Magister Artium - MA / This mini-thesis explores the role of photography in the mainstream and dissident tradition of Afrikaner ethnology (volkekunde) from the time of its establishment at Stellenbosch University in the 1920s through to its development at Pretoria University in the 1950s to 1970s, to its period of decline in the era of dissidence from the 1970s to the 2010s. I use a biographical approach, tracing the career biographies and photographic portfolios of three volkekundiges: the German-trained government ethnologist Nicolaas J. van Warmelo; little known dissident volkekundige Frans Hendrik Boot (1939-2010) who founded the Volkekunde Department at the University of the Western Cape in 1972 and for whom fieldwork photography was an expression of his humanist digression from the racialised mainstream volkekunde tradition; and Cornelis Seakle “Kees” van der Waal (1949-) whose ‘Long Walk from Volkekunde to Anthropology’ has been textually demonstrated but also takes on visual expressions in his use of photography. My thesis seeks to demonstrate that photography and visuality was important in displaying the different traditions of volkekunde. The central argument in this thesis postulates that fieldwork photographs, read in relation to the ethnographers intellectual focus offers us insight into an individual’s orientation. Furthermore this thesis explores the degree of a photographers technicality and aesthetics skill

Magister Artium - MA / In 1974 an Agricultural Museum Committee was established at the Worcester Museum which ultimately led to the development in 1981 of the Kleinplasie Open Air Farm Museum.This began a new phase in the museum’s history, one that I will argue was particularly closely linked to Afrikaner nationalist historiography, in particular to ideas about frontier farmers and pioneer farming lifestyles and activities.This study will take the form of a critical analysis of the establishment of Kleinplasie Living Open Air Museum from 1974 until 1994. It will evaluate the making of exhibitions, its architecture, and the performances and public activities in the establishment of the institution as a site of memory and knowledge. The key question this work engages with is how representations, performance, exhibitions, museum activities, and public involvement were shaped to create particular messages and construct a site of cultural identity and memory at Kleinplasie Living Open Air Museum.It will also deal with questions around who decides on the voices and content of the exhibitions, architecture and displays. The role played by professionals, those who claim to represent community, donors and other interests groups will also be placed under the spotlight. There are also questions around the provenance of collections, the way they were acquired through donations and sponsorships, and the crucial role objects played in the construction of the narrative and identity of the museum.A key question that emerges from my own work is the connection between the Afrikaner nationalist scholarship and the development of the open-air museum based on the life of the frontier farmer at Kleinplasie. While Kleinplasie does not seem to follow the monumental approach that was evident in schemes such as the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, where triumphalism and conquest are key metaphors, it does rely on a sense of ‘independence’ and self-fulfilment in social history type setting. There is thus a need to consider how Afrikaner nationalist historiography impacted on the way history was depicted at Kleinplasie. P. J. van der Merwe’s studies of the character and lifeways of the trekboer(Die Trekboer in die Geskiedenis van die Kaapkolonie), seems to have played a central role in the construction of the theme and narrative. This three-volume trilogy provided Kleinplasie(literally, ‘little farm’) with a social and cultural history on which to construct its version of the past.