Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'African Cosmology'

Around Africa there seems to be an increasing disillusion with 'development', seen under the rubric of teleological 'progress', which is touted by post-colonial governments as being the cure for Africa's ailments and woes. Numerous authors have pointed out that this local disillusion, and the attempt to manage the inequities that arise through development and modernity, can be seen to be understood and acted upon by local peoples through the idiom of witchcraft beliefs and fears (see Geschiere & Fisiy 2001; Geschiere 1997; Nyamnjoh 2001; Comaroff & Comaroff 1993; Ashforth 2005) and spirit possession nanatives (see Luig 1999; Gezon 1999), or more simply, occult beliefs and praxis (Moore & Sanders 2001). The majority of the Mayeyi of Namibia's Eastern Caprivi perceive that development is the only way their regiOn and people can survive and succeed in a modernising world. At ~he same time there is also a seeming reluctance to move towards perceiving witchcraft as a means of accumulation (contra Geschiere 1997). This notion of the 'witchcraft of wealth' is emerging, but for the most part witches are seen as the enemies of development, while spirit possession narratives speak to the desire for development and of the identity of the group vis-a-vis the rest of the world. The thesis presented argues that, although modernity orientated analyses enable occult belief to be used as a lens through which to 1..mderstand 'modernity's malcontents' (Comaroff & Comaroff 1993), they can only go so far in explaining the intricacies of witchcraft and spirit possession beliefs themselves. The dissertation argues that one should return to the analysis of the cosmological underpinnings of witchcraft belief and spirit possession, taken together as complementary phenomena, in seeking to understand the domain of the occult. By doing so the thesis argues that a more comprehensive anthropological understanding is obtained of occult belief and practice, the ways in which the domain of the occult is constituted and the ways in which it is a reflection or commentary on a changing world.

Among the Yoruba àjé&dotbelow; is the primordial force of causation and creation. Àjé&dotbelow; is the power of the feminine, of female divinity and women, and àjé&dotbelow; is the women themselves who wield this power. Unfortunately, àjé&dotbelow; has been translated witch/witchcraft with attendant malevolent connotations. Though the fearsome nature of àjé&dotbelow; cannot be denied, àjé&dotbelow; is a richly nuanced term. Examination of Yoruba sacred text, Odu Ifa, reveals àjé&dotbelow; to be an endowment gifted to female divinity from the Source of Creation. Female divinity empowered their mortal daughters with àjé&dotbelow;—spiritual and temporal power exercised in religious, judicial, political, and economic domains throughout Yoruba history. However, in contemporary times àjé&dotbelow; have been negatively branded as witches and attacked.

The dissertation investigates factors contributing to the duality in attitude towards àjé&dotbelow; and factors that contributed to the intensified representation of their fearsome aspects to the virtual disavowal of their positive dimensions. Employing transdisciplinary methodology and using multiple lenses, including hermeneutics, historiography, and critical theory, the place of àjé&dotbelow; within Yoruba cosmology and historical reality is presented to broaden understanding and appreciation of the power and role of àjé&dotbelow; as well as to elucidate challenges to àjé&dotbelow;. Personal experiences of àjé&dotbelow; are spoken to within the qualitative interviews. Individuals with knowledge of àjé&dotbelow; were interviewed in Yorubaland and within the United States.

Culture is not static. A critical reading of Odu Ifa reveals the infiltration of patriarchal influence. The research uncovered that patriarchal evolution within Yoruba society buttressed and augmented by the patriarchy of British imperialism as well as the economic and social transformations wrought by colonialism coalesced to undermine àjé&dotbelow; power and function.

In our out-of-balance world, there might be wisdom to be gleaned from beings that were given the charge of maintaining cosmic balance. Giving proper respect and honor to "our mothers" (awon iya wa) who own and control àjé&dotbelow;, individuals are called to exercise their àjé&dotbelow; in the world in the cause of social justice, to be the guardians of a just society.

