Research Articles (Anthropology, Archaeology and Development Studies)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/2356

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New evidence for early Indian Ocean trade routes into the South African interior
(National Academy of Sciences, 2025-02) Antonites, Alexander; Antonites, Annie R.; Peterson, Christian E.; Hopf, Tyron Denis; Ndlovu, Ndukuyakhe; alexander.antonites@up.ac.za
The rise and spread of ancient Indian Ocean Rim (IOR) trade networks profoundly impacted southern Africa. Control over this trade played a critical role in the rise and maintenance of complex societies of the second millennium CE such as Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe. While the African origins of this trade lie in the first millennium CE, understanding its earliest phases and subsequent development in the far south has been hampered by a general paucity of research. The recovery of Persian Gulf ceramic sherds and Asian glass beads from the Letaba region of northeastern South Africa demonstrates that communities up to 400 km inland were already part of IOR trade by the 10th century. Although glass beads have been found at several late first millennium CE sites throughout the region, glazed wares are much rarer by comparison. In southern Africa, archaeological sites with Persian Gulf ceramics largely date to between the 9th and 10th centuries with a distribution limited to the Limpopo River’s main tributaries. This distribution poses new questions about early IOR trade routes into the southern African interior and suggests Xai-Xai in southern Mozambique as a possible entry point for early IOR trade.
"Faith it, till you make it" : prosperity gospel and spiritual hustling among young pentecostal Christians in Harare
(Cambridge University Press, 2024-12) Taru, Josiah; McNeill, Fraser G.
Pentecostal charismatic churches that preach prosperity gospel in Zimbabwe have attracted a youthful membership. In the context of a deeply uncertain economic future, young Pentecostal Christians devise performativity strategies for optimizing their chances of converting prosperity gospel into material prosperity. These strategies include sartorial elegance in adorning counterfeit suits, the performance of obedience, and the use of social media technologies. The picture that emerges is a complex and at times contradictory one in which the potential realization of upward spiritual and social mobility rests, ultimately, on the transformative and volatile nature of value. Data for this project was collected in Harare through ethnographic research and interviews over a year-long period.
Ostrich eggshell beads from Little Muck Shelter, southern Africa : first impressions and regional perspectives
(UJ Press, 2024-07) Kuhlase, Siphesihle; Forssman, Tim
Hunting and gathering communities in southern Africa produced ostrich eggshell (OES) beads for personal ornamentation, trade and exchange, and various forms of symbolism. OES beads convey information related to not only technological processes, but also social histories, making them useful tools for investigating these processes in the archaeological record. In the middle Limpopo Valley, hunter-gatherers produced beads from periods that predated the arrival of farmer societies, before ca. AD 150, until the decline of the Mapungubwe capital, AD 1300. Their analysis may therefore lead to insights into local economies, craft activities, trade and exchange, and social roles. However, no study in the middle Limpopo Valley has sufficiently investigated these beads and their status within forager society. In this paper we study the manufacture of OES beads from one of the excavated forager-occupied shelters in the valley, Little Muck. This study is the first of its kind from a hunter-gatherer context in the region. It shows that Little Muck’s beads were standardised but produced in varying frequencies across temporal periods, and made following different production strategies. Use-wear analysis hints that some of the beads were pigmented and possibly altered using heat treatment. As an initial foray into a forager bead assemblage of the region, this study demonstrates the value such an approach may yield, and it aids in guiding future attempts. It also compares Little Muck’s bead assemblage with those from other sites across a much wider region where such studies have taken place. The findings demonstrate similar patterns to other parts of southern and eastern Africa, but also illustrate local shifts in bead production that follow changes in local socio-political dynamics.
