the emerging South Africa, there has been a growing interest in ubuntu and in legislative jurisprudence. The new Constitution has given birth to the recognition and protection of basic rights, ideas which are consistent with the inherent traditional values of South Africa, and which have contributed to bringing South Africa on a par with the rest of the world. There is a global
commitment to revive the value of human dignity. In line with this, the Constitution expressly states:

“There is a need for understanding, but not for vengeance, a need for ubuntu and not for victimization” (Section 9 and 10 of the Constitution).

'Africans believe something that it is difficult to render in English. We call it ubuntu/botho. It means the essence of being human. You know it is there and when it is absent. It speaks about humanness, gentleness, hospitality, putting yourself out on behalf of others, being vulnerable. It recognizes that my humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be humans together.'

Abiola, I. 1981. The African Experience in Literature and Ideology (no further bibliographic details available)
Bekker, J.C. 1989. Seymour’s Customary Law in Southern Africa. Kenwyn: Juta
Gasa, F.X. 1998. Ubuntu/Botho. Inkatha Freedom Party: Women’s Brigade Journal, p 12
Gray, A. & McGuigan, J. 1993. Studying Culture: An Introductory Reader. New York: Routledge
Hunter, M. 1936. Reaction to Conquest. London: University Press
Mazrui, A. 1980. The African Condition. London: Heinemann
Milner, A. 1994. Contemporary Cultural Theory: An Introduction. London: UCL Press
Prozesky, M. & De Gruchy, J. 1995. Living Faiths in South Africa. Cape Town: Clyson Printers
Sono, T. 1994. Dilemmas of South African Intellectuals in South Africa. Pretoria: Unisa Press
Hammond-Tooke, D. 1993. The Roots of Black South Africa. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball Publishers

End Notes

 1. ‘Ubuntu’ is widely used, sometimes with an abandon that does not recognise the depth of its meaning. It has become more or less ‘cliched’, with various interpretations given to the word but which do not do justice to understanding the underlying philosophy. Ubuntu has frequently been equated with humaneness, compassion, hospitality.

2. Masakhane (literally meaning ‘let us build together’) is a costly and time-consuming program introduced by the Government of National Unity to encourage defaulters to pay for residential services. Its connection with ubuntu is totally misplaced and constitutes an assault on the deep philosophy of ubuntu.

• The PAAA award
• Child and youth research
• The annual archaeological excavations
• Research among the Venda
• Participation in television programme on traditional leadership
• Research on cultural diversity in organizational settings
• Visiting South and Central America
• Anthropology as a hobby?

• Executive Committee of the ISECR (International Secretariat for Excellence in Child Research) based at Ohio State University in the United States of America
• Steering Committee for Child Research at CODESRIA (Council for the Development of Economic and Social Research in Africa) based in Dakar, Senegal
• International ‘Gamines M-List’ which addresses ethical issues in research and interventions with children in especially difficult circumstances. The organization is based in the United Kingdom and is comprised almost entirely of anthropologists
• Jill is also the academic representative for South African universities on the Task Team of Child Rights Graduate Studies division of the NPA Office on the Status of the Child within the Deputy President’s Office.

Twenty-seven archaeology students from all over South Africa, including Cape Town and Mossel Bay, and places in KwaZulu - Natal, as well as one student all the way from Salmon Arms, Canada, participated in the annual Unisa archaeological field trip from 21 -28 August. This year the students visited Olieboompoort Shelter in the Waterberg near Ellisras, Northern Province. The main purposes of the excursion were to continue excavations at the Stone Age site of Olieboompoort, and to introduce students to archaeological techniques. The research at the Olieboompoort rock shelter provides a unique experience for excavating deposits where hunter-gatherers lived thousands of years ago, and through this process to discover details of their
activities. The shelter is situated near a tributary of the Mokolo River which drains into the Limpopo. The project forms part of the third phase of a research project on the prehistory of the Waterberg plateau and the lower-lying bushveld to the west. It aims to establish the cultural sequence of this area during the last 200 000 years and to shed more light on the lifestyle of Stone
Age hunter-gatherers in the Waterberg region. During the 1998 annual field excursion, the excavation was extended horizontally so that the most recent occupation phase could be focussed on and the spatial utilisation of the site during the Later Stone Age determined.

In contrast with the dates for the Waterberg Plateau, which indicate intensive utilisation only after AD 1200, the dates for the Later Stone Age layers at Olieboompoort show that the shelter was in fact occupied by hunter-gatherers at least during the last 2000 years. No occupation is indicated for the mid-Holocene and early Holocene. These dates are consistent with the typological classification of the lithic assemblage which contains Post-Classic and Classic Wilton stone tool types. Dating of the Middle Stone Age material recovered during the 1998 excavations is in process. A marked difference is found in the raw material usage at Olieboompoort when compared with material from sites on the Waterberg Plateau. Cryptocrystalline material is the dominant raw material of the microliths while the Later Stone Age assemblages on the Waterberg plateau are characterised by the use of mainly quartz and felsite. A wide range of cultural and organic materials was recovered during recent fieldwork at the Olieboompoort site which is also characterised by preservation of organic materials. These include the remains of meals (represented by the fauna and carbonised seeds and nut endocarps from the hearth areas), large numbers of microlithic stone tools, hundreds of ostrich eggshell beads, the composite parts of arrows such as polished bone points and linkshafts, finely made bone needles and awls used to sew skin clothing (as well as the grooved stones used in the manufacture of bone and shell objects), bone pendants, sections of three ground stone rings, engraved ostrich eggshell fragments, decorated pottery and glass trade beads. Ceremonial activities are indicated by ritual objects such as two bone pendants as well as ostrich eggshell beads stained with ochre. A cowrie shell from the east coast was found among these artefacts.

Cowrie shells are valued for their durability and their shape (symbolising and promoting female fertility), and have been used for thousands of years as burial offerings, for divination purposes, as currency and for trade. The generic name Cypraea refers to the Island of Cyprus where Aphrodite first stepped ashore, which may explain the frequent use of cowries as fertility amulets.
In parts of Africa the cowrie shell is believed to represent the human eye and is therefore valued as protection against evil. The presence of exotic items such as marine shells at archaeological sites is used to infer social and economic interaction in prehistoric times. Although cowrie shells are ubiquitous at localities where early black communities settled during the Iron Age, cowries of East Coast origin are extremely rare at Stone Age sites in South Africa. This cowrie shell is similar to the well-known ‘money cowrie’ shells found along the East Coast of Africa. It represents the first cowrie found in a Stone Age context of which the humped, dorsal (top) part of the shell has been removed - a common practice amongst Bantu-speaking groups which
facilitated the sewing of the shells onto articles of clothing, headbands and other decorative objects. It is assumed that the cowrie from the Waterberg was introduced to the archaeological site through exchange or trade. As such it is particularly significant, since it provides a surprisingly early date for contact between San (Bushman) and early black farmers in the Northern Province.

Although a wide range of images is present in the rock paintings at the site, the rock art has not preserved well and in most instances is covered by graffiti. Handprints in red and yellow are prominent. An inventory of the handprints at the shelter inspired the students to experiment with grinding pigments and to produce their own rock art according to a procedure described by a descendant of the San from the Maluti Mountains. Paint was prepared by the grinding of specularite and ochreous haematite by an ‘old woman’ under a full moon, then fat and blood were added as fixatives before a handprint was made on a sandstone slab from the shelter area (a handprint is reproduced in this Newsletter!)

On the first Sunday of the week of the excursion various archaeological sites were visited to introduce the students to the rich cultural and archaeological heritage of the Waterberg. The sites included a rock art site, a shelter with grain bins, rock art at the Masebe Nature Reserve (near Marken), and a hilltop Iron Age site at Kirstenbos where previous archaeological investigations
indicated occupation at approximately 800 years ago. The pottery from the Kirstenbos site is predominantly of the Eiland tradition, representing the final phase of the Early Iron Age. Lunch was had at the restaurant in the Old Melkrivier School/Rhino Museum Complex which forms part of the Waterberg Environmental Education Centre and the afternoon spent investigating the Late Iron Age sites at Melora, Lapalala Wilderness. The stone-walled site on top of Melora Hill is associated with Nguni speakers, whereas the more recent Sotho-Tswana settlement on the saddle dates to the nineteenth century. During a salvage excavation at the saddle site in 1997 a buried clay pot containing a human fetus or a neonate was found  with a few undecorated pottery sherds and a single glass bead.

All the above contributed to a successful academic undertaking but, equally important in making the excursion memorable, were the extreme working conditions, the students’ total dedication to archaeology, their diverse careers and life skills, a broad range of academic knowledge and interests, as well as vehicle failures experienced late at night on a dirt road. These factors helped
to establish close bonds and firm friendships among the students. The following ‘story’ by Kim, our much appreciated student from Canada, tells it all.
 

Kim Berg Zigler

‘Home is the canvas condo where I fall in nearly dead;
To dream of stones and brittle bones and a weekend at Club Med.

The tockaloshies (!) snooze below me, my takkies are their choice;
I awake to the sound of clattering plates and Debbies’ cheerful voice.

The food here is not great, for hot water you must wait;
The horn soon blows, its time to go for Mari won’t be late.

We climb into our combies, the driving is down pat.
Our SHAWFER is outstanding but 8 men change a flat.

We dig and sort as dust abounds, a mystery to unfold;
By day’s end we climb back in, very dirty, looking old.

The evenings are inviting with awesome fireside chat;
We laugh and joke, the loop we poke
GUNNA DE GUN GUN and all that.

Gustav is our artist, the figures drawn unknown
I’ll try to find Marlize a man
to marriage her till the cows come home.
 
I thank you for the memories,
your friendship means so much.
I’ve learned a lot of nature here,
you’ll take care of it, I’ll trust.

South Africa is in my heart and will not fade away.
I know we all will meet again, I’ll be back here some day.’

We would like to acknowledge the following contributions which added to the success (and fun) of the research project at Olieboompoort:

Marlize Lombaard and Magriet van Zyl

Each student who participated was given a T-shirt. Magriet organised the donation and printing of the T-shirts by attorneys Hack, Stupel and Ross. Marlize was responsible for the design on the shirts which depict rock art and stone tools from Olieboompoort. An engraved trowel, presented annually as a trophy, was also sponsored by this firm. Val Taylor’s name was drawn for the trophy, a popular choice!

Darryl Olivier
 
When Darryl’s employers (De Beers) saw a photograph of him sieving material at the previous dig, they kindly donated leather gloves and state-of-the art dust masks to the group. These were a great help in our digging and sieving endeavours.