African American Studies
Ph.D.
African music and its musicians from the Pharaonic periods to Mali to the Mississippi Delta to the South Bronx have contributed some of the most lasting and influential cultural creations known. The music and musicians of Africa have been studied as early as the early 18th century. As interest in African music grew so did the discipline of ethnomusicology. Ethnomusicology has sought to understand, interpret and catalog the various areas of African music. In the United States interest in the music as a continuation of African culture was also sought after and investigated as an important area of research. The main objective of this project is to help expand the methodological approaches in the study of African Diasporan musical cultures and their practitioners. The author undertook a critical examination of the previous works on the subject made by both Continental and Diasporan African scholars, in addition to fieldwork in the United States and Africa (Ghana). Through considering the work songs of Pharaonic Egypt, the cosmogram of the Bantu-Kongo and the life of John Coltrane in particular this proposed work articulates new methodological tools in the research of African music and musicians.
Temple University--Theses

African American Studies
Ph.D.
Since the emergence of RastafarI communities within 1930's Jamaica following the coronation of Ras Tafari Makonnen as Haile Selassie I, Negus (king) of Ethiopia, RastafarI continuously articulate his divinity within their discourse. While the specific nomenclature for and significance of Haile Selassie I may vary in accordance to time and affiliation, it is unquestionable that Selassie I remains central to the RastafarI way of life for more than 70 years. What scholars and thinkers on RastafarI question, and very fervently so during the past 10 years, is the authenticity of the divinity of Selassie I within RastafarI thought. The few scholars who attempt to solve what for them is the "problem of authenticity," claim, through christological and apologistic approaches, that RastafarI need to reconsider the possibility of his status, as it is conjecture and blasphemy. Adhering to African epistemological assumptions that everything in existence comprises the whole of existence, we rely on an African symbolic approach to examine RastafarI conceptualizations of Selassie I within pre-coronation, coronation and post-coronation RastafarI writings. Given that the material reality seemingly degenerates the collective body and consciousness in accordance with the cycles of time as expressed within the most ancient of Kemetic cosmologies, our aim is to suggest that Haile Selassie I emerges as a ba, the soul template, of Asar, a force manifesting as the human ability and potential to exist within the material realm in accordance with the unseen realm of existence. We conclude, unlike previous academic thinkers who examine RastafarI thought, that RastafarI thinking about Haile Selassie I is therefore an authentic perspective, one that undoubtedly occurs in accordance with the structure and origin of the universe and the cyclical journey of Africana reclamation of a primordial consciousness.
Temple University--Theses

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD
Next-generation galaxy surveys will usher in a new era of high precision cosmology. They will increasingly rely on the galaxy bispectrum to provide improved constraints on the key parameters of a cosmological model to percent level or even beyond. Hereby, it is imperative to understand the theory of the galaxy bispectrum to at least the same level of precision. By this, we mean to include all the general relativistic projection effects arising from observing on the past lightcone, which still remains a theoretical challenge. This is because unlike the galaxy power spectrum, the galaxy bispectrum requires these lightcone corrections at second-order. For the rst time, this PhD project looks at all the local relativistic lightcone e ects in the galaxy bispectrum for a at Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker Universe, giving full details on the second-order scalars, vectors and tensors. These lightcone effects are mostly Doppler and gravitational potential contributions. The vector and tensor modes are induced at second order by scalars. We focus on the squeezed shapes for the monopole of the galaxy bispectrum because non-Gaussianity of the local form shows high signatures for these triangular con gurations. In the exact squeezed limit, the contributions from the vectors and tensors vanish. These relativistic projection effects, if not included in the analysis of observations, can be mistaken for primordial non-Gaussianity. For future surveys which will probe equality scales and beyond, all the relativistic corrections will need to be considered for an accurate measurement of primordial non-Gaussianity.

