The intersection of archaeology, oral tradition and history in the South African interior

Bibliographic Data

ID5790799
AuthorsJan C A Boeyens (University of South Africa, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume64
Pages30-30
Publication date2012-07-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Contree (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0379-9867 • E-ISSN: 2959-510X
PublisherAOSIS (PUBLISHER • ZA)
DOI10.4102/nc.v64i0.321
OpenAlexW1877383923
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited10

The historical entanglement of indigenous and colonial societies in South Africa created not only multiple points of social and cultural interaction, but also a repository of interconnected material, oral and documentary records. A multi-source, comparative approach across disciplinary boundaries is, therefore, essential to achieve a full and seamless account of late precolonial and early colonial African history. Oral tradition could serve as a bridge between archaeology and text-based history, thereby enabling historically known political lineages to be connected with the archaeological ruins of specific precolonial African towns. Similarly, documentary sources on African societies of the interior are often very limited in scope even deep into the nineteenth century, as a result of which the complementary use of archaeological methods and data becomes a methodological imperative. Three case studies from the South African interior, Marothodi, Kaditshwene and Magoro Hill, are presented to illustrate the explanatory potential of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the more recent African past

Oral history · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Cultural Identity and Representation · South African History and Culture

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