Contested visions of sustainable development in conflicts over renewable energy, land, and human rights : a case study of Union Hidalgo, Mexico
(Sage, 2024-03) De La O, Lorena Schwab; Jones, Peris
The so-called ‘green shift’ poses dilemmas in developing sustainable sources of energy while ensuring the respect and protection of the rights of affected communities. The article seeks to advance understanding of how prevailing conceptualisations of Sustainable Development – as formulated in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – are constructed and adopted at different scales and are implicated in and shape struggles over land and environmental conflicts. The exceptional geographical conditions for wind energy production in the region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca have led to significant investments in wind energy projects. In Unión Hidalgo, two projects are already in operation, the focus here. A content analysis was carried out of 36 documents published by three key actors involved (local defenders, companies, and the government at the state and federal levels). The results are then triangulated with insights from semi-structured interviews with local environmental defenders. The article shows how rights-based dimensions are perceived in a highly variable way and power relations unfold in discursive practices. That the project was eventually stopped, does, however, suggest the polyvalence of human rights, but that they are highly contingent – in this case, critically, part of social mobilisation, domestic litigation, and extra-territorial obligations of a company headquartered in France, all of which appear to rebalance power asymmetries uncovered in the analysis here.
The design and implementation of a new travelling museum initiative to bring heritage to people in Southern Africa
(Routledge, 2025) Forssman, Tim; Van Heerden, Justine
Traditional museums are faced with many challenges in Africa. One of these is the public's ability to access museum collections as well as heritage sites. This problem is worsened where physical barriers, such as distance, and financial constraints inhibit people's ability to view, visit, and engage heritage, resulting in a growing void. To overcome this, we developed and are testing a travelling museum initiative that presents the findings of an active archaeological research project currently underway in northern South Africa's middle Limpopo Valley. This paper presents the travelling museum and its theoretical underpinnings from inception to production. We provide details regarding the design and development of the museum and discuss the initial limitations and challenges. Our intention is to outline the details of this initiative because we believe that it may be of interest to others who wish to use similar approaches for their own community engagement programmes.
Preliminary analysis of forager stone technology at Little Muck Shelter : pre- to contact levels
(AOSIS, 2024-08-30) Pentz, Justin; Sherwood, Nicole L.; Forssman, Tim
Studies into the Later Stone Age sequence of the Mapungubwe region show several important changes in forager toolkits. Notable shifts include the appearance of ceramics, glass beads and metal, and changes in stone tool preference patterns in some contexts. Few studies have considered stone tool technological shifts from pre-contact into contact periods when farmers arrived in the landscape. By studying forager stone tools, we can examine the manner in which forager groups deployed their own technologies and innovations in contact scenarios to aid and assist with social relations and exchange or trade patterns. In this study, we present the results of a detailed stone tool analyses of an excavation sample from Little Muck Shelter that highlights several continuities and discontinuities over time, from the pre-contact period into the contact phase but also at key moments in the valley’s sequence. It demonstrates the role forager technology played in the local economy and how it was used to facilitate social relations.
Overview of the Early Iron Age in the Letaba region of the Kruger National Park
(AOSIS, 2024-08-30) Antonites, Alexander; alexander.antonites@up.ac.za
Archaeological research carried out in the Kruger National Park has identified several settlements of early African farmers that date to the Early Iron Age (EIA) – c. AD 200 – AD 1000. Two large EIA settlements, Le6 and Le7, were identified in 1977 on the southern bank of the Letaba River, opposite its confluence with the Tsende. Intermittent excavations of these sites were carried out between 1977 and 1989, but results have remained largely unpublished. These sites, which date back to the ninth century, have been the focus of new and ongoing research since 2021. The research has revealed that these communities were among the very first in the South African interior to participate in trade with the wider Indian Ocean world. This article contextualises the EIA of the Letaba River and surrounds with a specific focus on the history of research at Le6 and Le7 as well as briefly discusses new research at these sites.
