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This thesis explores the potential of video as a research tool for anthropologists in the recording of a single ritual. The study examines interactions between ethnographers, informants and viewers. The thesis reveals the capacity of video to make possible close, detailed readings of performance in terms not originally anticipated by the researcher. Archival storage of the video recording allows for critique and assessment of the research. The case study chosen in which to test the potential of \ dcso as a research tool was a woman's 'initiation' r^L'ial (called inton jane) in Shixini in the Eastern Gape (in what was, until recently, the independent homeland of Transkei). Historically, the ritual was supposedly held at the time of a girl's first menstruation, this being the physical symbol of her transformation into adulthood. Ritual seclusion served to effect an accompanying social transformation in preparation for marriage. Paradoxically, in the late 1980's, it was older women and mothers, already married and well past the age of first menstruation, who were undergoing the ritual seclusion and symbolic marriage. The study explores this paradox with the goal of understanding the purpose of the ritual in contemporary times. By recording large segments of the ritual on video, and subjecting the footage to a close analysis of verbal and non-verbal aspects of performance, both the ritual and the merits of video as a research tool could be examined. Video was utilised, in an interactive research process, as an information elicitation tool. The analysis of the recorded text of the ritual brings to the fore elements which make what is apparently a paradox understandable. The elements which explicate the paradox were not anticipated when the research commenced, and in all likelihood would have eluded a researcher who did not have the benefit of the incidental capture on video. The thesis reveals the enormous Contribution video can make to research and suggests that video has an important contribution to make to the discipline of anthropology.

This Social Constructionist study originated from the researcher’s exposure to a significant loss and her unanswered questions about other cultures’ experience of grief. Literature is scarce from a social constructionist framework that focuses on the cultural experiences on death and bereavement from a South African perspective. The researcher’s aim was to provide three culturally diverse South African women constructed as ‘bereaved’ the opportunity to tell their stories of the death of a loved one and their bereavement thereof. The three diverse cultures were Tswana, Islamic Muslim and Afrikaans. A qualitative research method was employed. Unstructured, in-depth interviews were conducted with each of the three participants and the method used to analyze the collected data was thematic content analysis. The study allowed rich and valuable information about death and bereavement from three culturally diverse women to emerge. The themes of ‘mourning procedures and practices’, ‘bereavement behaviour’ ‘socio-political context’ and ‘private and public display of grief’ were identified as valuable areas for clinical practice and future research. Lay people, schools and the work environment too, will gain a better understanding of cultural differences on death and bereavement. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

This Social Constructionist study originated from the researcher’s exposure to a significant loss and her unanswered questions about other cultures’ experience of grief. Literature is scarce from a social constructionist framework that focuses on the cultural experiences on death and bereavement from a South African perspective. The researcher’s aim was to provide three culturally diverse South African women constructed as ‘bereaved’ the opportunity to tell their stories of the death of a loved one and their bereavement thereof. The three diverse cultures were Tswana, Islamic Muslim and Afrikaans. A qualitative research method was employed. Unstructured, in-depth interviews were conducted with each of the three participants and the method used to analyze the collected data was thematic content analysis. The study allowed rich and valuable information about death and bereavement from three culturally diverse women to emerge. The themes of ‘mourning procedures and practices’, ‘bereavement behaviour’ ‘socio-political context’ and ‘private and public display of grief’ were identified as valuable areas for clinical practice and future research. Lay people, schools and the work environment too, will gain a better understanding of cultural differences on death and bereavement. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

The Karretjie People, or Cart People are a peripatetic community and are descendants of the KhoeKhoen and San, the earliest inhabitants of the Karoo region in South Africa. As a landless and disempowered community they are dependent upon others for food and other basic necessities specifically, and other resources generally. Compared to children in South Africa generally, the Karretjie children are in every sense of the most severely deprived. Their fathers are by and large sheep-shearers, often their only specialised skill, and which is primarily required only on demand and on an irregular and/or seasonal basis. The children’s mothers as keepers of the karretjie (cart) overnight shack, with other adult caretakers, are without predictable income for most of the year. The service that the adult men deliver to the farming community necessitates continuous spatial mobility and is made possible by a cart and donkeys, which also enable them to adapt to changing circumstances. High levels of spatial mobility as well as economic demands on individual domestic units result in inventive utilisation of scarce resources and entails, amongst others, in children oscillating between different karretjie (cart) units.

This thesis examines the discourse strategies used to construct initiation schools in online media and message boards. The focus is on understanding the tensions that come with enacting traditional practices in the face of modernity and its associated cultural expectations. The thesis describes the manner in which these tensions are constructed in text by the media in news reports and participants in discussion forums. While there is still debate around whether the internet will revolutionise public participation and create a digital utopia; the internet is acknowledged as one of the widest reaching sources of information and entertainment. Specifically, the internet provides a platform to challenge the traditionally top-down communication between the elite, who have privileged access to the media, and the general public, who were previously constructed as passive recipients of information. Using the male circumcision initiation rite, this thesis examines how the South African public discursively constructs the epistemic location of African traditions in South Africa. The study drew on a sample of news articles from the News24 site, the largest news site in South Africa, ranging from January 2008 to December 2013. A corpus of 62 articles were analysed using the Critical Discourse Analysis technique described by Teun van Dijk. The findings of the thesis were that the initiation rite is used as a rhetorical tool to argue for the abandonment of African cultural practices in favour of modern, Western influenced beliefs and values. The findings also indicate that the initiation rite is reduced to the act of circumcision in the media by focusing on the injury and deaths of the initiates and excluding the meaning of the rite as a meaningful cultural practice. The conclusion of the thesis challenges the epistemicide committed against the male circumcision initiation rite from within the Decolonial school of thought, which critically examines everyday interaction for universalising, normative language that aims to commit cultural epistemicide to reinforce the white, male, European, Christian traditions of masculinity. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