Thesis (MPhil (Religion and Culture) Practical Theology and Missiology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study distinguishes between religion as a sense of belonging to the ultimately-real and specific religious traditions. Religion, as used here, concerns a cosmological understanding of the universe and with that which is experienced as meaningful and real on an existential level. Although differences between religious traditions are generaly known, most people‟s emotional conceptual frameworks of the universe are so deep seated that they do not even realise that far-reaching differences between people on this level too are possible. It often happens, for example, that concepts such as transcendence and redemption are incorrectly accepted as universal to all of humanity. Yet in fact, cosmological concepts (the nature and experience of the immediate world out there, the conceptual understanding of time, the role of chance versus determinism, the source of religious knowledge and so forth) can be experienced differently on a symbolic level. In the context of Religion and Media which is the field of study relevant here, as well as in a number of other contexts, it is problematic when scholars project their own views of reality and meaning experiences onto those of others – especially when they expressly articulate their intention as the opposite. John Cumpsty (1991) distinguished three ways in which a person can derive meaning from the cosmic totality and I shall discuss two of these with reference to the Western-Christian and the traditional African reality views. From this, it becomes clear that radical different patterns of cosmological understanding are possible, each with its own systemically related set of symbols. Along with Cumpsty‟s theory, I also use the theory of Castells (2005) on the construction of social identities, as well as the theory of Sen (2006) on the use of cognitive versus affective dimensions in identity formation, to indicate how cosmological symbols can be positioned differently. With these three theories in mind, I subsequently interpret the identities of the main characters in three films hermeneutically. I specifically selected this medium as a segment of life to be studied because of the increasing popularity of the medium in reflection, construction and projection of existential meaning. Another reason for my choice is the many examples where interpretors of film project their own cosmological understanding onto those of others whilst they actually intend to be pluralistic. The findings of this study surprised me. Firstly and as expected, it clarifies the nature of differences between the Western-Christian and the traditional African cosmologies, as well as how these are implemented in praxis and by symbolic interpretations. However, the integration of the three theories also afforded me the opportunity to develop a method for a religious-cosmological analyses of identities. According to this method, an interpretor of films can distinguish between his or her own paradigm and a possible other paradigm. It allows the analyst to acknowledge the own paradigm and simultaneously respect another paradigm – without projecting the own onto the other. Therefore this method diminishes the chances of using dubble-text interpretation which maintains or promotes the exclusion of others. With this method, as well as the findings of this study, one can go much wider than the field of Religion and Media, as it involves the understanding of identity and different ways of belonging to the cosmic totality.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie onderskei tussen religie as ’n manier van behoort aan die ultiem-werklike en spesifieke religieuse tradisies. Religie soos hier gebruik, het te make met ‟n kosmologiese verstaan van die heelal en met wat eksistensieel as werklik en sinvol ervaar word. Hoewel verskille tussen religieuse tradisies algemeen bekend is, is mense se emosionele verstaansraamwerke van die heelal so diep gesetel, dat die meeste nie eens besef dat daar ook op hierdie vlak ingrypende verskille is nie. So gebeur dit dikwels dat konsepte soos “transendensie” en “verlossing”verkeerdelik as universeel aan alle mense en religeuse tradisies beskou word. In der waarheid kan kosmologiese komponente (die aard en ervaring van die onmiddellike realiteit; tydsverstaan; die rol van kans teenoor determinisme; die bron van religieuse kennis; ensovoorts) egter op ’n simboliese vlak verskillend ervaar word. In die konteks van Religie en Media waarbinne hierdie studie val, asook binne vele ander kontekste, is dit problematies wanneer akademici hul eie realiteitsiening en sinservaring op dié van ander projekteer – veral wanneer hulle hulself uitdruklik voorgeneem het om die teendeel te doen. John Cumpsty (1991) het drie maniere waarop mense sin maak van die kosmiese totaliteit onderskei en ek bespreek twee daarvan met verwysing na die Westers-Christelike en die tradisionele Afrika realiteitsienings. Hieruit word dit dan duidelik dat algeheel verskillende patrone in ‟n kosmiese verstaan moontlik is, elk met ‟n eie stel simbole wat sistemies bymekaar aansluit. Saam met Cumpsty se teorie, gebruik ek ook dié van Castells (2005) oor sosiale identiteitsvorming, en dié van Sen (2006) oor die gebruik van die kognitiewe versus die affektiewe in identiteitsvorming om aan te toon hoe kosmologiese simbole verskillend geposisioneer kan word. Met hierdie drie teorieë in gedagte, ontsluit ek vervolgens die identiteite van die hoofkarakers in drie rolprente hermeneuties. Ek het spesifiek dié medium as ‟n bestudeerbare greep van die lewe gekies weens die toenemende gewildheid daarvan in die refleksie, konstruksie en projeksie van eksistensiële sin. Nog ‟n rede is die talle voorbeelde waarin interpreteerders van rolprente hul eie kosmiese verstaan op dié van andere projekteer terwyl hulle eintlik pluralisties wil wees. Die bevindinge van hierdie studie was vir my verrassend. Dit bring eerstens, soos verwag, wel helderheid oor die aard van verskille tussen die Westers-Christelike en die tradisionele Afrika kosmologieë, asook hoe dit in die praktyk kan uitspeel aan die hand van simboliese interpretasies. Die integrasie van die drie teorieë het my egter ook die kans gebied om ‟n metode vir ’n religieus-kosmologiese analise van identiteit te ontwikkel. Hiervolgens kan ‟n ontleder van rolprente op ‟n redelike, sistematiese en sistemiese manier tussen sy of haar eie, sowel as ‟n moontlike ander, paradigma onderskei. Dit laat die ontleder toe om die eie paradigma te erken, sowel as respek te betoon teenoor ’n ander paradigma – sonder om die eie op die ander te projekteer. Daarom verminder hierdie metode veral ook die kans op die gebruik van ‟n dubbele-teks interpretasie wat uitsluiting van die ander handhaaf of bevorder. Hierdie metode, sowel as die bevindinge van die studie, kan veel wyer as die veld van Religie en Media toegepas word, omdat dit te make het met die verstaan van identiteit en verskillende maniere van behoort aan die kosmiese totaliteit.