Drienie Beukes

Drienie, our archaeozoologist, and her engineer husband, Christo, donated geotextile to the group with which the excavations could be covered. Geotextile, an expensive material, permits the percolation of water but no wind- or waterborne soil can filter through it. It therefore prevents contamination of a deposit.

Kim Berg Zigler

Kim is initiating a fund for archaeological research which will help meet the high costs of fieldwork. Her concern and interest are highly appreciated, and her awareness of the need for documentation and preservation of our archaeological and cultural heritage deserves wide support.
 

The Mulenzhe chiefdom is located next to the main road between Levubu and Punda Milia, one of the northern camps of the Kruger National Park. During the drive from Louis Trichardt to Mulenzhe through the picturesque southeastern part of Vendaland with its rich sub-tropical vegetation, one is constantly aware of the majestic Zoutpansberg mountain range with its precipitous slopes, sacred mountains and forests, and unsolved mysteries and legends. One such mysterious place is Lake Fundudzi, situated in the heart of the mountain range and which from the earliest times of Venda history, has been associated with strange and sinister occurrences.

On our arrival during the first visit to the Mulenzhe chiefdom at the end of October it was apparent that plans for the research had been well organized by the energetic chief Ramovha and several of his senior councillors. For the initial meeting at the capital no fewer than seven vhomakhadzi arrived, all dressed in their full traditional attire. The eldest makhadzi is in her nineties and the youngest in her early thirties; they represent three generations of vhomakhadzi, a rare phenomenon among the Venda. After the first two days of exploratory fieldwork it became evident that a makhadzi still plays a unique role in Venda life. She shares the privileges of the position of family head with her elder brother and fulfills crucial functions in connection with naming children, the designation of a new chief and headman, and worshipping the ancestor spirits. After the interviews with the vhomakhadzi Prof de Beer and his group were lavishly entertained by the royal family. Very conspicuous were the separate arrangements for men and women.

At a time when gender issues occupy a prominent place in anthropological debates and discourses, there is unquestionably the need for ongoing first-hand ethnographic information on the role and position of women in South African society. This research is intended to make some contribution in this regard.
 

Students registered for SKA201-3 and HANTAL-K will know that organizations are often staffed by people with different sociocultural backgrounds, that is by persons who hold different values, speak different languages or adhere to different belief-systems. Such differences suggest that people participate in different groups, including family and other kin-groups, unions and social clubs, political parties and religious groups, which of course influences their behaviour. Each person thus brings different orientations to the workplace, which means firstly that the external environment impacts on the organizational setting, and secondly, that the organization is characterized by cultural diversity. Because of their specialized knowledge and research expertise, anthropologists are in a good position to study the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour of employees and employers regarding their work situation and how they integrate personal, family, ethnic, professional and political aims and ambitions with their official roles and duties. It is therefore important to determine how and the extent to which cultural diversity influences the functioning of an organization.

The aforementioned research was conducted against this background. Although the research is still in a relatively early stage, certain key issues have already emerged from the research data for which explanations and meanings will be sought in the interpretation of the information. Some of these issues are the following:

• The context of the organization clearly influences individual and organizational behaviour in particular ways
• Information given to employees is not necessarily understood in the correct or ‘official’ way,
• not only because of language differences between employer and employee but also because the
• contents of the messages do not fit within the frames of reference of the receivers
• Formal and informal groups are established on the basis of social, racial and  psychological factors with important implications for the establishment of relationships between people and performance of work-related activities in the organization
• Employees view work differently and have different expectations of employment
• The idea of motivation or what constitutes an incentive to improve productivity often differs between employer and employees
• Hidden conflict and tensions, which for various reasons employees do not reveal to their employers, influence attitudes and behaviour
• Employees interpret aspects of organizational policy and decisions by management differently, consequently the organizational environment is characterized by ambiguity and discrepancies in ideas and perspectives of the work situation.

‘Our first stop was Brazil, the fifth largest country in the world of which the tourist brochures rightfully state that visitors can only hope to scratch the surface of this huge land. We stayed in Rio de Janeiro, a beautiful city especially when viewed from the top of the well-known Sugarloaf Mountain (visitors are taken up and down the mountain by cable car). The city seems to flow between the ocean and several mountain peaks, but as is the case with many large cities elsewhere in the world, the fairy tale picture of Rio portrayed on television, in books and brochures also has a less attractive side. During a city tour our attention was drawn to the massive housing problems in the urban area when we observed many self-constructed and often substandard dwellings in the poorer residential areas. Some of these are spread precariously up against the slopes of the mountains where dwellings appear to be constructed one on top of the other.

From Rio we went to the Iguaçu Falls, southwest of the city and approximately three hours away by aeroplane. These waterfalls, consisting of 275 cascades over nearly three km, are breathtaking and together with the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and the Niagra Falls in Canada constitute the three ‘giant’ waterfalls of the world. We viewed the Iguaçu Falls from the Brazilian side where our hotel was situated, from the Argentinian side, as well as from the air in a helicopter (the pilot of which regarded it his duty to tilt the helicopter in all directions over the roaring water mass below for my husband to get good video shots – my tummy and I were not happy at all!).

From the Falls we flew back to São Paulo and then onwards to the (Brazilian) Amazon. Here I realised the true meaning of ‘hot’, not to mention the day-time humidity level which was worse than ten Durbans in December! But what an extraordinary place! We landed in Manaus from where we travelled for three hours by boat to our hotel, the Amazon Ariaú Towers, which is built in the treetops along the river bank. Our ‘tree house’ room was approximately three stories above ground. The different complexes of the hotel such as the bedrooms, the reception area, including the kitchen and dining room, the small ‘zoo’ where injured forest animals are nursed till they can be released back into the wild, and the entertainment and conference halls are all balanced on wooden stilts and linked by wooden bridges and stairs. When moving about in the ‘grounds’ of the hotel, one never touches the ground. Because the hotel is situated in the jungle one has to be constantly aware of closing doors to keep out the multicoloured birds and several species of monkey which move freely around the hotel. A forest guide accompanied us as we walked through the thick vegetation in the jungle, visited American Indian families living along the river banks (their survival depends on manioc -- roots which are processed into manioc meal -- and limited trade of foodstuffs with other people living along the rivers) and watched alligators at night from a boat. We even caught piranha, the ‘killer’ fish, with a line and hook and pieces of meat! The Amazon River and its tributaries contain one-fifth of all the freshwater in the world and are thousands of kilometres in length.

From Manaus we flew in a roundabout way back to São Paulo and then on to Lima, the capital of Peru. In Lima we visited the famous Inca Gold Museum with its collection of gold and silver artefacts and magnificent textiles. The residents of Lima don’t seem to be able to drive without continuously using their cars’ hooters, regardless of whether the robot at the corner is red or whether a long queue of stationary vehicles is lined up in front of them! Lima is situated at sea level, but within one hour we flew to Cusco which lies at an altitude of 11 150 ft (3 400m). Tourists are advised to sleep for two to three hours on arrival in Cusco and thereafter to take it easy: walk slowly, breathe deeply, avoid alcohol, eat lightly for the first day, and to drink tea made from coca leaves (a local remedy) to minimise the effects of altitude sickness. Nevertheless many tourists feel ill and both my husband and I suffered from headaches. In Cusco, the former capital of the Inca Empire, we saw many women of Inca descent dressed in their brightly coloured traditional clothes and wearing their long black hair in two braids. The women we saw near our hotel were obviously dressed in this manner for the benefit of the tourists to whom they try to sell various items, but on the outskirts of the city women dressed in this way go about their daily activities, including herding llamas and alpachas (sheeplike animals with cute faces). We went on a city tour of Cusco which included a visit to the Temple of the Sun in the centre of the city, and the Inca ruins at Sacsaywaman on the outskirts of the city. Interestingly, shops in Cusco generally have no display windows; one has to enter through the wooden doors to see what is on offer inside. Beautiful machine- and handknitted jerseys, ponchos, waistcoats, woven carpets and murals (made of llama and alpacha wool) are for sale, but unfortunately the lack of space in my suitcase (and lack of money in my purse!) prevented me from buying all the items that I desired.

From Cusco we took a three-hour train ride through the Sacred Valley to the foot of Machu Picchu in the Andes Mountains. Travelling through the countryside we saw ‘cave dwellings’ against the mountain slopes, traditional flat-roofed brown houses in the little villages and people (again mostly in traditional dress) working in the fields where they cultivate potatoes, maize and other crops. The impressive ruins of the ‘lost city’ (which is rather a sanctuary) of the Inca, Machu Picchu, are truly awesome. Situated deep in the Sacred Valley and pitched on a steep mountaintop overlooking the Urubamba River, the city is hidden by vines and trees and remained undiscovered by the outside world till 1911. It remained inaccessible till the 1940s when archaeologists discovered the Inca Trail which cuts through the valley. The city was made up of houses, temples, the royal quarters, an astronomical observatory, burial places, walkways, fountains, an irrigation system (the water still runs in the aqueducts) and land for cultivation on narrow terraces built on the steep mountain slopes. Machu Picchu is regarded as the most perfect surviving example of Inca architecture and planning because it has never been looted or destroyed. Why the city ceased to exist more than 400 years ago is unknown. There are various theories in this regard, for example that, even before the Spanish Conquest, the inhabitants died during a plague or were killed during political upheavals in the Inca Empire.

We returned to Cusco from where we flew back to Lima (one hour), then to Rio de Janeiro again (about six hours) to catch a connecting flight to Mexico (about ten hours away). The reasons for all the flying -- roughly 55 000km for our tour in total -- were that direct flights with a Peruvian airline to Mexico have been discontinued, and in our limited time we wanted to see as much as possible. Moreover the places we visited were great distances apart. For all the internal flights in South America we flew on Varig Airlines, the national carrier of Brazil and the partner airline of SAA (using one airline inland makes the flights a little cheaper). Varig Airlines are amazing and extremely punctual. If a flight is scheduled to leave at 11h00 the aeroplane’s motors are started at 10h55 and at exactly 11h00 the plane takes off. This punctuality also applies to other forms of tourist transport and tour guides are often seen waiting for tourists 15 minutes before the set time of an excursion. The notion of ‘African time’ should best be forgotten on an organised tour of South America!

