Heritage Cases

In central southern Africa, hunter-gatherers are generally viewed as passive spectators to complex socio-political developments. However, their involvement in these socio-economic networks, such as through trade and rituality, allowed them to contribute to, and play a role in, the establishment of state-level society. Archaeologically, prestige and wealth indicators that correlate with the rise of elite groups and complex society appear in hunter-gatherer contexts, and yet their participation and influence in these systems have passed mostly unrecognised. That their contribution in forming these societies is not acknowledged disarticulates past and extant communities from their own history and that of southern Africa’s. Forager participation in local social networks would have provided them with agency, empowerment, influence, and some ability to manipulate the system. This project seeks to address this by investigating the extent that hunter-gatherer communities integrated themselves into broader regional economies by excavating Little Muck Shelter and comparing the finds to other sites in the area. The overarching aim of this study is to address the discord between the inert role Bushmen have been ascribed in local socio-political developments versus the rich archaeological sequence demonstrating their active participation in growing polities, states and civilisations. In reaching these aims the overall goal of this project will be achieved, which is to generate a more inclusive historiography of central southern Africa.