Este trabalho é uma etnografia com a comunidade do Ilê Asè Omi Olodô, terreiro de Batuque localizado na Vila São José, em Porto Alegre, realizada no período de 2011 a 2013. Essa comunidade de terreiro se assemelha à maioria dos terreiros da cidade em termos socioeconômicos, localizando-se em uma região periférica; contudo, é uma comunidade que se diferencia pelo posicionamento político ao refletir míticosocialmente sobre si mesma. Desse modo, o foco da presente etnografia é a descrição da eco(cosmo)logia de matriz africana observada em campo, considerando que ela se faz entre-dois mundos, o “ocidental” e o de matriz africana. Essa dissertação percorre a narrativa dessa experiência com a comunidade dentro e fora do terreiro, buscando explicitar essa forma de habitar (entre) dois mundos. A partir dessa perspectiva, buscase demonstrar que há uma metodologia do ambiente que inicia no corpo. O ambientecorpo é percebido na relação entre os momentos cotidianos e os momentos rituais; entre eles, percebe-se o fazer-se das habilidades e das potências que emergem da orisálidade. Assim, a Antropologia Ecológica de Tim Ingold contribui para narrar o aprendizado obtido na vivência no Ilê Asè Omi Olodô enquanto localidade cosmopolítica. Além disso, a narrativa se orienta no sentido de descrever a vivência da afrocentridade, da ancestralidade, da oralidade, da complementaridade e da circularidade.
This work is an ethnography of community from Ilê Asè Omi Olodô (terreiro de Batuque) located in Vila Sao Jose in Porto Alegre, Brazil, from 2011 up to 2013. This terreiro shares attributes with other terreiros, such as their peripheral location in the city and their ritual practices. It is very distinct, however, in terms of political orientation and self-reflective practices over mythical and social themes. Therefore, this research work aims to describe the eco(cosmo)logy – rooted in African origins – observed in the field, considering that it is established between two worlds, occidental-based and African-based. From that standpoint, the objective is to demonstrate the existence of a methodology of the environment whose starting point is the body. The bodyenvironment is perceived in the relation of the daily and the ritual moments; among them, it is possible to see the abilities and potentialities emerged from the orisálidade. Hence, the Ecological Antropology by Tim Ingold contributes to narrate the learning process experienced in Ilê Asè Omi Olodô as a cosmopolitical location. Besides, the narrative is oriented in order to describe the experience of afrocentricity, ancestrality, oral tradition, complementarity and circularity.

