Isabelle Parsons
Biographic Data
| ID | 1173040 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Isabelle Parsons |
| GIVEN NAMES | Isabelle |
| FAMILY NAME | Parsons |
| SIGNATURE | PARSONS I |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of South Africa |
| ORCID | 0009-0009-3804-1151 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 34 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 10 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Of /Xam, springbok and stone hunting funnels in southern Africa
In this paper we explore the interconnectedness of the /Xam San and springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis), the most frequently referenced animal in the /Xam archive of the Nama Karoo region of South Africa. It is set against a worldview in which human-animal boundaries are fluid and the /Xam understood themselves to have been ‘Myth Time’ springbok before people made laws and animals lost their humanity. We demonstrate purposeful interaction between …
Exploring arrow poisons from Windvogel’s Country, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Some 170 years ago Piet Windvogel told William Atherstone about two plant-based arrow poisons prepared and used by Khoe-San living west of the Great Kei River in the modern-day Eastern Cape interior of South Africa. Atherstone’s interest in botany and in indigenous knowledge of local plant species fed into colonial intellectual networks, as well as imperialist concerns with scientific and/or economic profit. Yet his diarised record of Windvogel’s…
The power of women in dairying communities of eastern and southern Africa
Today, African pastoralist communities are often viewed as male-dominated or ‘patriarchal’. This is/was, however, not always the case. This paper explores the role of women in non-Bantu-speaking herding groups of eastern Africa, such as the Maasai, Samburu and Nuer, whose socio-economic lifeways are/were largely centred on dairying activities. It touches on the archaeology of milk and briefly compares what is known about women’s roles in eastern …
Milk not Meat
Historical sources emphasise the different uses of livestock in southern African Khoe societies. Here we review the role of milk gained from livestock amongst the Khoe, as recorded over the last few centuries, and demonstrate that it was of greater subsistence value than the meat of livestock. In addition, we highlight the recorded technological, social and ritual importance of milk amongst the Khoe. Finally, attention is drawn to recent genetic …
Is Niche Construction Theory Relevant to the Proposed Adoption of Domesticates by Hunter-Gatherers in Southern Africa
Foraging, Food Production and Laminar Components in the Northern Cape, South Africa, and Beyond
Variability in the size of laminar (blade/bladelet) components has been used as a distinguishing feature between two archaeological signatures in the interior of the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. These signatures potentially represent different socio-economies (hunter-gatherers and herders) and date to the last two millennia. I consider this approach in more detail by presenting analytical results for the lithic material from Breek Been K…
What happened to the human mind after the Howiesons Poort
The authors deliver a decisive blow to the idea of unidirectional behavioural and cognitive evolution in this tightly argued account of why the bow and arrow was invented and then possibly laid aside by Middle Stone Age communities in southern Africa. Finding that all are modern humans (Homo sapiens), they paint a picture of diverse strategies for survival and development from 75 000 years ago onwards. It is one in which material inventions can c…
Hunter-gatherers or herders? Reconsidering the Swartkop & Doornfontein Industries, Northern Cape Province, South Africa
Existing descriptions of the so-called Swartkop and Doornfontein industries are briefly summarised, whereafter, based on a comparison with the characteristics of five artefact assemblages from the interior of the Northern Cape Province, South Africa, that yielded radiocarbon dates within the last two millennia, these descriptions are assessed. Variability between the assemblages, attributed to the Swartkop and Doornfontein in the literature, and …
Ritual Practice in a Domestic Space
Marlize Lombard, Isabelle Parsons, Ritual Practice in a Domestic Space: Evidence from Melora Hilltop, a Late Iron Age Stone-Walled Settlement in the Waterberg, Limpopo Province, South Africa, The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 58, No. 178 (Dec., 2003), pp. 79-84
Lithic Expressions of Later Stone Age Lifeways in the Northern Cape
Milk not Meat
Historical sources emphasise the different uses of livestock in southern African Khoe societies. Here we review the role of milk gained from livestock amongst the Khoe, as recorded over the last few centuries, and demonstrate that it was of greater subsistence value than the meat of livestock. In addition, we highlight the recorded technological, social and ritual importance of milk amongst the Khoe. Finally, attention is drawn to recent genetic …
What happened to the human mind after the Howiesons Poort
The authors deliver a decisive blow to the idea of unidirectional behavioural and cognitive evolution in this tightly argued account of why the bow and arrow was invented and then possibly laid aside by Middle Stone Age communities in southern Africa. Finding that all are modern humans (Homo sapiens), they paint a picture of diverse strategies for survival and development from 75 000 years ago onwards. It is one in which material inventions can c…
The power of women in dairying communities of eastern and southern Africa
Today, African pastoralist communities are often viewed as male-dominated or ‘patriarchal’. This is/was, however, not always the case. This paper explores the role of women in non-Bantu-speaking herding groups of eastern Africa, such as the Maasai, Samburu and Nuer, whose socio-economic lifeways are/were largely centred on dairying activities. It touches on the archaeology of milk and briefly compares what is known about women’s roles in eastern …