Geochemical characterisation of archaeological sites in Mapungubwe National Park, South Africa
(AOSIS, 2024-08-30) Nxumalo, Bongumenzi; Sulas, Federica; Pikirayi, Innocent; bongumenzi.nxumalo@up. ac.za
Research projects in the Shashe-Limpopo Basin have witnessed significant developments in the use of conceptual frameworks and multidisciplinary approaches such as electrochemical and geochemical sequencing. Accordingly, there is now data to question the widely accepted model for the evolution of Mapungubwe State (AD 1200–1300) which argues that favourable and unfavourable regional climatic weather conditions (wet and dry) lead to the rise and decline of the State. Floodplain agropastoral activities in the middle Limpopo Valley are a widely assumed hypothesis, despite the general absence of relevant chemical signatures and archaeobotanical data. This article discusses soil sequences and chemical analyses (Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy and Redox Potential) to provide a palaeoenvironmental record of water regimes in relation to Mapungubwe. Findings confirm that geochemical techniques can be used to model or predict aquifer behaviour and the occurrence of groundwater. And, as such, highlighting the need for conservation planners to carefully consider integrative scientific tools to improve conservation practices of archaeological heritage and overexploitation of groundwater resources. Although more data is required, the results obtained allows researchers to begin reframing questions concerned with the links between changing water regimes and social changes, in this case relating to the decline of Mapungubwe. The understanding is important for the management and conservation of the Mapungubwe World Heritage site and surrounding landscape.
Celebrating cultural heritage within national parks
(AOSIS, 2024-08) Ndlovu, Ndukuyakhe
The South African National Parks (SANParks) has a long, rich, and well-decorated history regarding the management of biodiversity in the country. It has an unparalleled status as a leading biodiversity agency in Africa. However, there has been much bias against cultural heritage in the national parks managed by SANParks, as well as other conservation bodies in the country. Over time, cultural heritage was not given the same recognition as the wildlife and vegetation biomes of the many protected areas managed by the entity.
Multilingualism at the crossroads of Africa : a response to commentaries on “Remaking Late Holocene Environment of Western Uganda : Kansyore and Later Settlers in the Ndali Crater Lakes Region”
(Springer, 2024-12) Schmidt, Peter R.; Walz, Jonathan R.; Besigye, Jackline N.; Krigbaum, John; Oteyo, Gilbert
No abstract available.
Glass finds from the elite House of Roue, a Sasanian building in western Iran : composition and classification using XRF and Raman spectroscopy
(MDPI, 2024-11) Koleini, Farahnaz; Colomban, Philippe; Sani, Narges D.; Niakan, Lily
The Silk Road connected the east of Iran to the western world. Roue city is close to the Road. Six glass samples from Roue were classified on the basis of morphology, archaeological context and compositions. The samples were analysed by means of XRF and Raman spectroscopy and two specific groups, namely Roue type 1 and Roue type 2, with close composition to high alumina plant-ash glass in circulation from the 6th to 10th centuries CE in Mesopotamia, Iran and Syria, were identified. The simultaneous occurrence of two types of glass in the excavated layers shows that the house was inhabited in the early Islamic period. Colours (black, amber-green, light and aqua blue) were produced mainly by the amount of iron and sulphur ions required for the amber chromophore and copper ions for the blue colour and the controlling of reducing conditions in the furnace.
Conceptualizing intra-household gender roles and power dynamics within the cassava food value chains : lessons from qualitative evidence among Tanzanian smallholder farmers
(African Scholary Science Communications Trust, 2024) Masamha, Blessing; Uzokwe, Veronica N.E; Thebe, Vusilizwe
Most subsistence crops that fall in low-value chains, such as cassava, are controlled mainly by women; hence, intra-household gender roles and power dynamics are complex and depend on socio-economic and cultural contexts. Cassava food value chains contribute to the immediate food and income household needs of marginalized and vulnerable rural communities where agriculture is a significant livelihood. However, few studies have explicitly documented how perceived low-value agricultural commodity value chains transform intra-household social relations and resource ownership, benefit sharing, and how, in turn, these value chains are affected by these micro-level processes. The primary objective in designing this framework was to highlight the importance of gendered interactions at the microscale through an analysis of the changing roles, responsibilities, and bargaining power of women and men within the cassava value chains at the household level. A cross-sectional survey involving focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and an ethnographic approach was undertaken using repeated household visits during data collection. Qualitative data analysis used content analysis to identify key themes from focus group discussions about intra-household gender power dynamics. The framework was derived from analyzing the empirical findings from Tanzania’s smallholder farming sector underpinned by the Colfer and Minarchek framework. The findings refute the assumption of unitary household preferences along the gender axis, given the intricate relationships in the multi-sectoral smallholder farming space. By emphasizing intra-household gender power dynamics, the framework helps to identify gender inequalities emanating from skewed resource ownership, limited women participation, unequal benefit sharing, and power relations within the cassava food value chain. The study recommends policy shifts for women to own productive resources such as land, reduced export taxes, access to finance, and rewarding markets for cassava value chain actors. This study resonates with global and regional policy initiatives such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Agenda 2063: Africa We Want in enhancing gender equality, reducing poverty, and ensuring food and nutrition security. The framework will facilitate the development of gender-sensitive intervention programs for upgrading and strengthening women's participation in cassava food value chains.