Les cosmogonies et cosmologies sont des moments forts de la pensée en général à travers lesquels l'homme se pose des questions sur son rapport au reste de l'univers, l'origine du monde, la création et le fonctionnement de celui-ci. En effet, face à son angoisse existentielle, son étonnement et toutes les difficultés à maîtriser son environnement immédiat et lointain, il se pose certaines questions auxquelles ces discours tentent d'apporter des réponses. C'est dans le sillage de celles dont témoignent les cosmogonies et cosmologies grecques et africaines que nous avons tenté de relever des constantes et invariants, mais aussi des variantes. Aux interrogations sur l'origine du monde, la création, le sens du devenir, la justification d'une théorie de la centralité, les implications sociales des cosmogonies et cosmologies, nous avons trouvé que ces pensées grecques et africaines, bien qu'appartenant à des zones géographiquement différentes, en ont apporté des réponses méritant l'usage des méthodes comparatives à travers l'étude objective de certains thèmes ou morceaux de ces discours révélant une permanence des préoccupations du genre humain.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of Ph. D (Public Managment), Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017.
Using historic and ethnographic data collected from KwaZulu-Natal, this study examines food consumption from the Zulu Cosmology epistemic point of view. The study highlights as a prosocial behaviour that reduces the importance of self in favour of pro social norms of sharing and selflessness. In other words, personhood is understood as a process and the product of interconnectedness experienced in social spaces. Pro-social behaviour is therefore seen as a determinant of harmonious and social cohesive communities. The study concluded that social cohesive communities develop a set of cultural protocols and boundaries that reward prosocial norms and punish antisocial behaviour. Social cohesion as a concept was also found to be inseparable from the notion of shared values, identities and norms. The study delved deeper and found that the land, the livestock and the cultural rituals to honour the living and the dead defined a unique interconnectedness of the Zulu person to his culture. Eating and eaten products were part of a uniting culture that linked a Zulu man, woman, girls, old men and women to other people, their animals and their land. Zulu people lived for, and with, other people in peace. No man or family would go hungry. Immediately that becomes known, another man would give the destitute man a few cattle to start his own flock and feed his family. This and other eating rituals contributed to a strong, peaceful and social cohesive nation of King Shaka ka Senzangakhona. On the basis of the understanding of the cultural rituals, their link with the land and animal the study concluded that land restitution and agrarian policies can be enhanced by taking into consideration their need for land to cultivate vegetables and fruits that have cultural meaning, policies that enable to have livestock as well as space to practise their culture. The study is envisaged to inspire social welfare and community development policies that instil the prosocial values of Ubuntu and interconnectedness.
D

