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Material realities, belief and aspiration in the later 19th century rock engravings of the Williston District of the Karoo
This dissertation interrogates the process of culture change and continuity among the 19th century Khoesan in the Karoo who were the descendants of precolonial hunter-gatherer and pastoralist populations. It looks at how local Karoo dwellers experienced and possibly mediated global impacts through '...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Archaeology
2018
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| _version_ | 1867613297879023616 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Lupuwana, Vuyiswa Thembelihle |
| author2 | Hall, Simon |
| author_browse | Hall, Simon Lupuwana, Vuyiswa Thembelihle |
| author_facet | Hall, Simon Lupuwana, Vuyiswa Thembelihle |
| author_sort | Lupuwana, Vuyiswa Thembelihle |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | This dissertation interrogates the process of culture change and continuity among the 19th century Khoesan in the Karoo who were the descendants of precolonial hunter-gatherer and pastoralist populations. It looks at how local Karoo dwellers experienced and possibly mediated global impacts through 'older' cultural practice and belief. These impacts started in the 18th century in the Northern Cape when the trickle of Trek Boers of Dutch and German descent began to interact with, displace and disrupt San hunter-gatherers and Khoe pastoralists. This trickle turned into a torrent in the 19th century when the British displaced the Dutch East India company as administrators of the Cape and Empire asserted itself on the Cape hinterlands. In this context new creole identities were formed, especially that of 'Bastaards' whose attempt to adapt, progress and particularly to own land, were progressively marginalized. This intensified through from the 1830s when merino wool production increasingly pulled the Cape into a global export economy that was intensified by the rush to the Northern Cape diamond fields in the late 1860s. As the lattice of colonial roads, towns and railways gathered pace, the networks and nodes of Khoe and San dwelling withered. Most often classified as 'coloured', they were reduced to physical and social immobility as rural farm workers. This dissertation addresses aspects of this experience using their engraved rock art that is thematically dominated by the materiality of a colonial landscape. Horses, wagons, houses, steam engines and clothes are prominent motifs. At a glance these images seem to be disconnected from the precolonial styles and motifs of Khoekhoen and San artists. This dissertation, consequently, asks questions about the nature of this representation and the dislocation between the marginality and poverty of the artists and the material abundance and progress of the colonial world and the evidence of continuity of 'older' social practice that was expressed in new ways. It is argued that because of the diverse context of the 19th century and the undoubted continuity of Khoesan belief and practice, some of these images cannot be taken at face value and that they should be seen as creole expressions and continuities of Khoesan beliefs. Equally, however, there are aspects of these representations that are difficult to read in this way, and engravers are expressing the immediacy of their context and material marginality. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/27292 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:33:54.099Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publishDateRange | 2018 |
| publishDateSort | 2018 |
| publisher | Department of Archaeology |
| publisherStr | Department of Archaeology |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/27292 Material realities, belief and aspiration in the later 19th century rock engravings of the Williston District of the Karoo Lupuwana, Vuyiswa Thembelihle Hall, Simon Archaeology Social Anthropology This dissertation interrogates the process of culture change and continuity among the 19th century Khoesan in the Karoo who were the descendants of precolonial hunter-gatherer and pastoralist populations. It looks at how local Karoo dwellers experienced and possibly mediated global impacts through 'older' cultural practice and belief. These impacts started in the 18th century in the Northern Cape when the trickle of Trek Boers of Dutch and German descent began to interact with, displace and disrupt San hunter-gatherers and Khoe pastoralists. This trickle turned into a torrent in the 19th century when the British displaced the Dutch East India company as administrators of the Cape and Empire asserted itself on the Cape hinterlands. In this context new creole identities were formed, especially that of 'Bastaards' whose attempt to adapt, progress and particularly to own land, were progressively marginalized. This intensified through from the 1830s when merino wool production increasingly pulled the Cape into a global export economy that was intensified by the rush to the Northern Cape diamond fields in the late 1860s. As the lattice of colonial roads, towns and railways gathered pace, the networks and nodes of Khoe and San dwelling withered. Most often classified as 'coloured', they were reduced to physical and social immobility as rural farm workers. This dissertation addresses aspects of this experience using their engraved rock art that is thematically dominated by the materiality of a colonial landscape. Horses, wagons, houses, steam engines and clothes are prominent motifs. At a glance these images seem to be disconnected from the precolonial styles and motifs of Khoekhoen and San artists. This dissertation, consequently, asks questions about the nature of this representation and the dislocation between the marginality and poverty of the artists and the material abundance and progress of the colonial world and the evidence of continuity of 'older' social practice that was expressed in new ways. It is argued that because of the diverse context of the 19th century and the undoubted continuity of Khoesan belief and practice, some of these images cannot be taken at face value and that they should be seen as creole expressions and continuities of Khoesan beliefs. Equally, however, there are aspects of these representations that are difficult to read in this way, and engravers are expressing the immediacy of their context and material marginality. 2018-02-05T12:59:50Z 2018-02-05T12:59:50Z 2017 Master Thesis Masters MPhil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27292 eng application/pdf Department of Archaeology Faculty of Science University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Archaeology Social Anthropology Lupuwana, Vuyiswa Thembelihle Material realities, belief and aspiration in the later 19th century rock engravings of the Williston District of the Karoo |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Material realities, belief and aspiration in the later 19th century rock engravings of the Williston District of the Karoo |
| title_full | Material realities, belief and aspiration in the later 19th century rock engravings of the Williston District of the Karoo |
| title_fullStr | Material realities, belief and aspiration in the later 19th century rock engravings of the Williston District of the Karoo |
| title_full_unstemmed | Material realities, belief and aspiration in the later 19th century rock engravings of the Williston District of the Karoo |
| title_short | Material realities, belief and aspiration in the later 19th century rock engravings of the Williston District of the Karoo |
| title_sort | material realities belief and aspiration in the later 19th century rock engravings of the williston district of the karoo |
| topic | Archaeology Social Anthropology |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27292 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT lupuwanavuyiswathembelihle materialrealitiesbeliefandaspirationinthelater19thcenturyrockengravingsofthewillistondistrictofthekaroo |