Disseminating archaeological heritage knowledge for development in Africa with special reference to Zimbabwe
(Sage, 2024-10) Shenjere-Nyabezi, Plan; Pwiti, Gilbert; Sagiya, Munyaradzi Elton
In recent years, culture has gained recognition as a vital element in sustainable development efforts, both globally through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in Africa through the African Union’s Vision 2063. However, there remains a significant gap between the scientific community and local communities in terms of understanding and benefiting from archaeological heritage resources. This article draws on a research project conducted in north-western Zimbabwe to explore strategies for effectively engaging communities and empowering them with archaeological knowledge that is traditionally confined to academic circles. In doing so, the discussion draws attention to the need for the adoption of more inclusive approaches to the utilisation of archaeological heritage knowledge for community and national development.
Monsoon as method
(Sage, 2024-04) Bremner, Lindsay; Cullen, Beth; Cane, Jonathan; Geros, Christina
This paper is a reflective discussion of the research method developed by a small research team over a 5-year period as it intra-acted with the south Asian monsoon in three south/southeast Asian cities. It reflects on how the team’s practice was transformed from being research on or about the monsoon as a discrete unit of analysis, to research in the monsoon and with its agential materiality. The paper first outlines the theoretical resources from cultural geography, anthropology, feminist theory, posthuman theory, and science and technology studies that the project drew from. After this theoretical section, the paper then discusses the practical implications of the method and the two emergent strands of research (‘weather matters’ and ‘construction matters’) that were followed in Chennai, Dhaka, and Yangon. The final section of the paper reflects on the extension of the method into the formatting of a book and an online exhibition. The paper concludes by arguing that what the method offers to cultural, weather-based research in monsoonal and other climes, is a situated, non-formulaic method that recognizes the affordances of the Earth’s agency, of matter and of other than-human lives for generating knowledge of and ways of being in changing weather-worlds.
The playful Karoo : translating a South African story into the metaverse
(Routledge, 2024) Hayes, Andrea; 13212690@tuks.co.za
This research paper explores different game design methodologies that can be used to translate the South African novel Souvenir by Jane Rosenthal, set in the semi-desert region known as the Karoo into a Virtual Reality experience, which can live on the Metaverse. The paper suggests that the translated Virtual Reality experience can be used as a tool for climate change action and awareness, as well as a way to preserve South African stories on the Metaverse. The paper focuses on various narrative design methodologies for storytelling in game design, suggesting which would work best for the translation of a novel into a Virtual Reality experience. Additionally, it explores practical methodologies for the production of 3D game objects and assets required to recreate the Karoo landscape as described in the novel. This encompasses an exploratory excursion conducted within the Karoo region itself, wherein the collection of primary data is executed for the creation of game assets. Additionally, this involves a comprehensive examination of Henry Jenkins’ methodologies in game design, particularly focusing on narrative elements within gaming. A meaningful impact on the Metaverse is pursued through the translation of this Karoo-based South African novel, into Virtual Reality
Foragers downstream of Mapungubwe : the cultural sequence and chronology of Skirbeek Shelter, South Africa
(Routledge, 2024) Forssman, Tim; Antonites, Alexander; Ashley, Ceri Z.; Pentz, Justin; Scott, Karin; Woodborne, Stephan M.