In Mexico we spent most of our time in and around Cancún, a beautiful city where palm trees sway lazily in the wind and the sea water is turquoise and lukewarm. The food was delicious (not that I always knew what I was eating!), and the atmosphere in an authentic Mexican restaurant is worthy of the expression ‘a celebration of life’. From Cancún we travelled inland to the famous Maya ruins of Chichén Itzá, situated east of Merida, the capital of the Yucatán Peninsula. Similar to the Inca ruins, the Maya ruins must be seen to be believed and one cannot in a few words do justice to their magnificence. Several large buildings which are spread out over a vast area, include the observatory (the Maya were excellent astronomers and mathematicians), temples and other religious structures, as well as the hallmark of this sacred city, namely El Castillo (the Castle) also known as Kukulkan’s Pyramid. This huge rectangular structure has a stairway of 91 very steep steps on each side; the four stairways total 364 steps and with the platform on top forming another one, add up to 365 steps, equalling the number of days in the solar year. To climb up the stairs is one of the ‘must do’ things for tourists, so I ventured forth just to realise that coming down is something else! No wonder many people descend on their behinds! There are many more interesting aspects to this city, for example the Ball Court (the largest ball court in Mesoamerica) with its amazing side-to-side echo which repeats seven times in the centre (the tour guide demonstrated this to us); the beautiful carvings on the outside of the buildings, and indications of human sacrifices to the gods. The decline of this Maya civilization was apparently due to warfare and foreign cultural influences. By the 1500s Chichén Itzá had lost its magnificence.

From Mexico we flew to Miami in the USA for a few days to rest from the onslaught on the mind and senses! And then we headed back home because my students at Unisa were about to start their examinations. In summary: our tour was fantastic and should you ever have the opportunity to visit South and Central America, DO SO!’
 

• Welcome to our first Newsletter for 2000!

  As you probably know by now our Newsletter is an endeavour to keep students up to date about important matters in the Department and of general anthropological or archaeological significance. We are delighted that our Newsletter is acquiring a wider audience as is evident from the comments we have received. Therefore, once you have read your Newsletter pass it on to someone else to read and so contribute to marketing and informing others about our disciplines and department in particular.

  If you have any comments on your studies in our department or any other matter which you think will be of interest to other students, please send us your ideas. Address your correspondence to

  The Editor, Newsletter
  Department of Anthropology and Archaeology
  University of South Africa
  Box 392
  UNISA 0003

  Tel: (012) 429-6418/6788
  Fax: (012) 429-6091
  E.mail: VHEERME@unisa.ac.za

  [Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the Editor or of the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology of the University.]

  IN THIS ISSUE

  OUR DEPARTMENT GROWS!

  RESEARCH ARTICLES AND PUBLICATIONS BY HONOURS STUDENTS

  CONTRIBUTIONS BY ARCHAEOLOGY STUDENTS

  SA3 CONFERENCE

  POSTER AND PAPER ABSTRACTS

  UNISA STUDENTS VISIT STERKFONTEIN

  COMMUNITY OUTREACH

  UNISA ANTHROPOLOGISTS IN NAMIBIA

  A SPECIAL STUDENT FROM UP NORTH

  IN A LIGHTER VEIN!

  FINALLY, A LITTLE BIT OF MADNESS?

  OUR DEPARTMENT GROWS!

  We must be doing something right! We have entered the new millennium on a high note with a significant increase in student numbers. Our enrolments for 2000 are as follows:

  ANTHROPOLOGY	ARCHAEOLOGY
  SKA100-V	922	ACE100-D	117
  SKA201-3	242	ACE201-H	51
  SKA202-4	231	ACE202-J	54
  SKA301-6	47	AGE301-B	54
  SKA302-8	50	AGE302-C	55
  SKA303-9	52	AGE303-D	51
  		AGE304-E	52

  On postgraduate level we have 23 anthropology honours students. Among these we have Mrs Joyce Carlson from the Ivory Coast and Mr Simon Waldherr from Mexico.

  Five students are enrolled for an MA in anthropology and one for a doctorate in anthropology.

  RESEARCH ARTICLES AND PUBLICATIONS BY HONOURS STUDENTS

  Mr JF Devenish
  Family life in Shakung: An anthropological study of rural poverty.

  Ms KL Moonsamy
  Family life and migrant labour in Lesotho.

  Mrs ME Perlman
  The quest and the request: an anthropological study of backpackers at a hostel in Durban.

  One of our 1998 honours students, Chiara Carcianiga from Italy, revamped her research article (with Dr S Herselman from our department) and now has an additional publication to her credit:

  'Leprosy and Anthropological Insights' in South African Journal of Ethnology.

  Congratulations to all these students!

  CONTRIBUTIONS BY ARCHAEOLOGY STUDENTS

  Marlize Lombaard (3^rd year archaeology student, Unisa)

  On the 6^th of July 1925, JC Smuts addressed the South African Association for the advancement of Science and made the prediction that 'South Africa would find herself not in the sidelines but at the centre of some important scientific explorations and perhaps as the cradle of the human race' (Beukes 1999:124). On the 25^th and 26^th of March 2000, UNISA archaeology friends joined over 1000 other enthusiasts at the Millennium Celebration of the Origin of Humankind in the Great Hall at Wits University. This was a most stimulating, exhilarating and rewarding experience. We were literally catapulted through 120 million years of evolution: from fossils, climatic changes and vegetation changes to the early dawning of humankind, our culture, our art, our language, social complexity and our possible future by some of the most accredited, fascinating and charismatic researchers. What a privilege to be present at the manifestation of Smuts' prediction 75 years later! Another, much appreciated advantage, was to be accompanied by three of our lecturers. They were especially valuable in enlightening those parts where the 'student's mind' became overwhelmed and would gently bring you back on track wherever you got lost because of the sheer enthusiasm or plain lack of knowledge. Thank you very much Maria, Francois and Isabelle for your patience, dedication, always smiling faces and for sharing this experience with us. A short abstract of the lectures are included for those who could not join us. We hope to meet you next time!

  Shaw Badenhorst (3^rd year archaeology student, Unisa)

  A small group of about 20 students and people interested in archaeology undertook a one-day excursion on Sunday, the 12^th of March, to historical and archaeological sites in Irene, Centurion.

  The group met at the house of former South African premier, Jan Smuts. A short walk took us to the top of the koppie, where an obelisk was erected after his death in 1950. The footpath leading to the top of the koppie leads through unspoiled nature on and around Smuts' farm where 165 different bird species can be seen, making it a bird watcher's paradise. We also visited the house, which is now a museum.

  Jan Christiaan Smuts was born in May 1870 in Riebeeck-Wes. After completing school, he went to Cambridge to study law. Upon returning to South Africa, he practiced law for some time. At this stage he was a supporter of the Crown, but turned against British imperialism after the (attempted) Jameson invasion in 1895. President Paul Kruger from the ZAR appointed the young Smuts as state attorney in 1898. He played an active role in the South African War, the unification of the four British South African colonies, the First and Second World Wars and the founding of the League of Nations which later became the United Nations.

  He bought the farm Doornkloof in 1908 where the family enjoyed a simple lifestyle. Here he practiced his hobbies of hiking and identifying grasses. He discovered a new species of grass on the farm, currently colloquially known as Jan Smuts-grass. He disliked driving and sometimes would walk to his offices at the Union buildings, which is situated some 15 kilometers to the north of the farm.

  After Louis Botha's death in 1919, Smuts became premier of the Union until Hertzog defeated him in the 1924 Pact elections. He came to office again in 1939 but retired to his farm after he lost the 1948 elections. During his two terms in office he held several portfolios, often more than one at a time.

  Jan Smuts died in September 1950 after a short sickbed. He was a man who loved nature and his country to the fullest, and will not only be remembered for his leadership, tremendous administrative capacity and integrity, but also as a man that was way ahead of his time.

  A concentration camp was erected in Irene during the South African War (1899-1902). The current street layout of Irene corresponds to the original concentration camp layout. The Unisa group visited the graves of those who died in the concentration camp. Although the exact number is unknown, between 878 and 1193 people, mostly women and children, died during the 25 months during which the Irene concentration camp was occupied. The graves were restored in 1958. The original engraved headstones are still to be seen.

  The next stop was at the Grootboom cave outside Irene, also known as the difaqane cave. It is a dolomite sinkhole which was used as a place of refuge by a group of displaced Bakwena during the difaqane period. According to historical documents Mzilikazi's soldiers discovered them there in 1825. The soldiers lit a fire at the cave's entrance and those who were not killed while trying to escape, suffocated. Their skeletons were found in the 1890s. The cave was also searched for the Kruger millions after the South African War, needless to say without any success. The danger of contracting histoplasmosis (cave sickness) precludes the investigation of the cave without oxygen masks.

  The historical site of the Irene Orphanage was our last stop. It was built after the South African War in 1902 as one of three orphanages in the former Transvaal colony built to accommodate Afrikaans-speaking war orphans.

  The documentation of the orphanage was previously undertaken with the assistance of Francois Coetzee (Unisa). The remains of the foundation structures were plotted and mapped. An existing map, compiled by an elderly woman who lived in the orphanage as a young girl, was used as a basis. Her map was, however, not drawn to scale, but was based on what she could remember of the outlay (Figure 1). This map was used to identify all the physical structural remains currently visible (Figure 2).

  The wood and sink structures were erected in October 1902. Between 60 and 78 young children lived in this orphanage, which was closed down in 1907, when all three Transvaal orphanages amalgamated into the Potchefstroom Orphanage. After closure, the government removed the structures from the site with the aim to re-use the material for other projects. A small temporary school which was attended by the children, also had to close in 1907. It was reopened in 1908 at a different location as a result of the expanding Irene community.

  The day ended with a braai at the orphanage. Thanks to all of you who helped to make the day a success and a special word of thanks to our lecturers, Maria, Dr Jan, Francois and Isabelle for enjoying the day with us.

  References:

  Badenhorst, S. 2000 Die stigting, fisiese uitleg en sluiting van die Ireneweeshuis en -skool, 1902 tot 1907. Article submitted to the Journal of Cultural History.

  Hattingh, J.L. 1967 Die Irenekonsentrasiekamp. Argiefjaarboek vir Suid Afrikaanse Geskiedenis 30 (1), Johannesburg

  Kotzé, C.S. 1983 Doornkloof-wêreld. Pretoria

  Naudé, C. M. 1983 Verwoerdburg, 'n terugblik. Pretoria

  Smith, K.W. 1979 The Irene Primary School. Pretoria.

   

  EXCURSION TO OLIEBOOMSPOORT

  I left for this archaeological dig with some trepidation. The idea that only seven of my fellow students will be assisting on the excursion already exhausted me but with excitement coursing through my veins, I was ready to tackle any activity. So, from the 9th to the 18th of June the few of us undertook the challenge of successfully excavating as much as possible at the site of Olieboomspoort. This Stone Age rock shelter, rich with archaeological material, is located near Ellisras.

