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D.Litt.et Phil. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, colonial governments across Africa, including South Africa, promulgated laws which aimed to prohibit the accusation of witchcraft, methods for the detection of witches and witch trials. However, while administrators saw merely superstition in witchcraft beliefs, “repugnant to the standards of civilisation”, many Africans saw an integral element of the social and spiritual order. The policing of witchcraft beliefs became a thorn in the side of colonial rule. This article brings to light some of the deeper historical complexities in policing witchcraft by looking at the application of witchcraft law in the early twentieth century ‐ a neglected period in witchcraft scholarship. Firstly, it examines some prominent discursive constructions of the concepts of “witchcraft” and the “witch doctor” during the early twentieth century, two terms which feature centrally in colonial witchcraft legislation. It argues that these terms were shrouded in a great deal of misconception and, at times, fear. Secondly, it examines instances in which the Transvaal Witchcraft Ordinance No. 26 of 1904 was applied at the Supreme Court level, demonstrating that it was employed in a wide variety of instances which often shared only a tenuous link to poorly defined notions of “the supernatural”. Nevertheless, diviners seem to have been especially prejudiced in the implementation of the law. Finally, archival correspondence derived from Native Affairs Department files dealing with witchcraft are examined to reveal that the job of policing witchcraft was rather more uncertain and ad hoc at the grassroots level than official “civilising” rhetoric may have suggested. While in principle there was no compromising with beliefs in witchcraft, in practice, such beliefs had to be carefully managed by local officials, who were given (often uncomfortably) wide powers of discretion in deciding when and how to employ the force of the law.

The aim of this study was to compare the size of the teeth of a sample of small-bodied fossil humans from the island of Palau, Micronesia, with modern and fossil human populations from mainland southern Africa. Four modern human population groups and a sample of Holocene human remains were examined for comparison. These included Zulus, Tswanas, Khoisan and Europeans, from the Dart Collection, University of the Witwatersrand. Several measurements of the different tooth classes were obtained from the modern population groups and compared to the Palauan sample using Univariate and Bivariate statistical methods. In addition, frequencies of anomalies were recorded for the entire modern human Dart Collection (n. 3000), and a sample of Holocene human skeletons (n. 69) for comparison with the Palauan material. The Palauans have been found to have absolutely and relatively very large teeth compared to modern and Holocene population groups. Their mesiodistal diameter (MD) and buccolingual diameter (BL) exceed the normal range of modern human populations, whereas the same measurements at the cervical enamel junction are smaller. Total root length and crown height of the Palauans are equal to those of modern humans. Estimating body size from tooth size is thus shown to be unreliable, indicating that tooth size should be viewed in relation to other factors, such as diet, which may lead to phenomena like island dwarfism. Frequencies of third molar agenesis, incisiform canines, caniniform premolars and rotated premolars were very high in the Palauan sample: third molar agenesis, incisiform canines, caniniform premolars and rotated premolars. These anomalies are mostly due to crowding, which results in erupting teeth looking like their neighbours, or failing to develop at all, as in the case of third molars, which free up space for the remaining teeth to develop.

This thesis seeks to examine the interrelationships between gender, migration and rural livelihoods in Ghana. The central argument of the study is that policy making on migration and livelihood, tends to ignore gender as a critical issue in development planning. The study suggests that effective development policy interventions should take into consideration the dynamics of gender relations because men and women experience migration differently. Employing primary and secondary data, the study demonstrates that when men and/or women migrate, there are consequences for households. For those migrating, this can result in either empowerment or increased vulnerability. And for the agricultural households in the sending areas, the departure of men and/or women affects their livelihood and division of labour. Our investigation shows that migrants are predominantly males, with a relatively smaller but increasing number of women. Drawing on earlier studies, the thesis argues for a more systematic examination of the consequences of migration on rural households, particularly on the economic livelihood and household responsibilities of women. By understanding the conditions of rural households, development practitioners are in a better position to design gender appropriate policies and projects. This approach will significantly improve the economic situation of rural communities and maximize their development dividends. The study has practical significance as it sheds light on the options faced by rural women, and the adjustments they make, when confronted with male out-migration.

