This thesis consists mainly of an analysis of the social structure of a small community of rural Coloured people who live on a reserve surrounding the old mission station, Steinkopf, in the North-Western Cape Province. It has been written primarily as an ethnographic study of one of the constituent communities of a composite society, the Republic of South Africa, although a chapter has been devoted to the comparison of Steinkopf with the four other reserves in the Namaqualand district. I have attempted also to desscribe and analyse certain of the processes of social change in the North-Western Cape with particular reference to these Coloured Reserves.

The main purpose of this study is to examine the structure of Type R settlements on two main levels. First as a pattern existing in a geographical region, the definition of that region and the patterning of settlements within it. The second level is the study of one of the individual settlements. The individual settlements are, in effect, the building blocks or single components of the larger settlement pattern; they represent a "pattern within a pattern". The study, therefore, essentially looks for human behaviour patterns at different levels within a region against the background of any environmental factors which may have influenced or determined those patterns and examines the extent to which those patterns are, as a result, reflections of that environment. The aim of the project is to gain some insight into how man behaved in a limited area, and in a given set of circumstances, as some small contribution to the whole problem of the study of man and his behaviour patterns in the past.

Macro morbidity and mortality data identify major disease and health trends for large populations. It is also well known that high infant mortality rates, high incidence of infectious fevers, as well as the variety of diseases commonly associated with malnutrition, are correlated with social conditions of poverty. However, these broad trends say little about peoples' experiences of health and disease in conditions of poverty at the grass roots level. This thesis addresses this issue by focusing on how people maintain health and cope with disease in two villages in south-eastern Lesotho. It is primarily a descriptive study of the social dimensions of health and disease-coping strategies in a situation of underdevelopment, where the essential resources pertaining to health, viz food, income, shelter, clean water, and sanitation are inadequate, largely as a result of the historical and on-going political and economic processes beyond the control of the local people. The thesis illustrates that in response to poverty, scarce resources are redistributed via a number of social relationships, in order to provide health for a wide range --of individuals. Thus, there is no clear correlation between material differentiation of households and bett.er access to health. Material differentiation does play some role in recognition of disease and choice of therapy~ This is best illustrated by the fact that extreme poverty limits the ·individual's choice of therapy, and frequently prevents them from adopting the sick role. In contradiction to earlier notions that the 'system of explanation' is the primary factor which determines the individual's utilisation of 'Western' or 'traditional' medical systems, there are numerous other factors which play a role in recognition of disease and choice of therapy, such as cost and availability in a geographic area. Moreover, against a quantitative baseline of the villagers' perceptions of their disease experience, incidences of invocation of the supernatural (such as 'witchcraft') are rare. This suggests that medical anthropology's interest in incidences of supernatural explanation have tended to underplay the extent to which people are able to comprehend and utilise natural explanation. The focus of this study - the relationships between health and disease and natural and supernatural explanation - moves away from the singular disease emphasis of medical anthropology. It is suggested that by viewing disease as 'conflict', many of the problems associated with this approach can be overcome and the interrelationship. Between health and disease re-established.

Inaug.-Diss.--Basel. / Vita.

Thesis--Marburg. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. vi-xiv (1st set) ; p. v-xii (2nd set)).

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