  We all braved the cold and set up a luxurious camp near the excavation site. In the mornings the alarm clock of baboon calls would sound and after a well-needed cup of coffee, we would get to work. Digging, sieving, sorting the finds and with particular attention to the documentation, became the regular routine and amongst all this labour, we would be rewarded with some fascinating finds. These included bags of worked stone, amazing formal stone tools of various sizes, ostrich eggshell beads and decorated ostrich eggshell, delicately worked bone tools, faunal material, well-preserved seeds and much more. Our excavations were focussed on deposits dating to around the year AD 500 and older but radiocarbon dating of seeds and charcoal found on location will determine the accurate dates.

  After the hard day's work, we would "eagerly" collect wood and water for the evening ahead. The homemade shower with bonfire-heated water was well appreciated and deserved. Our day ended with conversations and laughter around the warm campfire along with a meal fit for a king and glühwein to keep us warm.

  On behalf of myself and those who accompanied me, we would like to thank Maria van der Ryst for all her hard work and efforts to make this week of enjoyment, hard work and inquisitiveness possible and a great success. We all left with heavy hearts and sore limbs but eagerly look forward to April 2001 when the excavations will be continued.

   

  SA3 CONFERENCE

  This year, the biennial conference of the Southern African Association of Archaeologists (SA3) was hosted by the SA3 Council from 25 to 28 April at the Wits Club in Johannesburg. Archaeologists from the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, Unisa, also attended the conference which consisted of several fascinating academic sessions. Papers were presented on recent Stone Age, Iron Age and rock art research while discussions centred around themes such as Archaeology in the new millennium and Archaeology and the community. Whereas early morning workshops were organised for more diligent delegates, two cocktail parties and a banquet ensured that academic matters were left behind after hours.

  Maria van der Ryst and Isabelle Parsons presented posters and Deborah Whelan (3^rd year archaeology student at Amafa KwaZulu-Natal) delivered a paper based on their current research at the conference. During the post conference excursion Jan Boeyens acted as tour guide at the site Kaditshwene where he is conducting research. This three-day excursion took place in the Northwest Province and it, along with the conference itself, again indicated South Africa's impressive archaeological wealth.

   

  POSTER AND PAPER ABSTRACTS

  Isabelle Parsons (Junior lecturer, Archaeology, Unisa)

  THE CONTRIBUTION OF A SURFACE SITE: THE LATER STONE AGE ON BLOUBOS, NORTHERN CAPE

  Current research conducted on the farm Bloubos, situated some 50 km north of Upington in the northern Cape, will be the focus of this poster. The archaeological remains and dates yielded by two Ceramic Later Stone Age sites on the farm will be indicated along with their proposed relation to one another and other analysed sites in the region. This research is mainly concerned with the role to be played by surface scatters in the area in terms of the generation of information regarding the Ceramic LSA in the region. The correlation between the Bloubos samples and contemporaneous stone tool assemblages from the Ghaap plateau and Kuruman hills (Humphreys & Thackeray, 1983) as well as Beaumont's Doornfontein industry (1995), is hoped to be indicative of the potential contribution of open-air sites in this part of the northern Cape. The most prominent tool types recovered from the sites include macrolithic scrapers and microlithic backed blades and segments, while thin-walled, grit-tempered and mostly undecorated potsherds were also found.

  Maria van der Ryst (Lecturer, Archaeology, Unisa)

  SEEKING SHELTER: LATER STONE AGE HUNTERS AND GATHERERS OF OLIEBOOMSPOORT IN THE WESTERN WATERBERG

  Olieboomspoort is a large rock shelter on the western edge of the Waterberg Plateau in the Mokolo drainage basin. The occupation sequence at Olieboomspoort dates back to at least the Middle Stone Age, and probably the Early Stone Age according to excavations undertaken by Mason in the 1950s. The focus of the current project is on the Later Stone Age (LSA) and will link up with research data on the Waterberg Plateau. A basic consideration is to establish the settlement sequence of the lower-lying bushveld. Another theme to receive attention is the acquisition of resources and the particular influence of the Waterberg ecosystem on LSA settlement patterns and on the lifestyle of the hunter-gatherers. Particular focus, as in previous research, will be on the influence of the immigrant Iron Age farmers on the indigenous LSA hunter-gatherers. C¹⁴ dates obtained from recent excavations indicate that the LSA ranges from historic times to a few thousand years ago. Technological (and functional) characteristics of and changes in the artefact assemblage will be illustrated in the poster. Interaction with Iron Age farmers is attested to by ceramics and other material cultural items such as cowrie shells and glass beads. The ceramic sample contains Bambata, Happy Rest, Eiland and Moloko pottery. Handprints in red and yellow figure prominently in the rock art at this shelter. Other images include late white geometrics and animal representations.

  Deborah Whelan at Amafa KwaZulu-Natal (3^rd year archaeology student, Unisa)

  [Deborah is currently in New Mexico. She received a grant to do further research on indigenous architecture.]

  TRANSFORMATIONS IN RURAL AND PERI-URBAN TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURE OF KWAZULU-NATAL: A COMMENTARY THAT THE ETHNOGRAPHIC PRESENT CANNOT BE NECESSARILY USED TO INFORM THE ETHNOGRAPHIC PAST IN THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD

  The transformation of buildings through time from an architectural, structural, and aesthetic perspective was discussed.

  The rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal are notable as hosts for distinctive trans-formations in the form, style and material of the built tradition, demonstrating the influence of historical mechanisms and the practicality of the available materials.

  These dwellings are of an elastic nature, and the structures and materials change constantly within the strictures of the building form. There is a broad element of experimentation that occurs to the extent that this practice is carried over to the imindjondolo of the informal settlements. This is not a recent phenomenon- the adaptations of materials and their influence on the built form is one that can be traced back to the early days of the region, and the alacrity with which the amaZulu are able to adopt and adapt adds a new perspective to the study of regional architecture.

  It is for this reason that the ethnographic past is not necessarily informed by the ethnographic present. Analysis of dwelling sites of iron age vintage should be conducted using a structural means with the dwellings of present and recently historical peoples being used as a guideline. This paper seeks to examine these issues and to suggest a way forward.

  The architectural record in Kwazulu-Natal is fortunate in that a large number of missionaries, settlers, traders and soldiers saw fit to document their new surroundings in a written, drawn, and, towards the latter part of the 19th century, photographic documentary form. This has become very useful in the comparative studies of a traditional vernacular architecture from 1823 to the present day rural and peri-urban settlements. The year 1823 is the official date of European settlers in the Province, but this was predated by celebrated Portuguese, Dutch and English visitors and observers. This is my main motivation behind the premise that an ethnographic present cannot be necessarily relied upon to describe an ethnographic past in the archaeological record, particularly in the field of a material culture such as buildings.

  The fundamental structure of building form is the plan. This is the basis of projections into elevation, and further into section. A circular plan can be vertically construed in a number of ways. The building may be a dome, a dome on minor drum, dome on major drum, a conical roof on minor drum, major drum or proportionately high drum. Similarly, rectangular and square plan shapes can be resolved in totally different ways in a vertical context. There is thus often a danger to interpret what we may find on the ground into a totally conjectural vision above ground level.

  It is for this reason that the ethnographic present is used to inform the ethnographic past in much material culture. Indeed, in KwaZulu-Natal, the Late Iron Age is both a historical and documented fact, and I would argue that this proximity to history makes us more inclined to adopt this ethnographic comparative method as a means of constructing the past. I also think that there is a great danger in this, bearing in mind the rapid historical and present developments in the cultural and architectural repositories of the Province. Things have moved very quickly, and for a variety of reasons. The Zulu are adaptive and incorporate new influences from a technological to an aesthetic type effectively within a short time span. The plethora of new materials that are available have been historically adapted to a built form, creating a different topophilia as well as changing the visual shape. Intermarriage between clans and architectural groupings changes the layout of the homestead and alters the built form. New religious phenomena which themselves are plagiarized sects inform the housing and the built environment. The following notes are based on personal travels and experience as well as historically documented texts and photographic material.

  A typically perceived notion of Zulu architecture would be that of the beehive hut, or iqhughwana. It is a beehive shape structure constructed of criss-crossed withies or lathes (izintungu) which are thatched in a number of ways.

  Fynn, Saunderson-King and Nathanial Isaacs were first-hand observers of the great iKhanda and iMizi of Shaka kaSenzangakhona. Angas, a couple of decades further on, depicted painstakingly elements of Zulu culture, both social and material. His drawings include huts (which are probably the most accurate early depictions) in a variety of styles, from the draped mat on the beehive, reminiscent of the houses of the Khoekhoen, to a fully decorated, grassrope finished building, both of which would appear similar in the archaeological record. Their basic structure is identical, the projected elevations differ. Further in the century, the arrival of the black wattle by the Van der Plank family, introduced a new material that was rapidly adopted by the Zulu in the building of their homesteads, replacing the Dichrostachys (sickle bush) used for years. This had the effect of changing the visual shape of the huts - Dichrostachys being much more pliable, tended to bow out at the base and produce a low squat structure, rather than the almost perfect dome of the reconstructions at Ondini and Umgungundlovu. Again, the archaeological record belies the true aesthetic nature of the top structure.

  These examples may appear insignificant in the greater scheme of archaeological interpretation, but it is well to note that 19th century Zululand operated in a materially sterile environment. Admittedly, the occupying British provided all sorts of new influences and material culture, but the basic materials of timber, metals, bone and mud remained largely static. The plastic and asbestos age was to further alter Zulu material culture from the turn of the century onward. It is well known that Dingane embellished the posts in his hut with beads, drawn from European extraction, either traded or found objects.

  It is thus unwise to assume that the process of development is a new phenomenon. Indeed, it has been proven by documentation over a period of nearly 200 years that the pace of change is both fickle and drastic. In interpreting the archaeological record, it may be pragmatic to examine the site from a structural nature as well.

   

  UNISA STUDENTS VISIT STERKFONTEIN

  In recent years it has become tradition for archaeology students from Unisa to annually visit the Sterkfontein caves and surrounding sites.

  This was again the case on Sunday 14 May 2000 when a group of more than seventy enthusiastic students along with family members, friends and members of the department gathered at the Sterkfontein World Heritage Site. The Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at Unisa organises this annual excursion so that students may have the opportunity to experience the magic of the cradle of humankind firsthand. This year was no exception. Amanda Esterhuysen from the Wits Department of Archaeology took the group on a guided tour into the Sterkfontein caves and fascinated them with the saga of our beginnings. However, the development of early humans is no old wives' tale - the casts of Australopithecus africanus, Paranthropus robustus and others again affirmed the authenticity of this tale.

