Includes bibliographical references. / This study investigates the nature and meaning of the aging process for old people in the urban environment of Cafe Town. It employs methods of participant observation, interviews and life-histories. The study particularly emphasises the role of different residential settings ('normal' housing, total institutions, part institutions) in the aging process and examines their relevance in the formation of a new self-image in this phase of the life-cycle. The presentation of detailed case material shows that old people share the prevailing negative stereotypes of the aged as a category of useless persons. The aged attempt to avoid such categorisations for themselves by substituting notions of activity for the values of youth and/or productivity. The data show the aging process to be a series of adaptations to changing circumstances - essentially changes in health, wealth, composition of social networks, and. frequency and range of social interaction. The adaptations do not emerge as sharp adjustments determined by chronological old age, but as the culmination of coping strategies developed over time and governed by a combination of energy levels, behavioural repertoire, and the opportunities for social interaction provided in the environment. Residence is in itself an important agent of change in this phase because it is perceived as a crucial variable in the projection of the self as independent. The maintenance of an independent image (self-image and projected image) emerges as the key challenge and dilemmas for this phase of the life-cycle – as perceived by the old people themselves. Residence choices are influenced by a variety of factors (health, wealth, proximity of kin and friends, availability of amenities). The analysis shows that final decisions are taken using, cost-benefit assessments which relate, though often implicitly, to notions of independence and security. Residence emerges as a constraining factor in the operation of this cost-benefit analysis. This is shown by comparing the segregate, institutional and congregate dimensions of the institutional settings, and by contrasting these with 'normal' housing. Because the fact of institutionalised living offers greater security, it is perceived to diminish attributes of independence so that old people within the special residential settings devise strategies for maximising an image of independence. Three major strategies are the 'poor dear' syndrome; the identification with the activity programmes offered in these environments (irrespective of actual degree of participation) and the articulation of these activities as work. The final chapter of the thesis examines the potential for community creation in these residences. Turner (1974) notion of 'communitas', or a sense of communality, is considered the crucial element of community. This element is evaluated in relation to a variety of factors: homogeneity, lack of alternative, investment and irreversibility, material distinctions, social exclusivity, leadership, proportion of kinds of contact, interdependance and work. It is argued that the development of 'communitas' remains at the level of potential in the most institutionalised settings because its development is a creative process demanding energy, initiative, and incentive none of which are characteristic of old people in total institutions. The thesis shows that old people are in a state of limbo rather than liminality or marginality (Turner, 1974-) because society has provided no defined status phase for them to enter. They are in large measure statusless - cast aside to wait for death.

Includes bibliographical references. / The Bantu people of Southern Africa entered this region from the North in successive migratory waves and advanced to the regions which they, now inhabit. The first of the immigrants crossed the Zambezi at about the beginning of the Christian era. Pottery of a type belonging to the earliest Iron Age traditions, and found north of the Zambezi (Clark 1959), has been found at Zimbabwe where it has, been dated 330 A.D. by radio carbon tests (Robinson 1961b). Contact with different people and new environments resulted in changes in the way of life and material culture of the migrants. These changes became more pronounced and permanent with the settlement of the European in South Africa and are very evident in regard to pottery. We know from the observations of early travellers and anthropologists that pottery used to be made in large quantities throughout Southern Africa.

Includes bibliographical references. / This research is an analysis of narratives collected from Zimbabwean black middle class women residing in the South Africa’s coastal city of Cape Town. The narratives construct and locate participants in the main South Africa xenophobia immigration discourse. The research attempts to answer the question: How do mainstream discourses of migration shape Zimbabwean Black middle class migrant women’s narratives of home and belonging in Cape Town? The women participants in this research self-identify as middle class and have lived in Cape Town for years ranging from three to 22. The women produced subjective knowledges around key themes of otherness, representations of belonging, identity formation and gender roles in new spaces, all which aim at aligning and enriching the main dominant discourses around Zimbabwean women immigrants and their experiences of exclusion and belonging. The women’s narratives provide an opportunity for a more nuanced understanding and analysis of the migration phenomenon. The research simultaneously engages in power analysis along key inequality contours of gender, race, ethnicity and class and ascertains their transformation or reinforcement within the discourses. The findings of this research resonate with post-modern notions of knowledge which frame it as fragmented, locked in individuality and discursive, while being oppositional to knowledge anchored in objective positivism. This research therefore celebrates alternative ways of framing which are accommodative and willing to give voice to fragmented, gendered, subjective and emotive agency of women. The women participants are viewed as active participants in migration processes and in this particular case, as provider of new insights into counter grand migration and xenophobia discourses.

This thesis explores conceptions and experiences of motherhood in Ocean View, South Africa through the investigation of a maternal and child health intervention. The Moms and Tots support programme seeks to provide mothers with health education and supportive social networks to improve maternal and child health in a resource-poor context. Based on data collected from participant observation and interviews, three major themes have emerged from the research: the framing of Ocean View and its residents within a discourse of deficiency, the responsibilization of the mother, and the demanding nature of care in the face of resource scarcity. Notions of the ideal mother represent a moral discourse around what it means to bring a new life into the world, and who is equipped to do so. I argue that positioning the mother as the site of intervention for improved well-being of future generations underplays the political-economic context that shapes physical, mental, and emotional health in Ocean View. Knowledge interventions that seek to produce behaviour change must focus on the mother's potential rather than risk and adequately acknowledge the constraints in social and material environments if they are to offer viable solutions for health improvement. The Moms and Tots programme plays a vital role in diffusing maternal responsibility through offering social and material networks of support to mothers in Ocean View.