This dissertation on negating, resisting or affirming cosmological principle towards an African humanism leadership theory and model has evolved through an embryonic process that arose from the research ‘itch’ as regards the way in which post-colonial African leadership has been critiqued. This research ‘itch’ also focused on how the postcolonial leadership in Africa, were trail blazers in formulating liberation philosophies and ideologies that did not, unfortunately, translate into sustainable peace and development. Thus, this dissertation has been a journey of immersion into the public and macro-level discourse contained in pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial African leadership case studies. This enriching journey revealed a postcolonial African leadership which had focused on ideologies and philosophies and had deviated from the spirituality embedded in indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems. Hence, this dissertation examines relevant cosmological principles embedded in indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems for analysing African leadership; for the embryonic process that begins with the universal humanism perspective of African leadership, cognitive justice and transformation by enlargement, and basic African humanism perspectives. Thus, this study examines cognitive justice as the enabler of indigenous cosmologies and transformation by enlargement as the enabler of indigenous knowledge systems, both of which provide relevant cosmological principles for analysing African leadership. In addition, the dissertation analyses indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems from the African continent in an effort to distinguish between the various forms of leadership found in Africa and to generate an African humanism leadership theory and model. The indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems in this dissertation are from four regions in Africa, namely, North Africa (Egypt); West Africa (Ghana-Akan); the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia) and Southern Africa (Bantu). The methodologies used in the study include Afrikology and critical discourse analysis and enabled the research study to ascertain whether cosmological principles embedded in indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems are relevant for analysing African leadership. Critical discourse analysis enabled the geographic triangulation of African leadership and the indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems, thus resulting in the development of the African humanism leadership theory and model of individual dualism leadership.
Educational Studies
M. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
The resettlement of refugees to a third country is characterised in dominant humanitarian and political discourses as a durable solution to ‘displacement.’ This thesis challenges that presumption through an ethnographic exploration of how ‘displacement’ is experienced by Central African women living in different contexts of refugee settlement in Australia and Uganda. It illustrates how, for the small number of refugees who are offered resettlement to a third country, a sense of ‘displacement’ can both endure and emerge within such settings. ‘Displacement’ is critically explored here as an embodied experience that is oriented through the subjectivities of Central African women across settings of refugee settlement in both Australian and Uganda. Through a comparative, in-depth analysis of ‘displacement’ in both contexts, the assumption that resettlement offers a durable solution of ‘refuge’ is critically unsettled. The thesis draws on 18-months of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork with Central African refugee women resettled across regional towns and urban settings in Australia, as well as a shorter period of fieldwork with Central African women living as refugees in Uganda. In documenting experiences of ‘displacement’ from the subjectivities of the Central African women, refugee settlement emerges here as a process that is oriented for them through cosmological logics of regenerative flow. Broader insecurities of ‘displacement’ manifest within, and are expressed through, the women’s everyday practices of cultivating plant foods, cooking food, and bearing and rearing children. In particular, it is the capacity to contribute to this regenerative flow of life through existing as ‘mother’ that is a fundamental basis of their sense of stability and ‘refuge’; or, conversely, rupture and ‘displacement.’ Subsequently, for the Central African women who participated in this research, ‘displacement’ cannot be mechanistically reduced to the socio-spatial and politico-legal shifts that are encompassed within experiences of forced migration. ‘Displacement’ is the experience of having their cosmological logics of regenerative continuity ruptured within the conditions of their settlement. The thesis thus transcends static notions of refugee ‘displacement,’ to consider instead the lived experience of being displaced as an existential condition of cosmological rupture.

Since the 1950s modernization theory predicted within the Third World a trajectory for social evolution and development mirroring perceived social and developmental evolution in Western societies since the 17th Century. Despite this theory being much discredited in both Western societies and the developing world; this theory still forms the basis for much analysis and policy formulation within post-1990 South Africa. This thesis looks at various aspects of urban black South Africans' existence and concludes that African tradition has found a place within an urban existence due to it's flexibility in dealing with peoples' daily challenges. An urban existence can thus no-longer be thought of as supplanting tradition in favour of western influences, but rather as bringing about a mixture of western and traditional influences - with positive and negative theoretical and practical developmental consequences
Development Studies
M.A.

The study vacillates between the text, the reader and the author. Examining biography and such socio-cultural factors as marriage and cosmology, the reader is equipped with sufficient background which illuminates the ideology behind the text. The cosmological conceptions of the Northern Sotho shed some light on the poet's views on the child's first cry. These assumptions lay a foundation for the religious views expressed in his texts. The contradictions between African religion and Christianity help us comprehend the frustrations of secular and religious lives in our country. These also serve as linchpins towards understanding the pursuit of religious pluralism. The concept 'intertextuality' is explored. Cases of intratextuality and intertextuality which dispute the absolutist view in meaning composition highlight the interrelatedness of texts and how each relationship impacts on meaning.
African Languages
M.A. (African Languages)