  Having briefly discussed the significance of the nearby Swartkrans site, Colin Menter and then Dr André Keyser from the Wits Department of Anatomy next enlightened the group about their ongoing and recently much publicized excavations at Drimolen. While members of the field team pointed out fragments of a petrified skull belonging to a baboon, an elephant tusk and several mouse bones visible in the excavation, Dr Keyser spoke about the two recently discovered Paranthropus robustus specimens. The excursion concluded with a picnic at Drimolen and with all members of the party as much aware of the value of these heritage sites as of their hunger pains.

   

  COMMUNITY OUTREACH

  We have recently received the following communication on the inclusion of archaeology and anthropology in educational programmes for schools in KwaZulu-Natal.

  Mary Fisher/Lange (3^rd year archaeology student, Unisa)
  [BA degree: (Eng & Psy) Unisa; Licentiate (Teachers) Speech and Drama, Trinity College London; Dip. Perf. Arts (Drama) Pta Tech; SP & DRAMA- Final Unisa]

  Dear Dr Boeyens

  As discussed telephonically I have attached an overview of the project mentioned. I most urgently need a Zulu speaking person or persons to assist me. For the drama-in-education programs some person(s) who is/are interested in the performing arts and enjoys working with small children is/are needed. The initial programs will be geared for the pre-school and foundation phases (Gr. 0-Gr. 3) of schooling and will be based on themes linked to the hunter-gatherer culture and the motto on the new coat of arms. Any student who lays claim to Khoisan heritage should definitely be involved.

  Westville Senior Primary has requested a talk for Gr. 7 pupils that introduce the children to various career opportunities available in Anthropology and Archaeology. They would also like a program that stimulates critical thinking linked to the development of stone tool technology. I can present the talk and lesson on my own but if there is anyone interested in assisting with the stone tool lesson they are welcome to contact me. The talk and program will be presented in the first week of the third term. As discussed all talks and programs will be forwarded to Amanda Esterhuysen and she will give her opinion on them. These will be pilot lessons and the Gr. 7 HSS teacher will provide feedback. The lessons will then be promoted initially to other Senior Primary Schools in the Durban area.

  If there are any students who are interested in training with a view to presenting the programs or adaptations thereof in their home region, they are welcome to contact me. I am however already associated with a performing group from the South African Centre for Cultural Studies in the Cape Town area.

  Thanking you for your interest and help.

  Marylange@mweb.co.za Tel 082 652 7091

   

  THE PROJECT

  Vision

  1. The use of drama/theatre-in-education programs for the introduction of school children of various ages to the various cultures of Southern Africa and to emphasize inter-cultural common ground.

  To provide upliftment to communities linked to specific cultures or communities linked to heritage sites by means of providing employment in the programs for both educational and tourism opportunities plus nurturing pride in and or respect for the culture responsible for the heritage site.

  2. The creation of educational programs linked to anthropology and archaeology for school children of various ages;

  To promote the various career options linked to the above and the contribution these professions can make to the broader and specific communities.

  3. The creation of collaboration between theatre, museums, and heritage conservation whereby skills offered by the aforementioned might be pooled in order to carry out points (A) and (B).

  Proposed action as at June 2000

  1. Creation of programs and talks re above points (A) and (B) in liaison with professionals from various disciplines.

  2. Programs and talks to be reviewed by Amanda Esterhuysen - Director of the Archaeological Resource Development Project - Wits University.

  3. Provision of programs to South African Centre for Cultural Studies for their continued use in the Cape Town area.

  4. Formation of a troupe of performers representative of the cultures reflected in the programs linked to above point (A) as far as is practical for the KwaZulu-Natal region, specifically the Durban area.

  5. Formation of a group of interested Anthropology and or Archaeology students e.g. Unisa students, and/or Professionals e.g. Museum staff, to aid in the execution of above points (A) and (B) in the KwaZulu-Natal region, specifically the Durban area.

  6. The creation of a Proposal for the Playhouse Theatre as requested by their education personnel re collaboration as mentioned in above point (C) and the possible inclusion of one of the school programs created and performed by 'The Circle Connection' in the Playhouse schools' tour or Omnibus.

  7. Continued liaison with Amafa KwaZulu-Natal re a proposal linked to points (A) and (C) for the rock art heritage sites of the uKhahlamba.

  8. Promotion of above points (A) and (B) to schools in the Durban area.

  9. Westville Senior primary school has requested a talk and educational program as soon as the beginning of the third school term. Nursery schools in the area have also expressed great interest in cultural programs to be available at the earliest convenience.

  Funding

  At present the project is being funded by myself. Other avenues of funding are being sought. Training relating to the above points (A) and (B) will be provided with a view to remuneration for performances at schools. Schools will be charged per pupil according to the school's means. Donations will be made to certain institutions e.g. for reviewing programs and talks as arranged.

   

  UNISA ANTHROPOLOGISTS IN NAMIBIA

  Prof Mike de Jongh, Dr Chris van Vuuren, Karen Rebel and Riana Steyn from the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology recently attended the annual conference of the Association for Anthropology in Southern Africa at the University of Namibia in Windhoek. The main theme of the conference was The Challenge for Anthropology in the African Renaissance. Sub-themes included: historical anthropology in Southern Africa, the re-invention of culture and tradition, re-configuring Southern Africa through migration, the post-colonial state, anthropology in development, gender relations in Southern Africa, and anthropology and health beyond the year 2000. Delegates from South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Australia participated in the conference. The keynote address "Anthropology and the African Renaissance: Social Crises in North Eastern Zambia" was delivered by Prof George Clement Bond from the University of Columbia.

  Prof de Jongh's paper Making and Maintaining the Tribe and the Ingenuity of Genealogy was incorporated in a session on tradition and heritage; Dr van Vuuren's contribution The Night of the Tragedy: History and Relevance of a Remembered Event was part of a larger discussion on the incident of the Samora Machel plane crash; Karen Rebel's paper Money that Wipes Away Tears: Burial Societies as Mutual Insurance Societies in South Africa was included in a session on applied anthropology and Riana Steyn's paper Karretjie Children: Past and Present formed part of a session on children and youth in Southern Africa.

  During the annual general meeting, Prof de Jongh was re-elected for a second consecutive term as President of the Association and Dr van Vuuren was elected as an additional member on the management board.

  After the conference the delegates were taken on a field trip to the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia (DRFN) at Gobabeb. They were also introduced to various Topnaar Nama communities in the area. The ‡Aonin Topnaars are also known as the !Naranin, because they harvest !Naras, a type of wild lemon which grows in the area. The Kuiseb river is a valuable resource to them, especially in terms of fishing. They were previously pastoral nomads but have become sedentary mainly because of the depletion of veld resources. Most families own donkeys and goats and small-scale gardening has recently been introduced.

   

  A SPECIAL STUDENT FROM UP NORTH

  We are fortunate to have a rich diversity of students in our department. Although all our students are special, some need to be specifically mentioned because of a particular background or context. One such a student is Joyce Carlson, one of our honours students who obtained her BA degree at Portland State University in Oregan, USA and who also completed several postgraduate courses in the USA.

  The following news is from her:

  'My husband and I have been living in Francophone West Africa - specifically Mali and Ivory Coast - since 1980, off and on, because linguistics is my husband's passion and profession. My husband's concentration and doctoral studies are on the Supyire language (Northern Senoufo group) of southeastern Mali in the Sikasso region, so in 1980 we (along with our then four-year-old daughter) set up life in a small village of agriculturalists and gave language-learning a whirl.

  It was great fun for my husband, and more difficult for me, to make sense of life in a small Supyire village, so as a survival technique, and without any specific training in anthropology, I started scribbling notes and views about life in Supyire-land on scraps of paper. Over the year I've collected these into a computerized data-base.

  As time goes by, other "cultural travellers" have begun to ask me (as if I should know!) how to cope in cross-cultural settings. So, what with one thing and another, I've been dabbling in anthropological pursuits with fascination, while at the same time feeling acutely ignorant of theory and method. The two papers I'm working on now (HANTNA-4 and HANTAL-K) are meeting a profound need on my part to learn how to do systematic research, and if over the next couple of years I can turn some of these notes into a useful study of Senoufo-Supyire life, maybe the effort of learning how to be "Supyire" won't go to waste!

  Currently we are living in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. It takes us about 12 hours of serious driving to reach our "other home" across the border, so we go "home to Mali" for holidays.

  I am a religious worker and my husband is teaching principles of linguistic analysis at a Faculty of Theology in Abidjan. The courses are at an MA level for Francophone Africans who are interested in doing linguistic research and Scripture translation in their own languages. This year he has students from Chad, Togo, Burkina Faso and Mali. Last semester I sat in on some of the anthropology lectures which are part of the students required courses--excellent for my French and fascinating for discussion about things that I find more interesting than linguistics--like the Tamashek rite of putting a turban on a young man for the first time, or how Supyire people bury the dead.

  My husband Bob and I belong to a mission that has a focus on Bible translation--Wycliffe Bible Translators. We both came into this through a long family association with Scripture translation. My grandfather, and later my mother worked on the first translation of the Sukuma Bible of Tanzania (my mother having learned Sukuma as a child).

  Since Bob is a linguist, he was invited by the Protestant church in SE Mali to do an analysis of the Supyire language which is spoken by about 350,000 people. The result is a grammar of the language (Carlson, Robert. 1994. A Grammar of Supyire. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter). He's currently working on a dictionary of the language which we hope to see published fairly soon. Bob likes nothing better than to write esoteric papers on grammaticalized verbs, narrative connectives, post-positions and word order for example, and then read them out at conferences and talk about things that non-linguists find very boring.

  As regards our connection to America:

  Since I grew up in Tanzania (and went to school in Kenya) while my husband grew up almost a continent away from me in Nigeria where his parents were teaching in a Bible College, we didn't really have a sense of "home" in America until we went to university. However,

  Oregon has become home for us in the States because that's where the rest of my family is, and where our daughter will be married. Summer in Oregon is just as romantic as April in Paris!

  We have one daughter Anne, who is 23, and graduated last year from Cornell University in New York with a BA in Comparative Literature. She is currently in a three-year course of study at Virginia Theological Seminary (Episcopal) leading to an MDiv and is just recently engaged to be married! Home for Anne is Mali, and she hopes to bring her fiance to visit us this next Christmas and show him where she grew up.

  So that is more about who I am, to fill in the blanks.

  Greetings to all.

