Sacred powers and rituals of transformation: An ethnoarchaeological study of rainmaking rutuals and agricultural productivity during The evolution of The Mapungubwe State,AD 1000 to AD 1300
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Date
2007-02-22T11:39:44Z
Authors
Murimbika, McEdward
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Abstract
The study of sacred leadership at Mapungubwe involves an analysis of
how the emerging elite centralised rainmaking and other public rituals.
These developments occurred in the Shashe-Limpopo basin between AD
1000 and AD 1300. Mapungubwe was the last in a sequence of capitals in
the basin. The first was Schroda (AD 900-1000), followed by K2 (AD 1000-
1220) and then Mapungubwe (AD 1220-1300). This sequence
corresponds to a series of cultural, socio-political and economic
transformations that led to class distinction and sacred leadership, two
distinctive features of the region’s early state system.
The development of Mapungubwe was a local indigenous accomplishment
that occurred in the prehistoric period but in the relatively recent past. This
offers possibilities for using current indigenous knowledge to develop
relevant ethnographic models.
Over a period of four years, I explored Venda, Sotho-Tswana and Shona
traditional agriculture strategies and belief systems through their oral
histories, cosmologies and practices. I identified three systems of
rainmaking practices. Practice A is associated with kin-based chiefdoms.
Practise B exists among class-based polities with sacred leadership.
Practice C represents the devolution of complexity after the disintegration
of the Zimbabwe culture. These data provide models to clarify the roles of
rainmaking and agriculture in the evolution of Mapungubwe.
Description
Student Number : 0009911A -
PhD Thesis -
School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies -
Faculty of Humanities
Keywords
rituals, ethnoarchaeology, rain making, Mapungubwe