Browsing by Subject "Ethnology"

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    A review of South African research in atmospheric science and physical oceanography during 2000-2005
    (2006) Reason, C J C; Engelbrecht, F; Landman, W; Lutjeharms, J R E; Piketh, S; Rautenbach, C J W; Hewitson, B C
    The purpose of this article is to review progress in the fields of atmospheric science and physical oceanography made by workers based at South African institutions over approximately the last 5 years. Research published by South African scientists working abroad is not included. Most published research in these fields falls within the broad areas of climate variability, climate change, aerosols and atmospheric pollution, seasonal forecasting, numerical modelling (both atmospheric and oceanic), and the physical oceanography of the Agulhas and Benguela current systems. Most but not all of the atmospheric science papers relate to South Africa or southern Africa; however, some work pertaining to the southern hemisphere as a whole or to other regions has been done. We note that funding and institutional support for atmospheric science and physical oceanography research in South Africa remains poor and this situation significantly hampers local efforts.
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    The Community of Steinkopf : an stenographic study and an analysis of social °hangs in Namaqualand
    (1961) Carstens, WP
    This thesis consists mainly of an analysis of the social structure of a small community of rural Coloured people who live on a reserve surrounding the old mission station, Steinkopf, in the North-Western Cape Province. It has been written primarily as an ethnographic study of one of the constituent communities of a composite society, the Republic of South Africa, although a chapter has been devoted to the comparison of Steinkopf with the four other reserves in the Namaqualand district. I have attempted also to desscribe and analyse certain of the processes of social change in the North-Western Cape with particular reference to these Coloured Reserves.
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    Experiencing 'independence' : local responses in a Transkeian village
    (1986) Segar, Anne Julia; Boonzaaier, Emile
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    A general ethnographic survey of the amaBhaca (East Griqualand)
    (1952) Hammond-Tooke, William David
    The material for this survey was collected during field investigations in the Mount Frere district of East Griqualand during the period January to October, 1949. The Bhaca are a small group of people occupying roughly the district of Mount Frere - although a considerable number lie outside district boundaries, particularly on the Mount Ayliff side - with a Southern Nguni type of culture and speaking a dialect of Xhosa. They are of particular interest as they are representative of those tribes who were forced to flee from Natal during the chaotic period of Zulu history subsequent to T/haka's rise to power, and, unlike the Mpondo, Thembu and Xhosa tribes, they are thus fairly recent immigrants into the Cape. The Bhaca are very conscious of their Zulu origin, although "Zulu" is hardly the scientifically correct term to apply to it. Van Warmelo has stressed the fact that before the rise of T/haka (c 1816) Natal was the home of a number of different tribes, the majority little more than large clans, roughly divisible into separate groups both dialectically and culturally, viz., (a) the true Nguni or Ntungwa, (b) the Mbo and (c) the Lala tribes. The name "Zulu" should correctly be applied only to the descendants of the small Zulu clan which by rapine and conquest established political and cultural supremacy over the whole of Natal from 1816 onwards. Those tribes which did not submit were forced to flee or be annihilated, and these successive southward waves of fugitives have given rise to the establishment of numerous small tribes in the Cape, classified by van Warmelo as "Fingo and Other recent Immigrants into the Cape". Other tribal elements moved north and today exists as Swazi, Rhodesian Ndebele, Transvaal Ndebele, Ngani and others. At least a century of wandering away from Natal has modified considerably the culture of these immigrants and today the culture of Bhaca, Xesibe (in the district of Mount Ayliff) and the various Mfengu tribes, approximates more nearly to Southern Nguni than to Northern Nguni culture. Foreign influence on the Bhaca must have been strong - at one period the tribe lived in Pondoland under the protection of Faku - and today there is intermarriage with Mpondo, especially on the Eastern boundary which impinges on the district of Tabankulu, and with Hlubi and Xesibe. In the following chapters the question or cultural origins and ethnic composition will be taken up: here it is sufficient to say that ethnographically Bhaca culture today is southern Nguni in character.
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    Health and disease in two villages in South-Eastern Lesotho : a social anthropological perspective
    (1985) Heap, Marion; Boonzaier, Emile
    Macro morbidity and mortality data identify major disease and health trends for large populations. It is also well known that high infant mortality rates, high incidence of infectious fevers, as well as the variety of diseases commonly associated with malnutrition, are correlated with social conditions of poverty. However, these broad trends say little about peoples' experiences of health and disease in conditions of poverty at the grass roots level. This thesis addresses this issue by focusing on how people maintain health and cope with disease in two villages in south-eastern Lesotho. It is primarily a descriptive study of the social dimensions of health and disease-coping strategies in a situation of underdevelopment, where the essential resources pertaining to health, viz food, income, shelter, clean water, and sanitation are inadequate, largely as a result of the historical and on-going political and economic processes beyond the control of the local people. The thesis illustrates that in response to poverty, scarce resources are redistributed via a number of social relationships, in order to provide health for a wide range --of individuals. Thus, there is no clear correlation between material differentiation of households and bett.er access to health. Material differentiation does play some role in recognition of disease and choice of therapy~ This is best illustrated by the fact that extreme poverty limits the ·individual's choice of therapy, and frequently prevents them from adopting the sick role. In contradiction to earlier notions that the 'system of explanation' is the primary factor which determines the individual's utilisation of 'Western' or 'traditional' medical systems, there are numerous other factors which play a role in recognition of disease and choice of therapy, such as cost and availability in a geographic area. Moreover, against a quantitative baseline of the villagers' perceptions of their disease experience, incidences of invocation of the supernatural (such as 'witchcraft') are rare. This suggests that medical anthropology's interest in incidences of supernatural explanation have tended to underplay the extent to which people are able to comprehend and utilise natural explanation. The focus of this study - the relationships between health and disease and natural and supernatural explanation - moves away from the singular disease emphasis of medical anthropology. It is suggested that by viewing disease as 'conflict', many of the problems associated with this approach can be overcome and the interrelationship. Between health and disease re-established.