  Joyce Carlson

  IN A LIGHTER VEIN!

  From The Mercury, Wednesday June 17 1998

  School kids do say the darnedest things, says the latest edition of Impi, the magazine of the KwaZulu-Natal branch of Mensa, SA, the club for bright sparks.

  It lists these items from journals that teachers have kept of sayings of students in their exam papers:

  Water is composed of two gins, oxygin and hydrogin. Oxygin is pure gin. Hydrogin is gin and water.

  A virgin forest is a forest where the hand of man has never set foot.

  The general direction of the Alps is straight up.

  Most of the houses in France are made of plaster of Paris.

  A scout obeys all to whom obedience is due and respects all duly constipated authorities.

  Oliver Cromwell had a large red nose, but under it were deeply religious feelings.

  The spinal column is a long bunch of bones. The head sits on the top and you sit on the bottom.

  The word trousers is an uncommon noun because it is singular at the top and plural at the bottom.

  The blood circulates through the body by flowing down one leg and up the other.

  Syntax is all the money collected at the church from sinners.

  Iron was discovered because someone smelt it.

  When you breathe, you inspire. When you do not breathe, you expire.

  Three kinds of blood vessels are arteries, vanes, and caterpillars.

  The body consists of three parts - the brainium, the borax and the abominable cavity. The brainium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs, and the abominable cavity contains the bowels, of which there are five - a, e, i, o, and u.

  Rhubarb: a kind of celery gone bloodshot.

  Vacuum: A large, empty space where the pope lives.

  Before giving a blood transfusion, find out if the blood is affirmative or negative.

  To remove dust from the eye, pull the eye down over the nose.

   

  A different view on religion!

  A pastor went out one Saturday to visit his church members.

  At one house it was obvious that someone was home, but nobody came to the door even though the pastor had knocked several times.

  Finally, the pastor took out his card and wrote 'Revelations 3:20' on the back of it, and stuck it in the door.

  (Revelations 3:20: Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with me.)

  The next day, the card turned up in the collection plate. Below the pastor's message was the notation 'Genesis 3:10'.

  (Genesis 3:10: I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.)

   

  FINALLY, A LITTLE BIT OF MADNESS?

  Madness comes in different forms, or on a more positive note: all work and no play ..., although many people will not regard running the 87,7km constituting the Comrades Marathon as play. Whatever the case may be, the idea of 'have legs - will run' prompted Dr Eulalie van Heerden to successfully complete her third Comrades Marathon in 9 hours 33 minutes.

  Well done, Eulalie!

  Final editing: Eulalie van Heerden                                 Layout: Elize Kruger and Francois Coetzee

   

  ---

  No 2, November 2000
  • Hello and goodbye!
  • The American Anthropological Association
  • The annual archaeological excursion: the Kaditshwene experience
  • The monolith
  • The wrong side of midnight ....': Kaditshwene 2000
  • Isabelle Parsons' distinction
  • Sociocultural diversity in a work environment
  • 'Tata ma millions, tata ma chance'
  • Attention all 3rd-year students! Chagnon & Co in trouble again?
  • Update on the African Centre for Arts, Culture and Heritage Studies (ACACHS)
  • A Christmas wish list - From the past
  • On-line Anthropology journals

  ---

  It is that challenging time of the year again - examinations! We hope you were not disappointed with the examination papers, and if you must still write your examinations, either in November or in January, good luck. This past year was the first in which students in our department were automatically admitted to the examinations, and we are keenly waiting to see what the impact of this decision, if any, will be on the results. The fact that undergraduate students no longer have to submit assignments worries many of us. Systematic work and regular submission of assignments are primary aspects of academic study and are therefore, essential aspects of a student's training. How else are we able to assess a student's progress during the year, or how can students monitor their own work if they do not receive feedback from their lecturers? Yet, like other departments, we no longer have the staff to do more than we are doing now, and must also cope with the introduction of the new modular system, which includes planning, developing and writing new course material. In certain ways this system reduces the length of the academic year which makes it difficult for students to answer their assignments effectively in the time available. From this of course, must be concluded that students must assume full responsibility for their progress, and if they do not work systematically on their own, their chances of success are limited. Perhaps the coming examination will prove to us that assignments during the year are not essential for a student's academic performance. What do you think?

  Some of you will be completing your degrees this year. Well done - we hope your years of study at UNISA were some of the most enriching and enjoyable of your life. For others, registering for anthropology or archaeology next year will be an automatic decision, while there will also be students who must still decide. Let us help them!

  If you are uncertain about the subjects for which you should register next year, ask yourself the following questions: Why did you take anthropology and/or archaeology in the first place? Were you interested to know what these subjects are about, or did you stand in a queue at the registration counter and ask other students what subjects are interesting or 'easy'? Did you start at the top of the alphabet and come across anthropology and archaeology when you made your choice? What have these subjects taught you, other than a mass of detail in preparation for the examinations? Most important, where do you intend going with your studies? Finding a job as an anthropologist or archaeologist is not easy, and from time to time we must tell students this. But this does not mean that your studies are or were in vain; instead it means that you should change your thinking about your studies, and think not only about what you have learned in anthropology or archaeology, that is what knowledge you have gained, but also about the skills and abilities you have acquired as a result of them. If you are employed, are you able to apply the knowledge and skills in your work? If you are unemployed or a full-time student, what aspects of your studies do you enjoy most and would like to apply in a work situation? When you answer questions such as these, you compile a type of job description for yourself which you can use to market yourself as a potential employee when you apply for a job, or for the present moment, use to help you to decide whether you should continue your studies in anthropology or archaeology. If your interests lie in working with people, remember that many employers are interested in applicants who for instance, understand how relationships develop between people and how they influence the work situation, or in the ways in which different aspects of people's day to day lives are linked together and influence their behaviour. They are also interested in potential employees who know how to look for or find links between apparently unrelated phenomena; who are sensitive to the viewpoints and ways of life of other people; who are able to view matters in a holistic way, who are able to assess the impact of one set of factors upon another, or who are able to come to logical conclusions after investigating a series of phenomena. If these issues and skills are important to you, then you dare not exclude anthropology or archaeology from your selection of subjects next year!

  To all our students we wish an enjoyable holiday, and a peaceful and prosperous festive season.

  As usual we invite you to send us your comments on your studies or any matter which may be of interest to fellow students, even if you are completing your studies this year. Send your ideas by letter, fax or E-mail to:

  The Editor Newsletter
  Department of Anthropology and Archaeology
  University of South Africa
  Box 392
  UNISA 0003

  Tel: (012) 429-6418/6788 Fax: (012) 429-6091

  E.mail: herses@unisa.ac.za

   

  Hello and goodbye!

  On September 15 we finally said goodbye to Mrs Elize Kruger who was Secretary of our Department from 1984. In September last year Mrs Kruger decided to accept the University's offer of early retirement, but was reappointed on contract until a new secretary could be appointed. This only occurred in September this year, so we were fortunate to have Mrs Kruger with us for almost a year after she 'retired'.

  At the same time, we say hello and welcome to Mrs Ina Baker as our new Departmental Secretary. For the past seven years, Mrs Baker was associated with the Department of Political Science at UNISA, and she is therefore, fully knowledgeable about the 'doings' at UNISA. We welcome her as a new member of our Department, and no doubt in the near future we will convert her from political science to both anthropology and archaeology!

   

  The American Anthropological Association

  The largest anthropological society in the world is the AAA ('triple A') which has its headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, in the United States of America. The mission of the AAA is to advance anthropology as the discipline which studies humankind in all its aspects, that is, in archaeological, biological, ethnological and linguistic contexts, and to promote the use of anthropological knowledge and principles in addressing human problems. The official mouthpiece of the AAA is Anthropology News (the newsletter's website appears later in this letter), a rather comprehensive newspaper which is published monthly. It provides members with news of the association, discussions of matters of anthropological (see the discussion surrounding Chagnon's work among the Yanomamo later in this newsletter) and archaeological interest, information on new publications, job opportunities for anthropologists in the USA and news about the AAA's annual meeting, amongst other matters. The meeting, which is probably the most prestigious anthropological conference in the world, is held in November each year and attracts anthropologists and archaeologists from across the world. Each year the AAA conference is attended by four to five thousand delegates. As a result the AAA has a permanent committee whose task it is to arrange the annual conference. Most anthropologists dream of at least once being able to participate in an AAA conference.

   

  The annual archaeological excursion: The Kaditshwene experience

  Sunday, 27 August 2000, saw the departure of a group of UNISA archaeology students, members of the Department and friends, to Kaditshwene, the destination of the annual archaeological field excursion. For six days the group excavated, sieved, sorted and documented; for seven nights they had the opportunity to relax, eat, drink and philosophise around a camp fire, and to remember why they chose to study archaeology in the first place!

  In 1820, the missionary John Campbell, estimated the number of inhabitants of the Hurutshe capital, Kaditshwene, to be approximately 16 000. Clearly it must have been an extensive settlement. The focal point of the UNISA archaeologists' excavations was the central part of the leader's division or kgosing. Here, for a week, the ward of Diutlwileng, the regent of this prominent Tswana group, was the target of intensive field research. Four huts, surrounding that of the 'great wife' of the king, were excavated, with the primary aim of investigating their structural composition. One of the huts proved to be a prominent grain storage hut, while the other three had been dwellings. Within them, the remains of so-called 'inner sanctums' were recovered. Campbell portrayed these inner compartments as clay structures covered with stylized paintings of elephants, giraffes and ostriches. Fragmented remains of what may possibly be painted plasters were also discovered during the excavation.

  Other artefacts which were found include the burnt remains of hut poles, along with upper and lower grinding stones, pots, potsherds and stone platforms. Evidence of sliding doors at the entrance to each inner sanctum was also found. The remains of the wooden doors, consisting of flat stones with clearly discernible running grooves made by a wooden door, were also recovered in some of the huts. Faunal remains including tortoise-shell containers for ochre, copper ornaments and minute glass beads were found, along with one or two rogue stone tools. After the discoveries had been documented, photographed and admired, back filling of the site began.

  A bucket chain was formed to cover the site, and when the group eventually left, there were almost no traces of their effort. Hopefully the lense caps of their cameras were off, films properly inserted, and batteries all in working order!

   

  The monolith

  Gustav Snyman, a second-year archaeology student, sent us a sketch with a poem he composed after the Kwaditshene visit:

  "Once this year I prayed to follow once more

  Through veld and bush a dusty and rocky trail.

  To burrow my way through endless dirt

  There upon my knees on God's own earth.