In recent decades, interest in the Later Stone Age of the Mapungubwe region has increased. Here, we present the results of an investigation from a shelter downstream from Mapungubwe called Skirbeek. The shelter is in a sandstone koppie (tor) adjacent to another that was occupied in the 19th century a.d. by a Venda community. Radiocarbon results show three primary occupation phases in the mid-Holocene, final millennium b.c., and mid–late 2nd millennium a.d. The most intensely occupied phase was before ca. a.d. 750 prior to the arrival of herders, possibly, and farmers. There are several continuities and other discontinuities between these periods. Quartz dominates assemblages in each period, as do small end scrapers, but artifact and faunal frequencies vary. We compare these findings to those made in the Mapungubwe region and argue that Skirbeek represents a similar Later Stone Age phase. More generally, it appears largely consistent with Wilton assemblages defined in South Africa’s Cape zone rather than the Amadzimba and Bambata (or Ceramic Matopan) Industries found in Zimbabwe.
Remaking the late Holocene environment of western Uganda : archaeological perspectives on Kansyore and later settlers
(Springer, 2024-12) Schmidt, Peter R.; Walz, Jonathan R.; Besigye, Jackline N.; Krigbaum, John; Oteyo, Gilbert; Lejju, Julius B.; Asiimwe, Raymond; Ehret, Christopher; Crowther, Alison; Mwebi, Ogeto; Dunne, Julie; Schmidt, Jane; Okeny, Charles; Niwahereza, Amon; Yeko, Doreen; Bermudez, Katie; Echoru, Isaac
Archaeological and environmental research by an international and interdisciplinary team opens new perspectives into the settlement histories of Kansyore, Early Iron Age, and Bigo period peoples in the once forested regions of the Ndali Crater Lakes Region (NCLR) of western Uganda. The research examines the role of Kansyore agropastoralists and their Early Iron Age and Bantu-speaking contemporaries in remaking a once forested environment into a forest-savannah mosaic from circa 500 BC to the end of the first millennium AD. Archaeological settlement and subsistence evidence is examined within a framework of social interaction of Sudanic speakers with Bantu speakers, drawing on historical linguistics and environmental studies to arrive at a new synthesis of late Holocene history in western Uganda. This perspective also unveils the significance and chronology of Boudiné ware, a long enigmatic ceramic tradition that we identify as contemporary to Transitional Urewe and deeply influenced through social interactions with those making Kansyore ceramics and inhabiting the same landscape. Using archaeological evidence from fifteen sites and multiple burials spanning from 400 to 1650 calAD, new views of ceramic histories, lifeways, and symbolic values are revealed, including Bigo period settlements that arose in what was an environmental refugium beginning in the early fourteenth century AD. This research also shows that the Kansyore of the forested region east of the Rwenzori Mountains had greater affinities to late Holocene archaeological evidence from western Equatoria, in the southern South Sudan, and Kansyore Island, Uganda, than it does to the Kansyore in eastern Kenya.
Ostrich eggshell beads : hole drilling technology at Little Muck Shelter, South Africa
(Elsevier, 2024-12) Sherwood, Nicole Leoni; Forssman, Tim
Ostrich eggshell beads (OES) are commonly found in forager sites across sub-Saharan Africa. Although they have received a reasonable amount of investigation, the drilling technology used to perforate OES beads has received little attention. As a result, not much is known about this technology. Providing a basic tool form for these drills could be useful for future researchers to identify such tools in assemblages, or to prompt revisiting older assemblages to identify these types of tools, which might have been overlooked or misidentified. This study made use of experimentation and use-wear to determine the types and shapes of materials most effective for perforating OES. It was determined that early foragers most likely used micro-lithic drills made from small, but thick, flake blanks that were retouched along the laterals to create a near symmetrical point with a tetrahedral tip. At Little Muck Shelter the base of the flake was also shaped to resemble a tang that likely aided hafting. This tool form can act as a basis to help researchers identify similar technology which can be studied and help broaden our understanding of the complexity of forager technology.
