3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item A tale of two cities? an examination of the re-imagining of gold mining history at Gold Reef City and in Johannesburg's Main Street precinct(2009-02-02T10:38:34Z) Van Straaten, Philippa SarahAbstract This research report attempts to examine how the story of gold, and gold mining, is told, and is being retold, at both the Victorian- themed Gold Reef City theme park and in within the Main Street mining precinct in the Johannesburg Central Business District (CBD). The report will therefore look at how imbued ideologies have resulted in a particular formation of the mining heritage shown in both themed spaces. Works by de Certeau (1988) and Eco (1990), for example, form a framework for academic discourse around practiced space within the ‘city’, and the nature of hyperreality. Overall, and including results from participant observation at the theme park, and sample surveys undertaken in the Main Street precinct, one is able to better attempt an understanding of how the story of gold at both sites has been created by certain ideologies, and examine them in light Johannesburg’s changing persona in light of global influences.Item Clouding power? Rain-control, Space, Landscapes and Ideology in Shashe-Limpopo State Formation(2007-02-14T12:18:08Z) Schoeman, Maria HendriekaIn this thesis I identify and clarify the archaeological signature of rain-control sites in the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area (SLCA). I use a landscape-based approach to investigate rain-control in the ideology of SLCA farming communities. I investigate the archaeology of ritual by viewing rain-control as materialised ideology. Using this insight, I examine the material culture and spatial manifestation of rain-control, the transition from ritual to residential sites, and how these transitions articulated with the ritualised landscape. Specifically, I explore the local manifestation of rain-control and its relationship with the ideologies of farming communities in the period leading up to SLCA state formation, between AD 1000 and AD 1250. I also scrutinize the relationship of the Leopard’s Kopje elite with hunter-gatherers and other farming people on the same landscape, as this relationship was partly grounded in ritual and raincontrol. Furthermore, this thesis explores the ideological roots of the Mapungubwe state. The ideology manifest in the location of the Mapungubwe royal residential area germinated during the K2 occupation. In this period rain-control was slowly removed from nature and located in farmer society. The final step in this course was nationalising rain-control and locating it on Mapungubwe hill. Initially, however, rain-controllers resisted this centralisation.