  That hilltop ringed with circle stones and laughs,

  that night sky filled all with life, those million stars;

  From all I will remember my dirt filled spade,

  Those friendly voices teasing my dusty nails.

  But far more I will remember those nights I spend

  Alone in company before the moonlight bend,

  Before morning's whisper crawled through time

  To place this wakefull dream in history's eyes ...

  The monolith stands near the main entrance to the king's court (kgotla) at Kwaditshene.

   

  'The wrong side of midnight ...': Kaditshwene 2000

  If you had any reservations about the seriousness of the archaeological excursion, the following composition from archaeology student, Jan van Niekerk, should put your mind at rest.

  'And there was evening, and there was morning - the following day.' What an understatement! No thought was given to the time spent on preparation for this so-called 'following day!' Preparation is what happens during the night that precedes the day after the night before. This type of preparation normally only starts after all normal daily activities have come to a halt. (For normal people like Natasha it meant being eaten alive by a scorpion, for others like Marcus and Sidney, it meant practicing a song about you-know-what-kind-of-bird which was to be performed on Saturday (everybody loves that day!), and to Jaco it meant a leeukoue dip in the swimming pool.)

  'Good night, everybody!' Those words coming from Wim were strange: he must really be poegaai! Shame! And it's only half-past twelve! Three minutes later he was back - and, with a 'Gezuntheit!', he continued exploring the finer tastes of the age-old French tradition. Jaco tried his best to kill Rina with boring stories of Jakkals en Wolf (Bolf?), and she eventually kicked the bucket! Lelanie, Francois, Elize, Marietta, Shaw, Ilona, Gustav and Sebastiaan did their best to impress SAB. I must add that they did this with considerable success! Wendy decided to keep her thoughts pure that week, while Andrew almost managed to convert Susan and Debby to on-the-rocks artists. Throughout all these paranormal activities, I must say I heard a bell ringing, but couldn't quite place it, until the next morning!

  I can tell you, it is no easy matter to prepare for a day's digging on a hut floor. You must make sure that all your tools are ready, especially the kwaste and troffels. Fortunately those 'tools' that couldn't be prepared during the early morning hours, could quickly be touched up on the way to the site, especially in one blue jo..., I mean kombi.

  It's a funny story, this preparation thing. No two nights in a row could you find any pattern or repetition of previous events, but one thing always stayed the same: the rhythm: fortissimo! The jokes, the conversations, the arguments, the philosophising, the arguments about philosophising, the stargazing and stomstreke were all very loud and very sharp, especially when Wim tried to get 'span ses' to begin the day's work at one thirty in the morning! Fortunately, not everyone was as eager as he was, but he was happy to put some more wood on the fire instead! (You can't keep a good man down!)

  Of one thing everybody can be absolutely sure: no one day at the site would be complete without the previous night's preparation. A great deal of work goes into it and for prospective archaeology students, I can only appeal to you to come and assist with the preparation every night after twelve! This is where you'll laugh till you ache, where you'll learn to smile at your own stupidity, where you won't be scared to share dreams or ideas and where friendships are born - everlasting friendships. I even met a brother I didn't know I had! (Hoezit Broer!)

  All that's left now is a newsletter, e-mails and the occasional telephone conversation. But the next excursion is coming soon! Be prepared! 

   

  Isabelle Parsons' distinction

  Isabelle Parsons, junior lecturer in archaeology, has been informed that her dissertation on the topic, An Investigation of a Later Stone Age Open-air Surface Site on Blauwbosch 364, Northern Cape, has been accepted and that she will be awarded a Master's degree with distinction. Isabelle undertook this study at the University of Pretoria where her supervisor was Prof A Meyer. We congratulate her on this remarkable achievement.

  Isabelle gave us this summary of her dissertation: The farm Blauwbosch 364 (known as Bloubos), situated approximately 50 kilometers north-north-west of Upington, would have been ideally suited for both hunters and herders during the past 2000 years. The property is characterised by several Later Stone Age (LSA) open-air surface sites consisting of lithic and ceramic scatters. One such site, Bloubos 5 (BB5), was closely investigated and a radiocarbon date of 1810± 45 years BP obtained for it. To determine a temporal and spatial context for the site, results of the typological and metric analysis of the BB5 sample were compared with those from another open-air site on the farm, Bloubos 7 (BB7), as well as from other LSA cave and open-air sites in the study area. With the aid of the Vogel scale, it was established that BB5 represents a homogeneous LSA lithic sample with little chronological depth. A limited number of ceramic fragments are also present. The BB7 sample was obtained from a stone circle containing deposits which provided the dates 340± 50 (upper spits) and 2370± 45 (lower spits) years BP for the site. Comparison between the two assemblages indicated no significant differences between them and that they probably belong to the same LSA industry. The comparison between BB5 and samples from Wonderwerk cave, Klein Witkrans shelter, Limerock II, Swartkop Excavation I and Biesje Poort II, also failed to reveal significant differences, although it is apparent that the Bloubos sample is most similar to that of Biesje Poort II. The latter has been identified as belonging to the local Wilton variant, the Doornfontein Industry. It therefore, follows that the BB5 sample also belongs to the (early phase?) Doornfontein Industry. The Doornfontein Industry is associated with final LSA herders in the Northern Cape, thus pastoralism as a LSA subsistence strategy is a distinct possibility on Bloubos. The study concludes that documentation of all land use patterns in the environment, which include open-air surface sites, open-air deposits and cave deposits, is crucial for the complete reconstruction of prehistoric subsistence strategies. Other issues addressed in this dissertation include the minimum number of artefacts needed to understand the nature of an open-air surface site, the need for standardisation of terminology and methods for typological and metric analysis, the use of the median instead of the mean when conducting a metric analysis, and the continuing relevance of stone tool analyses in Later Stone Age research.

   

  Sociocultural diversity in a work environment

  From January to the end of June, Dr Stephné Herselman was on Research and Development leave during which she researched and reported on sociocultural diversity in a business environment. The research was conducted in a retail company in Krugersdorp, Gauteng, and its aims were to detect, investigate and look for meanings of various aspects of sociocultural diversity, particularly aspects which are not necessarily apparent to an observer such as perceptual differences, attitudes and assumptions which one group makes of another, as well as their influence on work-related behaviour.

  When people in South Africa talk about 'diversity' within an organisation, they generally mean the presence of and interaction between people of different racial groups. In this study sociocultural diversity is regarded as having three categories of dimensions: the first, or primary dimensions, consist of people's physical traits, that is, features with which they were born and which cannot be changed, including gender, race, and age. The primary dimensions of diversity are therefore the observable differences between people which give them their identity and which have a profound influence on their lives because people tend to view the world in terms of these traits, and also belong to particular groups as a result of them. Secondary dimensions include education, social responsibility, wealth, place of residence, income, marital status, belief systems, and work roles and positions. They can be changed and provide depth and individuality to people's lives. As a result of them people also participate in various formal and informal groups, including family and other kin-groups, unions and social clubs, political parties and religious groups. All of them shape and impact on people's behaviour, also in the work environment. This means that aspects of people's lives originating outside the work environment have a profound influence on the formal organisation.

  Many matters which relate to the diversity implied in the primary and secondary dimensions cannot be observed. They include people's attitudes, values, perceptions, beliefs and behaviour concerning their work, their position and roles in relation to the organisation and to one another, work motivation, and ways in which they integrate personal, ethnic, professional and political aims and ambitions with their official roles and duties. Such matters can clearly only be determined by observing and interpreting people's behaviour or from their expressed ideas and views, which means that the anthropological research methods of participant observation and in-depth interviewing are highly suited to investigating them. They are regarded as the tertiary dimensions of diversity, and are no less important than issues which are obvious to everyone. In fact in some regards, they may even be more important since they directly influence people's behaviour. It is often only by investigating covert issues that real meaning can be ascribed to matters which impact on the company, its operations and to employees' behaviour. This study pays particular attention to tertiary dimensions, or 'hidden' aspects of sociocultural diversity, insofar that they are influenced by primary and secondary dimensions.

   

  'Tata ma millions, tata ma chance'

  No doubt you, like the majority of South Africans, are familiar with this popular slogan and wait patiently for Saturday evenings for the weekly lotto draw on SABC 2. Have you been a winner, or are you, like most of us, waiting to become an instant millionaire?

  What does the lotto have to do with anthropology? Well, anthropologists have something to say about it, because the lotto and everything associated with it, is a form of competition, that is, a form of behaviour, 'the foodstuff' of anthropologists! Competition represents a way in which people try to obtain scarce resources and, at the same time, try to stop other people from successfully acquiring them. All people are competitive; we like to win, it makes us feel good, and for a short while we stand out amongst others, not to mention the value attached to the prizes awarded for winning. The value associated with excelling at sport and other forms of play as forms of recreation as well as winning competitions is found universally, that is, among people everywhere. But it is particularly in western societies with their emphasis on materialism that competition for scarce material resources has become what may almost be regarded as a way of life. Participation in competitions reflects amongst other matters, the desire to win, to be better than other people, to acquire things which people want but cannot afford to buy, and as regards the lotto, the hope that it might just make it possible to escape from the daily battle to make ends meet. Participation in the lotto also symbolises the importance of money in people's lives; that they will sacrifice almost everything in the hope of acquiring some.

  The weekly lotto draw has become a fixed event on Saturday evenings, and questions have been asked why poor people, that is, people who can least afford to do so, buy lotto tickets, thereby spending the little money they have on a dream. The chances of winning the jackpot are minuscule, yet people go on participating in the hope that one day they will be lucky. Poor people have little to lose by gambling their meagre resources on the lotto, and they do so in the vain hope that they may just be lucky and win something. Every week therefore, they make sure that they are 'in the draw'. Many people have questioned the morality of the lotto in our society; does South Africa really need it when it is just an occasion on which people place their hopes of betterment?

  Like so many human actions, the lotto draw has become standardised: it takes place according to fixed rules and regulations, which make it 'fit' into our way of doing things. Without this it would lose its excitement and validity, and become just another form of light entertainment. This adds to its seriousness and we would certainly not take it seriously if we knew that it is arranged differently every Saturday evening and that it can be manipulated in some way. Now, when you participate in and watch the lotto draw on a Saturday evening, remember that it is not just a form of light entertainment. It has deeper meanings and implications for our society.

   

  Attention all 3rd-year students! Chagnon & Co in trouble again?