This study captures the transformation of a research methodology module and the workplace learning resulting from teaching research to senior police officers. Using ethnography, the study explores the initial development and transformation of the research module content and the ways in which the police trainers developed their practices to teach research methodology in the regulated police work environment. Through interviews, observations, document analyses and an ethnographic essay, the researcher uncovers the experiences and construction of knowledge at a SAPS Academy where research was taught and in the workplace during the ensuing experiential learning. The study revealed how the research module evolved through compensations made for shortcomings in the initial design. This was done by addressing changing organisational expectations and responding to specific needs of the adult learners. The trainers subsequently adapted their teaching approaches to cater for the specific needs of the learners and the organisation. At the same time, they also protected the reputation of the organisation and the integrity of the research module. The findings indicate that informal learning, constructed unintentionally, was more prominent in the workplace than the intended development of research skills. Evidence suggested that learning is indeed reliant on personal agency and that learning in communities of practice is very effective for the community. However, culture can become a barrier to learning when newcomers resist entry into such community or when its sub-culture conflicts with that of the bigger organisation. These experiences and lessons enabled the construction of a new three-phased research teaching model for organisations that wish to inculcate research as a problem–solving mechanism. The study has implications for policy-makers and educators as it emphasises the need to understand the theory of workplace learning and the necessity of making a deliberate effort to support learning in the workplace. When learning is not supported, employees develop undesirable skills to cope with the pressure of having to work and learn simultaneously. The study contributes to the existing knowledge of workplace theory, ethnographic research in police settings and research teaching pedagogy. The study highlights the need for further exploration of knowledge construction in communities of practice in regulated work environments where sub-cultures are in conflict with the organisational culture. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

The Karretjie People, or Cart People are a peripatetic community and are descendants of the KhoeKhoen and San, the earliest inhabitants of the Karoo region in South Africa. As a landless and disempowered community they are dependent upon others for food and other basic necessities specifically, and other resources generally. Compared to children in South Africa generally, the Karretjie children are in every sense of the most severely deprived. Their fathers are by and large sheep-shearers, often their only specialised skill, and which is primarily required only on demand and on an irregular and/or seasonal basis. The children’s mothers as keepers of the karretjie (cart) overnight shack, with other adult caretakers, are without predictable income for most of the year. The service that the adult men deliver to the farming community necessitates continuous spatial mobility and is made possible by a cart and donkeys, which also enable them to adapt to changing circumstances. High levels of spatial mobility as well as economic demands on individual domestic units result in inventive utilisation of scarce resources and entails, amongst others, in children oscillating between different karretjie (cart) units.

This thesis examines the discourse strategies used to construct initiation schools in online media and message boards. The focus is on understanding the tensions that come with enacting traditional practices in the face of modernity and its associated cultural expectations. The thesis describes the manner in which these tensions are constructed in text by the media in news reports and participants in discussion forums. While there is still debate around whether the internet will revolutionise public participation and create a digital utopia; the internet is acknowledged as one of the widest reaching sources of information and entertainment. Specifically, the internet provides a platform to challenge the traditionally top-down communication between the elite, who have privileged access to the media, and the general public, who were previously constructed as passive recipients of information. Using the male circumcision initiation rite, this thesis examines how the South African public discursively constructs the epistemic location of African traditions in South Africa. The study drew on a sample of news articles from the News24 site, the largest news site in South Africa, ranging from January 2008 to December 2013. A corpus of 62 articles were analysed using the Critical Discourse Analysis technique described by Teun van Dijk. The findings of the thesis were that the initiation rite is used as a rhetorical tool to argue for the abandonment of African cultural practices in favour of modern, Western influenced beliefs and values. The findings also indicate that the initiation rite is reduced to the act of circumcision in the media by focusing on the injury and deaths of the initiates and excluding the meaning of the rite as a meaningful cultural practice. The conclusion of the thesis challenges the epistemicide committed against the male circumcision initiation rite from within the Decolonial school of thought, which critically examines everyday interaction for universalising, normative language that aims to commit cultural epistemicide to reinforce the white, male, European, Christian traditions of masculinity. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

This study explores the world of human conflict in the workplace, the workplace (in this case) being a South African university. Using the academic tools of ethnography and autoethnography, I investigate the dimensions of human conflict management, which include intrapersonal, interpersonal and intra-group conflict management, from a psychological perspective. In this thesis I refer, in particular, to examples and extractions taken from case studies that focus on conflicts between employees. In doing so I used an eclectic, psychodynamic theoretical frame of reference. The data was collected and processed over a period of fourteen years. Another focus of this thesis is my reflections on my personal development as a counselling psychologist specialising in intrapersonal, interpersonal and intra-group conflict management within an institutional organisation. The participants‟ stories revealed intense emotional experiences and I have put forward suggestions on how these experiences could be explored and dealt with by means of psychologically orientated techniques and interventions within the boundaries of the ethical codes and values of counselling psychology. My eclectic choice of brief psychotherapy, strengths-based counselling, and psychodynamic-based intrapersonal, interpersonal and intra-group interventions are included in my personal narrative. This study serves only as a guideline to other counselling psychologists who deal with human conflicts in similar situations. I have not tried to present a generalised theory. In this study, I argue strongly that there is indeed a place for counselling psychologists and the application of psychological knowledge in the world of human resources departments in organisations. I believe that counselling psychologists can operate, alternatively, as individual counselling psychologists, workshop facilitators and co-facilitators, as consultants, and as members of multidisciplinary teams to address, among other, conflict management in a tertiary institution. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)