The fieldwork this thesis was carried out between the 8th December, 1962 and the 28th February, 1963 - an unusually short period by modern anthropological standards. The brevity of my intensive field being Xhosa-speaking, I had a previous knowledge of the two villages. As a small boy, I grew up in one of them (Gubenxa) and, as a student in the secondary school, travelled through the second one (All Saints) repeatedly. So I did not only have a fair idea about the: social system of the two villages, but also knew individual persons in them. This factor plus the fact that in both cases I was accommodated in the heart of the village added to the facility with which I was absorbed into the village life. I was with the villagers from dawn to midnight as a participant observer. My communication with them was direct, and this was enhanced by the fact that I spoke the same language as they and I had an adequate understanding of their cul¬tural background. My research techniques included attendance and observance of the different activities that took place in the village e.g. church assemblies, funeral or commemoration services, meetings at the head¬man's place, meetings of the various committees and recreational clubs, work-parties, bear-drinks, dances, women's gossip groups, and so on.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-87). / Following the peaceful transition in 1994 from apartheid to democracy, and the political realignment of power from the Afrikaner minority to the Black majority, South Africa has been thrust into a social climate of radical and far reaching change. As one formerly advantaged group in the new dispensation, white Afrikaners are facing new and often bewildering challenges as they struggle to carve out an appropriate space for themselves in the new political ethos of non-racialism and equality for all. This study examines how a particular group of white Afrikaner men between the ages of 28-42 in the town of Stellenbosch in the Western Cape, are negotiating their way in post-apartheid South Africa.

Bibliography: leaves 66-69.

As people are relocated, dispossessed of land, or experience the altered landscapes of modernity, so their way of life, values, beliefs and understandings are transformed. For the !Kun and Khwe people living on Platfontein this has been an ongoing process. Platfontein, a dry, flat piece of land near Kimberly in the Northern Cape, was purchased for the Kun and Khwe through the provision of a government grant in 1997. They took permanent residence there in government-built housing in December 2003. Prior to this they had had numerous experiences of relocation and strife, through a long-term involvement with the SADF that brought them from the Omega army base in Namibia, to a time of uncertainty in the tent town of Schmitsdrift, to their current settlement on Platfontein. The dry barren landscape of Platfontein suggests a very different way of life from that of hunter-gathering in Angola and Namibia. In the semi-urban context of Platfontein, basic sustenance and entry into the job market are emphasized, and this brings about changes in people's way of life and understandings, as well as in how they relate to each other and the landscape. In this context, there are certain tensions and contradictions that underlie the work of social development and cultural heritage that are the mandates of SASI (South African San Institute) in Platfontein. It is essential that projects initiated by NGOs like SASI give cognizance to the complexities of people's lives, histories and story lines. Without this, people's experiences and multifaceted stories are inevitably sidelined to create essentialist narratives that meet the imaginings of tourists and sponsors. There is no doubt that SASI works from an intention of bringing about positive transformation in Platfontein, and has done useful work in the community. The essentialist discourse of the 'indigenous', however, is a ready temptation for NGOs and the groups they represent to adopt, as it is politically expedient to do so in order to gain access to land and resources. This needs to be challenged at the level of policy so that access to geographical space or political power does not necessitate a denial of history or complexity.

Bibliography: pages 220-231. / This study seeks to explain the unusually high rate of circulation of individuals between local domestic units of the rural settlements along the Kuiseb River as well as between these and domestic units in the closest urban centre. It is argued that these movements form part of a general state of flexibility of personal relationships, which subsequently affects household composition. An explanation for this flexibility is suggested in terms of one strategy of survival pursued by relatively poor individuals, which involves the sporadic attachment by poorer individuals to relatively more economically stable relatives. As these attachments, whether residential or not, are of short duration, they produce rapid and unpredictable changes to the composition of existing households. Material is presented of three areas of social life illustrating these sporadically shifting alignments. These areas are subsistence relations, conjugal relations and parent-child relations. These examples of sporadic shifts of domestic alignments are contrasted with a few examples where households were seen to show facets of cyclical changes in their social composition. Evidence suggests that these few households were headed by economically secure individuals, who also reflect a considerable stability in their residence. The question is raised whether a cyclical development of domestic groups can be recorded in situations as flexible and variable as those along the Kuiseb River. This in turn raises the issue of the usefulness of a framework postulating such a development.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-87). / Mythopoetic organisations are popular among largely middle-class (elite) men in well-resourced countries. These organisations have sprung up in the last twenty years to create a space where men come together to address issues of masculinity. Many pro-feminist writers have questioned the capacity of mythopoetic men’s groups to promote gender equality. They see them as more likely to provide support for, rather than undermine, patriarchy.