Essential information is often lost when in reading a piece of work the identity of an audience or the recipients is overlooked. The first hearers of the letter to the Colossians were a diverse group of people in a colonized country under the imperial rule of Rome in the first century. The writer of the letter addressed possible concerns presented to him from the evangelist, Epaphras, a native of Colossae. In identifying the audience whether they are first recipients or future readers, ideologies and theologies are discovered which add to the existing criticism genres. The process of identifying the audience allows one to reread the work through the lens of various peoples. This process also allows one to make comparisons between the various audiences. A comparison is made in this thesis between the 1st century readers and the enslaved Africans who lived on the continent of North America who were later exposed to concepts that stemmed from the letter. In viewing the identities of both groups the most damaging find was the derogatory labels placed on them. This thesis, an African American postcolonial re-reading of the letter to the Colossians, looks beyond the labels to ascertain the meaning of the Colossians letter, giving voices to each group.

No abstract available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

Thesis (DPhil (Drama))--Stellenbosch University, 2009. / The purpose of this study is to examine critically the phenomenon of participatory video and to situate within this the participatory video project that was initiated as part of this study in the informal settlement area of Kayamandi, South Africa. The overall objective of the dissertation is to consider the potential of participatory video within current-day South Africa towards enabling marginalised groups to represent themselves and achieve social change. As will be shown, the term ‘participatory video’ has been used broadly and applied to many different types of video products and processes. For the preliminary purposes of this dissertation, participatory video is defined as any video (or film) process dedicated to achieving change through which the subject(s) has been an integral part of the planning and/or production, as well as a primary end-user or target audience. The two key elements that distinguish participatory video are thus (1) understanding video (or film) as a tool for social change; and (2) understanding participation by the subject as integral to the video process. An historical analysis thus considers various filmmaking developments that fed into the emergence of participatory video. These include various film practices that used film as a tool for change -- from soviet agitprop through to the documentary movement of the 1930s, as well as various types of filmmaking in the 1960s that opened up questions of participation. The Fogo process, developed in the late 1960s, marked the start of participatory video and video advocacy and provided guiding principles for the Kayamandi project initiated as part of this dissertation. Practitioners of the Fogo process helped initiate participatory video practice in South Africa when they brought the process to South African anti-apartheid activists in the early 1970s. The Kayamandi Participatory Video Project draws on this background and context in its planned methodology and its implementation. Out of this, various theoretical issues arising from participatory video practice contextualise a reflection and an analysis of the Kayamandi project. Lastly, this study draws conclusions and recommendations on participatory video practice in South Africa.

This dissertation presents an ethnographic account of a socially diverse, public breast cancer clinic in Johannesburg. The findings of this qualitative research radically challenge the unproblematised and overdetermined use of the categories of race and gender in existing literature concerning this disease. The growing breast cancer epidemic in South Africa affects all demographic categories of women including young women. Yet, previous research frames this as a racialised and gendered crisis. Black women have been depicted as ignorant “problem patients” who resist biomedical treatment, and all women are described as having a particular relationship to their breasted bodies and a deep fear of mastectomy. Departing from these stereotypes, this ethnography reveals unanticipated data showing, firstly, that race, class, age and level of education did not determine women’s relationship to breast cancer and biomedicine. Secondly, socially diverse women commonly experienced breast cancer as a life-threatening disease that evoked confrontation with existential concerns regarding suffering, death, family, and faith. Due to these commonalities, an intimate and powerful sociality existed amongst women at this clinic. Thirdly, within this sociality, women accepted mastectomy as a necessity in creating a healthy body. Breastlessness was normalised and women generally were reluctant of breast reconstruction, thus destabilising the conceptual relationship between breasts and gender. This dissertation’s deconstruction of the use of hegemonic social categories is a significant intervention in a context where these categories are often viewed as absolute determinants of social and health phenomena, and therefore prompts more nuanced approaches to understanding experiences of illness in post-apartheid South Africa.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Anthropology, Johannesburg 2015 / Research in the mining community of Carletonville focused on how individuals negotiate and contest different value orientations in trying to construct a workable moral economy. Based on in-depth qualitative interviews and observations of respondents from lower and higher wage classes, the report deconstructs the elements of differential value sets that are redefining and sometimes destabilizing the moral economy and underlining views of inequality. Wage disputes are seen not only as mine workers' expressions of economic injustice but perhaps more crucially as a form of control and protection of their craft and status. The dominance of global economic governance and decision-making is leading to more acute internal divergences but can also be a starting point for a discussion about the impact of conflicts in social values. / XL2018