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    Social and religious institutions of the Tlhaping of the Taung reserve.
    (1955) Pauw, Berthold Adolf
    The thesis is a study of present-day religion in a rural Bantu society, viewed within the framework of their social structure. The society is that of the Tlhaping of the Phuduhtswana chiefdom of the Taung reserve. After an introductory chapter on the historical and geographical background, a chapter is devoted to the social and economic changes that have taken place or are still taking place, such as the scattering of the population from a large central capital, the concomitant changes in political organisation, the weakening of kinship ties, and the participation in migrant labour. By far the most prominent type of religion in this society to-day is that represented by the Christian churches, and the major part of this study therefore deals with the churches, but in a separate chapter the remnants of pagan belief and ritual are also discussed.
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    A systematic investigation of open station shell midden sites along the southwestern Cape Coast
    (1976) Avery, Graham; Parkington, J E
    Broadly the aim of the project was to study the so-called Strandloopers through the excavation of open station shell midden sites. Aspects such as who they were, how they interacted with the coastal environment and their relationship to inland peoples were to be considered. This was to involve the investigation of an area considered to be representative of varying environmental conditions and therefore offering different opportunity and scope for coastal occupation. The . existence of subsistence strategies related to these differing conditions was to be explored through a study of the structure end composition of midden sites. Evidence for coastal/inland links and their meaning would be sought.
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    The type R settlements in the context of the later prehistory and early history of the Riet River Valley
    (1972) Humphreys, Anthony J B; Parkington, John; Deacon, Janette
    The main purpose of this study is to examine the structure of Type R settlements on two main levels. First as a pattern existing in a geographical region, the definition of that region and the patterning of settlements within it. The second level is the study of one of the individual settlements. The individual settlements are, in effect, the building blocks or single components of the larger settlement pattern; they represent a "pattern within a pattern". The study, therefore, essentially looks for human behaviour patterns at different levels within a region against the background of any environmental factors which may have influenced or determined those patterns and examines the extent to which those patterns are, as a result, reflections of that environment. The aim of the project is to gain some insight into how man behaved in a limited area, and in a given set of circumstances, as some small contribution to the whole problem of the study of man and his behaviour patterns in the past.
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    Wage workers in a 'homeland township' : their experiences in finding, maintaining and losing employment
    (1987) Niehaus, Isak Arnold; Spiegel, Andrew David
    Workers domiciled in Qwaqwa, South Africa's smallest 'homeland', experience high rates of unemployment and job instability. Yet most terminations of employment are employee-instigated. This dissertation examines the reasons for employment instability among wage workers resident in a housing section in Phuthaditjhaba, the 'homeland's' only urban area. The approach adopted in the dissertation is primarily ethnographic. It describes the everyday experiences of African workers and treats their own perspectives of their working lives as central. Quantitative and qualitative data, collected from two samples drawn from the population in the housing area selected for study, are presented. It is argued that employment instability must be understood as a consequence of a web of interrelated circumstances and cannot be explained in terms of any one single causal factor. The following employment and employment-related circumstances are examined: workers' views of, and reactions to, wages and working conditions; problems with transport between places of work and home, and with workplace accommodation; conflicts of interest arising from domestic pressures undermining workers' ability to remain in a job; and the experience of joblessness. These various factors are then drawn together to show that workers do not perceive these factors in isolation from one another, but that they experience the oppressive conditions of their domestic and working lives as a totality. Any attempts to find ways to increase workers' job stability will have to look both within and beyond the workplace.
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    Zulus ideas and symbolism
    (1972) Berglund, Axel-Ivar
    The Zulu, numbering about 4 030 000 persons, are a Nguni people who live mainly in the province of Natal in the Republic of South Africa. It is this people that is described in the present study. The anthropological/ethnographic literature on the Zulu people is extensive. So is the linguistic and historical material. Written evidence has been made use of, particularly in instances where differences in rites, rituals, customs, ceremonies, symbols, etc. have been recorded. But because the study is focused on an understanding of patterns of behaviour, thought, and expression rather than description of them, the material on which the study is based is to a large extent my own fieldwork. The data presented is, from this angle of approach, original. Comparative evidence published on neighbouring Nguni peoples and other African peoples has been used as a guide in my own investigations and analysis of material collected in the field.