This research sought to investigate the impact of a belief in witchcraft as an explanation for all the ills in the Hlubi community and South African societies in general - which becomes a good tool for inadequate governments. Our approach in this study has been interdisciplinary and the utilization of comparative analysis and a combination of phenomenological and qualitative research models. Economic problems create social tensions and are manifested in various ways, including witchcraft craze. The Hlubi scenario found parallels in Europe and America. Witchcraft and ancestors are considered to be the main causes of diseases but nature and ecological or environmental dangers are other factors. Pragmatic and obvious response to such phobias is seen in the protective and preventive devices provided by isangoma, amaqhira, amaxhwere, inyanga and faith healers. It is hypothesized that as long as all existential needs exist in Hlubi society witchcraft will continue to be with us, perhaps forever.
Religious Studies & Arabic
DLITT ET PHIL (REL STUD)

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Pietermaritzburg, 2015
This thesis considers economy and cosmology in the Iron Age of KwaZulu-Natal. It draws on models derived from anthropological and historical analyses of precolonial agriculturists in southern Africa and applies these to archaeological data. Critics argue that anthropological approaches in archaeology are not conducive to the creation of a socially dynamic past. In contrast, I believe that their potential is considerable. The models targeted, principally Huffman’s Central Cattle Pattern, obviously represent socially dynamic relationships. This is clear if we look at lower-level models: Ngubane’s analysis of Zulu sickness and healing, which reveals fracture lines and tensions within the homestead, and Hammond-Tooke’s observation that the Nguni and Sotho pollution systems are variations related to the specifics of marriage and settlement. Ngubane’s analysis couples neatly with Guy’s identification of the ‘history-making’ principle—the struggle for the accumulation, creation and control of human productive and reproductive capacity— that gave Iron Age societies their dynamism. It is an engagement that firmly integrates systems of symbolism and belief with economy. Throughout this study I focus on the expression of this dynamic principle in cosmology and material culture. Consideration of pollution concepts in the Early Iron Age showed that the high exchange value of women created extensive lateral alliance networks as cattle moved as bridewealth from one homestead to another. The system worked against a concern for male agnatic continuity and so generated considerable structural tension within society, which was expressed in material culture. My focus on fish remains in Iron Age sites generated an ‘ethnography’ and political history of fishing where none had existed previously. It established a cultural logic that explained the avoidance of fish eating in some societies, and its adoption and significance in others. The approach combined with Kopytoff ’s frontier model revealed two key findings. First, the marginal category, amalala, originated at the Early and Late Iron Age interface. Secondly, the Zulu kingdom emerged from a dynastic shift in a complex of chiefdoms around the Babanango plateau, with the Zulu leadership usurping Khumalo authority. An analysis of Nguni rainmaking, and of the record of interaction between huntergatherers and agriculturists, revealed no evidence that hunter-gatherers made rain for agriculturists until the late nineteenth century. This work marked their final tragedy, their loss of independent life as the colonial world closed in about them.

The thesis argues that there is a need for Christian communal pastoral care and counselling practice beyond the individualistic Western pastoral care and counselling practices. The communal pastoral care model advocated by the author uses culturally gifted care-givers who follow spontaneous caring models. Several of the major books concerning communal pastoral care and counselling were reviewed. The author concludes that the church has been impoverished by ignoring the cultural gifts of the majority of members and the mutual communal care of the community. Pain and its healing in this thesis are understood in a culturally sensitive manner. Pastoral care must be done in context, in this case in the Vhavenda context. Hence the thesis looks systematically at the way in which the Vhavenda understand and heal pain from their cosmological perspective. The thesis engages in empirical research among the Vhavenda people using qualitative interview. The author selected five small communities to test for their understanding of pain and healing. He developed his own interview schedule. Themes encountered in interpreting the research results include pain as part of life. The thesis develops two sub-models of a Vhavenda-Christian culturally gifted model of communal care arguing the need of their incorporation into Christian communal care. They are “Kha ri vangulane” model which pictures pain as a thorn which people help to remove from a person; and the “khoro” or “dzulo” gathering which is family or community care-giving. A case study has illustrated how they are used.Finally, the author argues that the Bible is full of communal pictures which resonate well with the African people. Hence it is fairly easy to correlate the Vhavenda sense of community with the body of Christ model of Christian community as found in the Bible. The conclusion is that members of the Christian community need to reincorporate their culturally gifted care resources and integrate them with the biblical care.
Thesis (D. Th. (Practical Theology))