Late Holocene Artifact Patterns and the Introduction of Herding to Semi-Arid Coastal Namaqualand,South Africa

ABSTRACT

Considerable change occurred in the Late Holocene Later Stone Age of Namaqualand, northwestern South Africa. Focusing on stone artifacts, pottery, and ostrich eggshell beads, the cultural sequence for the area is described. Two additions are identified, complicating the traditional model for the introduction of herding into the country. From the mid-Holocene onward, lithic assemblages are based on milky and/or clear quartz and cryptocrystalline silica and initially contain many backed tools with scrapers more common during the first millennium BC. These are hunter-gatherer assemblages. During the final centuries BC, backed bladelet-rich assemblages based on clear quartz appear, with the earliest examples demonstrating typological continuity with the existing assemblages. About 1,500 years ago, expedient assemblages lacking retouch and based on poorer quality quartz appear. The three types co-occur during the last 1,500 years, occasionally in combination with one another. This contrasts strongly with other parts of South Africa where just two distinct assemblage types are identified, suggesting that the hunter-gatherer-herder dichotomy is not universally valid. The artifact patterns between about 200 cal BC and cal AD 500 and the introduction of livestock suggest considerable cultural and social change, heralding the onset of a local Neolithic, but the exact mechanisms remain unclear.     

Tourism as a livelihood diversification strategy among Sámi indigenous people in northern Sweden

Tourism entrepreneurship is frequently promoted as a livelihood strategy for Sámi indigenous people living in northern Sweden. At the same time, tourism’s ability to fully take over struggling primary sectors has been brought into question, due perhaps to a mismatch of skills or to tourism’s seasonality and low pay. In spite of that, the role of tourism development might relate less to financial autonomy but could best be characterized as being supplementary and complementary to other occupations. Additionally, the motivations behind tourism involvement among Sámi tourist entrepreneurs remain largely unknown. This interview-based study therefore aims to uncover why Sámi indigenous tourist entrepreneurs living in northern Sweden get involved in tourism and to what extent tourism is part of a livelihood diversification strategy. The findings show that a combination of factors such as lifestyle choices, existing touristic demand and readily available forms of capital lead people to become tourist entrepreneurs. At the same time, for some respondents, tourism is part of a livelihood diversification strategy where its development is not sought for replacing a struggling traditional occupation, namely reindeer herding, but for complementing it.     

青海农牧民生存状态的"关键词"--《青海农牧民的生活状态》 序

本文是为《青海农牧民的生活状态》一书所做的序,同时也是对青海农牧民的生存状态所做的一个概括。文章通过阐述关键词的方式,试图反映青海农牧民谋生方式和生活方式的变迁。本文的基本观点是:青海农牧民仍然很苦,但他们在艰难地求变。本文概括出来的关键词是:变迁、打工、牛羊育肥、做买卖、看病、孩子上学。这些关键词既集中反映了青海农牧民的生存状态,同时也基本上是大多数中国农民的真实处境。     

The First Herders at the Cape of Good Hope

It is generally accepted that the earliest livestock and pottery were brought to the southern tip of Africa by Khoi-speaking herders from northern Botswana around 2000 years ago. The archaeological remains of that age, however, show no sign of such a migration. Rather, some evidence points to the arrival of the Khoi in the southwestern Cape toward the end of the first millennium AD. The earliest livestock and pottery, it is argued, probably reached the Cape of Good Hope some 2000 years ago by a process of diffusion. The implications of this model for the current debates on the transition from hunting to herding in southern Africa are discussed.