Anthropos: Anthropos, 93.1998

Anthropos, 93.1998

Bibliographische Daten

Zeitschrift

Strukturtyp:: Zeitschrift

Werks-URN (URL):: https://digi.evifa.de/viewer/resolver?urn=urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

Persistenter Identifier:: BV043334262

Titel:: Anthropos

Untertitel:: internationale Zeitschrift für Völker- u. Sprachenkunde

Erscheinungsort:: Fribourg

Verlag:: Ed. St. Paul

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1906

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Wissensgebiet:: Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie > Allgemeines

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenband

Werks-URN (URL):: https://digi.evifa.de/viewer/resolver?urn=urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711897

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711897

Persistenter Identifier:: 1515154324621

Titel:: Anthropos, 93.1998

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1998

Signatur:: LA 1118

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenheft

Titel:: Bd. 93, 1998, Heft 1-3

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenartikel

Titel:: Unearthing Culture. Khoisan Funerals and Social Change

Sonstige Person:: Widlok, Thomas

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Anthropos 93.1998: 115-126 Unearthing Culture Khoisan Funerals and Social Change Thomas Widlok Abstract. - Control over communal cultural heritage and c °ntrol over individual inheritance both vary according to the s °cial distribution of power. This article examines the link between the emergence of a cultural heritage discourse and changing social relations with reference to Khoisan funeral Practices in southwestern Africa. Khoisan groups, unlike other § r °ups in the region, used to avoid grave sites and have only re cently begun to construct and to construe their ancestral graves as a central element of their cultural heritage. Comparing l he events surrounding the burial of the old chief of the f Aoni (or Topnaar) of Namibia in 1996 with funeral practices among ^Akhoe (Hai||om), I argue that this cultural shift follows Political pressures in the region but is also closely linked |° the reaffirmation of social hierarchy, chieftainship, and lne s of succession in this Khoisan group. [Namibia, Khoisan, am a, San, cultural heritage discourse, burial practices, social er archy, egalitarianism] K hi, Thomas Widlok, M. Sc., Ph. D. (London 1994), Researcher at { he Institute of Ethnology, University of Cologne. Field re- Sear ch with Hai||om in northern Namibia and £ Aoni in the Cen- tf al Namib; works in the field of comparative hunter-gatherer Judies, and in cognitive ethnography. - Publications include: ^Pace and the “Other” (in: K. Hastrup and P. Hervik [eds], °cial Experience and Anthropological Knowledge. London ..^4); Orientation in the Wild: The Shared Cognition of Hai- j!°m Bushpeople (The Journal of the Royal Anthropological nst itute 1997); see also References Cited. T inheriting Culture among Khoisan Groups Cultural heritage is probably the only inheritance ^ ne may receive without someone else having to ^ le for it. Cultural systems are not necessarily ased on lines of succession and inheritance but e e mergence of a notion of culture as heritage y c l°sely linked to relations between generations. e °logies of heritage tend to go together with s ^ c ial systems of inheritance. Furthermore, talk ° ut “cultural heritage” tends to establish itself ^ong the senior members of a group who try revive inherited cultural practices as a means r solving social problems. When these problems e not readily amenable to explanations within the nt ext of present-day life, they are said to require 1116 “deeper” solution in terms of cultural heri tage. An emerging discourse of “cultural heritage” is therefore not only an indicator for social change but it is conductive to this change. In this article I analyse the social implications of the creation of cultural heritage by documenting some aspects of the social change taking place among Khoisan groups in southwestern Africa in the 1990s. “Khoisan” is a composite label given to speak ers of Khoe and San languages, groups which were in the past known by the now no longer acceptable names “Hottentots” and “Bushmen.” Technically Khoisan languages may be defined as African languages which “contain clicks as regular speech sounds” and which are not identifiable as members of other language families (Sands 1997). However, people who today identify as Khoisan may not necessarily speak a Khoisan language. They are diverse with regard to their history, their traditional economy, and their current situation which is largely determined by the nation states in which they live (primarily South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana). Underlying structural similarities and continuities have been noted for all Khoisan groups (Schapera 1930; Barnard 1992). Khoisan sociality, the pattern of properties of Khoisan social relations, seems to be characterized above all by flexibility in moving between those modes of organization which are based on lines of suc cession and inheritance and those which are not. This makes Khoisan groups particularly pertinent for understanding the social implications of the emergence of culture as cultural heritage. This flexibility has provided substance to fierce debates among anthropologists, archaeologists, and histori ans during the last decade. Khoisan shifts between subsistence strategies (foraging and pastoralism) and oscillations between ethnic identities (“Khoe- khoe” and “San”) were key issues in these debates (see Widlok 1994a). Changes of funeral practices are among those aspects of Khoisan social life that have received little attention, although they provide an insight into changes of sociality which in turn may hold the key for understanding changes

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