Power relations in optimisation of therapies and equity in access to antibiotics (PROTEA) study : investigating the intersection of socio-economic and cultural drivers on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and its influence on healthcare access and health-providing behaviours in India and South Africa
(F1000 Research Ltd, 2024-07) Charani, Esmita; Dlamini, Sipho; Koch, Anastasia; Singh, Sanjeev; Hodes, Rebecca; Laxminarayan, Ramanan; Batheja, Deepshikha; Ramugondo, Elelwani; Mukherjee, Arunima Sehgal; Mendelson, Marc
Across social structures within society, including healthcare, power relations manifest according to gender, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, and class influencing infection related healthcare access and health providing-behaviours. Therefore, accounting for sociocultural drivers, including gender, race, and class, and their influence on economic status can improve healthcare access and health-providing behaviours in infection prevention and control (IPC) as well as antibiotic use, which in turn helps mitigate the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This Wellcome funded research will investigate how and why the social determinants of health and economic status influence how people seek, experience, and provide healthcare for suspected or proven (bacterial) infections and how these factors influence antibiotic prescribing and use in South Africa (upper middle-income country) and India (lower middle-income country). The aim of this body of work is to, (1) define and estimate the sociocultural and economic drivers for AMR in different resource settings, (2) design, implement and evaluate context-sensitive IPC and antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) interventions, and (3) inform policy and strategy for AMR mitigation. The population will be healthcare workers (HCWs), patients, and their carers across acute medical and surgical pathways where IPC and antibiotic-related healthcare access and health-providing behaviours will be studied. Qualitative methods will include ethnographic research, semi-structured in-depth interviews, and focus groups with healthcare providers, patients and carers. Quantitative analysis of bedside observational data from hospitals and population level data on antibiotic use will study the various predictors of AMR using bivariable and multivariable regression analyses. The research will provide high-quality evidence on how social determinants intersect with health, social well-being, and vulnerability in IPC practices and antibiotic use. Using this knowledge we will: 1) design, implement, and measure effects of interventions accounting for these factors; 2) provide a toolkit for advocacy for actors in AMR, and healthcare to assist them to promote dialogue, including policy dialogue on this issue. This work directly benefits the target population and informs healthcare services and practice across the participating countries with potential for wider translation. The setting will be hospitals in South Africa (middle-income country) and India (lower middle-income country). The population will be healthcare workers (HCWs), patients, and their carers across acute medical and surgical pathways where IPC and antibiotic-related health-seeking and health-providing behaviours will be studied. These populations represent communities most affected by infections and AMR because existing interventions do not address a) differences in how surgical versus medical teams manage infections; b) the role of the wider social network of individuals on their decision-making, c) intersection of the social determinants of health including race, gender, socioeconomic deprivation with AMR.
A tapestry of human-induced and climate-driven environmental change in western Uganda : the Ndali Crater Lakes Region
(Cambridge University Press, 2024-03) Schmidt, Peter R.; Walz, Jonathan R.; Besigye, Jackline N.; Lejju, Julius B.
Recent archaeological and paleoenvironmental research in the Ndali Crater Lakes Region (NCLR) of western Uganda provide important new insights into anthropogenic impacts on moist forests to the East of the Rwenzori Mountains. This research significantly changes previous interpretations of paleoenvironmental records in western Uganda and helps to distinguish climate change from human impacts. By drawing on multiple sources such as historical linguistics, archaeological evidence, and environmental proxies for change, a new picture emerges for a region that was a cultural crossroads for early Bantu-speakers and Central Sudanic-speakers between 400 BCE and 1000 CE. Detailed archaeological data and well-dated sites provide fine-grained evidence that closely fits episodes of significant environmental change, including a later and separate phase of forest clearance, soil degradation, and lake pollution caused by the saturation of the landscape by Bigo-related populations between 1300 and 1650 CE.

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