Is Niche Construction Theory Relevant to the Proposed Adoption of Domesticates by Hunter-Gatherers in Southern Africa
Foraging, Food Production and Laminar Components in the Northern Cape, South Africa, and Beyond
Variability in the size of laminar (blade/bladelet) components has been used as a distinguishing feature between two archaeological signatures in the interior of the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. These signatures potentially represent different socio-economies (hunter-gatherers and herders) and date to the last two millennia. I consider this approach in more detail by presenting analytical results for the lithic material from Breek Been K…
Hunter-gatherers or herders? Reconsidering the Swartkop & Doornfontein Industries, Northern Cape Province, South Africa
Existing descriptions of the so-called Swartkop and Doornfontein industries are briefly summarised, whereafter, based on a comparison with the characteristics of five artefact assemblages from the interior of the Northern Cape Province, South Africa, that yielded radiocarbon dates within the last two millennia, these descriptions are assessed. Variability between the assemblages, attributed to the Swartkop and Doornfontein in the literature, and …
Ritual Practice in a Domestic Space
Marlize Lombard, Isabelle Parsons, Ritual Practice in a Domestic Space: Evidence from Melora Hilltop, a Late Iron Age Stone-Walled Settlement in the Waterberg, Limpopo Province, South Africa, The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 58, No. 178 (Dec., 2003), pp. 79-84
Ritual Practice in a Domestic Space
Marlize Lombard, Isabelle Parsons, Ritual Practice in a Domestic Space: Evidence from Melora Hilltop, a Late Iron Age Stone-Walled Settlement in the Waterberg, Limpopo Province, South Africa, The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 58, No. 178 (Dec., 2003), pp. 79-84
Lithic Expressions of Later Stone Age Lifeways in the Northern Cape
Hunter-gatherers or herders? Reconsidering the Swartkop & Doornfontein Industries, Northern Cape Province, South Africa
Existing descriptions of the so-called Swartkop and Doornfontein industries are briefly summarised, whereafter, based on a comparison with the characteristics of five artefact assemblages from the interior of the Northern Cape Province, South Africa, that yielded radiocarbon dates within the last two millennia, these descriptions are assessed. Variability between the assemblages, attributed to the Swartkop and Doornfontein in the literature, and …
Foraging, Food Production and Laminar Components in the Northern Cape, South Africa, and Beyond
Variability in the size of laminar (blade/bladelet) components has been used as a distinguishing feature between two archaeological signatures in the interior of the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. These signatures potentially represent different socio-economies (hunter-gatherers and herders) and date to the last two millennia. I consider this approach in more detail by presenting analytical results for the lithic material from Breek Been K…
What happened to the human mind after the Howiesons Poort
The authors deliver a decisive blow to the idea of unidirectional behavioural and cognitive evolution in this tightly argued account of why the bow and arrow was invented and then possibly laid aside by Middle Stone Age communities in southern Africa. Finding that all are modern humans (Homo sapiens), they paint a picture of diverse strategies for survival and development from 75 000 years ago onwards. It is one in which material inventions can c…
Milk not Meat
Historical sources emphasise the different uses of livestock in southern African Khoe societies. Here we review the role of milk gained from livestock amongst the Khoe, as recorded over the last few centuries, and demonstrate that it was of greater subsistence value than the meat of livestock. In addition, we highlight the recorded technological, social and ritual importance of milk amongst the Khoe. Finally, attention is drawn to recent genetic …
Is Niche Construction Theory Relevant to the Proposed Adoption of Domesticates by Hunter-Gatherers in Southern Africa
The power of women in dairying communities of eastern and southern Africa
Today, African pastoralist communities are often viewed as male-dominated or ‘patriarchal’. This is/was, however, not always the case. This paper explores the role of women in non-Bantu-speaking herding groups of eastern Africa, such as the Maasai, Samburu and Nuer, whose socio-economic lifeways are/were largely centred on dairying activities. It touches on the archaeology of milk and briefly compares what is known about women’s roles in eastern …
Exploring arrow poisons from Windvogel’s Country, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Some 170 years ago Piet Windvogel told William Atherstone about two plant-based arrow poisons prepared and used by Khoe-San living west of the Great Kei River in the modern-day Eastern Cape interior of South Africa. Atherstone’s interest in botany and in indigenous knowledge of local plant species fed into colonial intellectual networks, as well as imperialist concerns with scientific and/or economic profit. Yet his diarised record of Windvogel’s…
Of /Xam, springbok and stone hunting funnels in southern Africa
In this paper we explore the interconnectedness of the /Xam San and springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis), the most frequently referenced animal in the /Xam archive of the Nama Karoo region of South Africa. It is set against a worldview in which human-animal boundaries are fluid and the /Xam understood themselves to have been ‘Myth Time’ springbok before people made laws and animals lost their humanity. We demonstrate purposeful interaction between …
Geography (10 works) · Archaeology (9 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (7 works) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (6 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (4 works) · Cape (4 works) · History (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology (3 works) · Ancient history (2 works)