  Just as you thought that we treated Chagnon harshly (remember the Fierce and Unokais debates), he and others are now implicated in a major scandal which might cause anthropology and the AAA in particular, long-term damage. An investigative journalist, Patrick Tierney, is about to publish a book (due for release in October this year) entitled 'Darkness in El Dorado', in which he claims that Chagnon, Tim Asch (the visual anthropologist who made Chagnon's Yanomamo films ('The Axe Fight' and others), and geneticist Dr James Neel conducted medical experiments among the Yanomamo for close to 35 years.

  Among other gross human rights violations, Neel, who before his death, worked at the centre for Human Genetics at Ann Arbor (University of Michigan), is said to have injected Yanomamo with radioactive iodine isotopes and might also have deliberately exacerbated the measles epidemic in 1968 during which hundreds or even thousands of Yanomamo perished. Tierney alleges that Neel injected the Yanomamo with a virulent vaccine called Edmonson B which caused or worsened the epidemic. Neel's experiments had the support of the US Atomic Energy Commission. Apparently, intrigued by the notions of 'innate leadership' and reproductive success, as coined by Chagnon, Neel believed that the isolated Amazonian Yanomamo population would serve as the ideal springboard for his experiments and development of his theory. Tierney alleges that Chagnon and Neel worked closely together. He also alleges that Chagnon's obsession with Hobbesian human savagery spurred him on to invite Asch to film a Yanomamo axe fight which the former enacted, thus adding to the 'fierce' image portrayal. In fact, it is alleged that Chagnon's staging of aggression indirectly aggravated warfare in the region. Tierney also refers to Chagnon's sexual abuse of Yanomamo women, and to French anthropologist Jacques Lizot's 'harem of Yanomami boys that he keeps, and showers with presents in exchange for sexual favours' (remember Ramos's article?)

  Since the initial reaction to Tierney's manuscript by Terry Turner and Leslie Sponsel of the AAA, and on which the above summary is based, many other responses have emerged from around the globe, some of which have been in defence of Neel, Asch and Chagnon. In a letter to Time, Chagnon himself refuted all the claims, saying they border on media sensation.

  A visual anthropologist, Peter Biella, studied the 'Axe fight' and found nothing that could harm the integrity of the late Tom Asch. In fact, he claims that Asch always remained critical of Chagnon's obsession with Yanomamo violence. Gregory Finnegan (Harvard University), a close colleague and former student of Tim Asch at Brandeis University, and who knew most of Asch's films on the Yanomamo, concludes as follows: 'Everyone in the Yanomamo-studies communities is working with notions of human nature and global systems that affect how they view each other's portrayals of the Yanomamo. Since there is no answer without a question, and theories, even implicit ones, determine questions, Chagnon and all of us necessary 'cook' our 'raw' data in the act of acquiring it. But that's not the same as 'cooking the data' in the ways that Tierney is said to allege'. The late Dr Neels' home-base, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor officially defended his academic and scientific integrity and could find nothing to support the Tierney accusations. In the same vein, historian Susan Lindee, anthropologist Alan Fix, and Jeffrey Long, a former student of Neel, seem to refute most of the allegations against him.

  The last word has not been spoken. One can only assume that once the book appears on the market, more responses will intensify the debate and more 'cans of worms' will be opened. The problem is that neither Neel nor Asch is alive to tell their stories.

  To all prospective third-year students in 2001, Dr Chris van Vuuren says, 'Welcome to discourse anthropology, you will certainly enjoy the debates!'

   

  Third-year student excursion to Soutpansberg

  A group of 15 students, three lecturers, Prof Mike de Jongh, Dr Chris van Vuuren and Mrs Riana Steyn, and archaeologist Sidney Miller, visited the Soutpansberg region in the Northern Province from 18 to 24 September 2000. This was only the second time that the annual excursion went north. The group was hosted by the Underhay couple at their Bushveld retreat, Medike, on the banks of the Sand River. On the way the group visited the Bakone Malapa cultural village. They then spent three days being introduced to basic fieldwork techniques at the almost pristine and picturesque mountain village of Shongozwi. Students had an ideal opportunity to indulge themselves in a variety of topics of anthropological interest, from mural art, children and childhood, settlement issues and kinship, to local politics, environmental affairs and health. They were treated on (and were coerced into participating in) traditional Venda dance, food and beverages. The remainder of the six day-long excursion entailed a visit to the Buysdorp community, the Schoemansdal archaeological site ('Voortrekkerdorp'), the pottery village of Mashamba and a visit to a famous local Louis Trichardt waterhole. The final evening was 'prize giving' night and symbolism and ritual were the order of the day - with the highlight a Full Monty Python Domba dance by the male members of the party. The excursion ended with a courtesy visit to the Lovedu village of Modjadji the Rain Queen.

   

  Update on the African Centre for Arts, Culture and Heritage Studies (ACACHS)

  Since its inception in July 1999, the Centre under the directorship of Dr Chris Van Vuuren, has embarked on a number of community projects, involving cultural and theme villages, basic design (e.g. embroidery), oral tradition documentation, theatre and dance, amongst others. A number of successful workshops were presented, and the first 'batch' of short courses will be offered in 2001. These semester type certificate courses carry 12 credits and any five such courses will qualify a candidate for a Certificate in Arts, Culture and Heritage Studies (60 credits). The courses (qualifications) are in the process of being registered with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) as fully fledged UNISA distance education courses. Included is the possibility of at least one contact session with students (a discussion class) or a community based workshop which is often more exciting. Registration for this type of course costs around R600-R700 per course.

  The Centre hopes to offer at least some of the following by mid-2001: Oral Tradition Documentation; Community-Based Tourism; Doing Qualitative Research in Africa; Managing Cultural Heritage; Working with African Material Culture; Making Arts, Culture & Heritage Your Business; African Art for Producers, Mediators & Collectors, and Rock Art as Heritage. SATOUR endorsed Tourist Guiding courses will also be offered by ACACHS from 2001.

  We will keep you posted.

   

  A Christmas wish list - from the past

  From our archaeologists comes the following list of recent and new publications of archaeological interest. Perhaps you can select some of the titles for reading during the holiday season, or even consider them as Christmas gifts for friends or relatives.

  Bahn, PG (ed.) 1996. The Cambridge Illustrated History of Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

  Bahn, PG (ed.) 1996. The Story of Archaeology: 100 Great Discoveries. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

  Bahn, PG 1998. The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

  Bahn, PG & Vertut, J 1999. Journey through the Ice Age. London: Seven Dials

  Berger, L 2000. In the Footsteps of Eve. Washington DC: National Geographic

  Campbell, J 2000. The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology. New York: Viking Press

  Charteris, P (ed) 2000 Selected Southern African Rock Art. South African Archaeological Society - Transvaal Branch 2000. (Contains 92 tracings of southern African rock paintings and engravings, previously published on the covers of the Archaeological Society Bulletin. Foreword by Professor David Lewis-Williams and annotations by Dr Benjamin Smith of the Rock Art Research Institute, University of the Witwatersrand.)

  [Note that a substantial discount is available for our students if this publication is ordered via the Department.]

  Chauvet, J, et al. 1996. Chauvet Cave: The Discovery of the World's Oldest Paintings. London: Thames & Hudson

  Clottes, J 1996. The Cave Beneath the Sea: Paleolithic Images at Cosquer. New York: HN Abrams

  Clottes, J & Lewis-Williams, D 1998. The Shamans of Prehistory: Trance and Magic in the Painted Caves. New York: Harry N Abrams

  Cornwell, B 1999. Stonehenge: A Novel of 2000 BC. New York: Harper Collins Publishers

  Deacon, HJ & Deacon, J 1999. Human Beginnings in South Africa: Uncovering the Secrets of the Stone Age. Cape Town: David Philip

  Garlake, PS 1995. The Hunter's Vision: The Prehistoric Art of Zimbabwe. London: British Museum Press

  Grant, S & Grant, E 1995. Decorated Homes in Botswana. Mochudi Botswana: Phuthadikobo Museum (PO Box 367 Mochudi Botswana Tel/Fax (267) 377238)

  Guenther, MG 1999. Tricksters and Trancers: Bushman Religion and Society. Bloomington: Indiana University Press

  Johanson, DC 1996. From Lucy to Language. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press

  Katz, R, Biesele, M & St. Denis, V 1997. Healing Makes our Hearts Happy: Spirituality and Cultural Transformation among the Kalahari Ju/'hoansi. Rochester, Vt: Inner Traditions

  Kinahan, J 2000. Cattle for Beads: The Archaeology of Historical Contact and Trade on the Namib Coast. Windhoek: Namibia Archaeological Trust

  Lane, P, Reid, A & Segobye, A 1998. Ditswammung: The Archaeology of Botswana. Botswana: Pula Press (PO Box 91 Gaborone Botswana)/The Botswana Society (PO Box 71 Gaborone Botswana)

  Le Roux, W 2000. Shadow Bird. Roggebaai: Kwela Books

  Lewis-Williams, D & Dowson, T 1999. Images of Power: Understanding San Rock Art. 2^nd ed. Halfway House: Southern Books

  Lewis-Williams, D & Blundell, G 1988. Fragile Heritage: A Rock Art Fieldguide. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press

  Lewis-Williams, JD (ed.) 2000. Stories that Float from Afar: Ancestral Folklore of the San of Southern Africa. Cape Town: David Philip

  MacRae, C 1999. Life Etched in Stone: Fossils of South Africa. Johannesburg: Geological Society of South Africa, 1999

  Marshall, L 2000. The !Kung of Nyae-Nyae. Harvard: Peabody Museum

  2000. National Geographic Expeditions Atlas. Washington DC: National Geographic.

   

  On-line Anthropology journals

  For students who have access to the Internet and who wish to look at anthropological journals to keep up with developments in the field, Riana Steyn has provided the following list of web-sites:

  AnthroGlobe

  http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/AnthroGlobe/

  Anthropological Review Database

  http://wings.buffalo.edu/anthropology/ARD

  Anthropology News (the previously mentioned newsletter of the American Anthropological Association)

  http://www.aaanet.org

  Anthropology Today

  http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/rai/

  Antiquity

  http://intarch.ac.uk/antiquity

  Cultural Anthropology Methods

  http://www.lawrence.edu/~bradleyc/cam/html

  Current Anthropology

  http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~anthro/ca

  Internet Journal of Anthropological Studies

  http://taylor.anthro.umt.edu/ijas/ijashome.htm

  Journal of Material Culture

  http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journals/details/mcu.html

  Music and Anthropology

  http://gotan.cirfid.unibo.it/M&A/M&A_main.htm

  Theoretical Anthropology

  http://www.univie.ac.at/voelkerkunde/theoretical-anthropology/

  Final editing: Stephné Herselman                      Layout: Ina Baker and Francois Coetzee

   

   

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