عنوان

SHONA ETHNOGRAPHY AND IRON AGE BURIALS

Number

LA113460

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

SHONA ETHNOGRAPHY AND IRON AGE BURIALS

General Material Designation

[Article]

First Statement of Responsibility

Thomas N. Huffman, McEdward Murimbika, Thomas N. Huffman, et al.

Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.

Leiden

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Brill

Text of Note

Although Shona society has undergone much change, it is still a valid source of hypotheses about Iron Age burials. Death is part of a cycle that underpins the separate treatment of infants, children, young adults and adults. Everyone except chiefs should lie in a sleeping posture, and their location in the settlement depends on age, status and kinship. Adults should point westerly and lie on their left or right side depending on their status and gender. Everyone must be buried, including strangers and social outcasts, and anomalies to the normal pattern also follow cultural rules. The Shona rules have multiple points of correspondence with burials at Kgaswe and other Iron Age sites in southern Africa. Shona ethnography fits the archaeological data well because it is part of a larger nexus of Eastern Bantu culture: in contrast, Western Bantu ethnography does not fit the archaeology. Successful interpretations such as this involve the recursive interplay between ethnographic and archaeological data. Although Shona society has undergone much change, it is still a valid source of hypotheses about Iron Age burials. Death is part of a cycle that underpins the separate treatment of infants, children, young adults and adults. Everyone except chiefs should lie in a sleeping posture, and their location in the settlement depends on age, status and kinship. Adults should point westerly and lie on their left or right side depending on their status and gender. Everyone must be buried, including strangers and social outcasts, and anomalies to the normal pattern also follow cultural rules. The Shona rules have multiple points of correspondence with burials at Kgaswe and other Iron Age sites in southern Africa. Shona ethnography fits the archaeological data well because it is part of a larger nexus of Eastern Bantu culture: in contrast, Western Bantu ethnography does not fit the archaeology. Successful interpretations such as this involve the recursive interplay between ethnographic and archaeological data.

Date of Publication

2003

Physical description

237-246

Title

Journal of African Archaeology

Volume Number

1/2

International Standard Serial Number

2191-5784

Subject Term

burial patterns

Subject Term

Central Cattle Pattern

Subject Term

Iron Age

Subject Term

Shona cosmology

Subject Term

southern Africa

McEdward Murimbika

Thomas N. Huffman

Call Number

10.3213/1612-1651-10012

Electronic name

p

[Article]

275578

a

Y