Ethnobotanical research at Klasies River linking past, present, and future
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19005796 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Yvette Van Wijk (Rhodes University, corresponding author), Renee Rust (0000-0003-0252-5436, University of the Witwatersrand), Eldrid M Uithaler (City of Cape Town), Sarah Wurz (0000-0002-0949-5391, University of the Witwatersrand) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Publication date | 2019-11-09 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ethnobotany Research and Applications (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1547-3465 • E-ISSN: 1547-3465 |
| Publisher | Ilia State University (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.32859/era.18.34.1-24 |
| OpenAlex | W2983902670 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 24 |
Background: Klasies River is a prominent archaeological site on the South African southern Cape coast, with a unique and continuous occupation spanning the Middle and Late Pleistocene into the Holocene. Ethnobotanical research was undertaken with the objective of enabling a deeper understanding and contextualisation of the palaeo-ethnobotanical finds retrieved during ongoing excavation.Methods: Research into ethnobotanical usage enables extrapolation of the uses to which archaeobotanicals may have been put. Semi-structured interviews and walks in the veld with six local participants, selected for their knowledge of the local plants, were conducted. An interdisciplinary focus, with a pragmatic and abductive grounded theory approach was used.Results: Of the Klasies taxa reported in use today by participants 84% are confirmed by other published research into Khoi and San indigenous plant knowledge in the three Cape Provinces and 42% of these useful taxa are reported as finds in published archaeological research in the Cape Provinces, indicating ongoing usage from past to present.Conclusions: Our research indicates the need for thorough and systematic collection of ethnobotanical data (particularly from Khoi and San descendants), which is under-studied in the South African context. We consider that environment and behaviour of the past, present and future is not only shaped by climate, but by adaptive human-plant interactions through intergenerational and inter-cultural learning.Keywords: Useful plants; medicinal plants; archaeobotany; Khoi and San; indigenous knowledge
Agriculture · Archaeology · Cape · Ethnobotany · Geography · Indigenous · Medicinal plants · Middle Stone Age · Paleoethnobotany · Pleistocene · Traditional knowledge · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Ethnobotanical and Medicinal Plants Studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Ecology
Modern Plant Checklists for Ten Middle Stone Age Archaeological Sites of the Western and Eastern Cape, South Africa
Klasies River Main Site, South Africa
Plant use in material culture and firewood practices
The foodplant fitness landscape of Hollow Rock Shelter, Western Cape, South Africa
Method for generating foodplant fitness landscapes
Hydro-Rugging as Reparative Caring Encounter
Revisiting the current phyto-scape of Boomplaas Cave (South Africa) and the possible implications of this for past day-range foraging
The Middle Stone Age at Klasies River mouth in South Africa
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The human socio-cognitive niche and its evolutionary origins
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A Review of the Post-Pleistocene in South Africa
Charcoal Analytical Studies in the North-Eastern Cape, South Africa
Ethnobiological Classification
Purposive Sampling as a Tool for Informant Selection
Conversational Method in Indigenous Research1
Connections, culture and environments around 100 000 years ago at Klasies River main site
Phytoliths in modern plants and soils from Klasies River, Cape Region (South Africa)
A review of Khoi-San and Cape Dutch medical ethnobotany
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Plant Diversity in the Archaeological Record
Caught in a Crossfire
Color Me Heated? A Comparison of Potential Methods to Quantify Color Change in Thermally-Altered Rocks
Planting an Idea
Identifying the woody resources of Diepkloof Rock Shelter (South Africa) using scanning electron microscopy of the MSA wood charcoal assemblages
Two Late Pleistocene-Holocene Archaeological Depositories from the Southern Cape, South Africa
The archaeobotany of subsistence in the Pacific
Decolonizing Methodologies
Casts, bones and DNA
| Citations per year | 1.75 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |