‘Things of consequence’: ostrich eggshell beads as indicators of precolonial societal interaction between southern African highlands and lowlands
Assigned Session: FS 3.232: Highland–lowland connections and interactions
Abstract ID: 3.13292 | Not reviewed | Requested as: Talk | TBA | TBA
Brian Stewart (1)
Peter, Mitchell (2); Genevieve, Dewar (3); Courtneay, Hopper (4); Michael, Schillaci (3)
(1) University of Michigan–Ann Arbor, 3010 School of Education Building 610 E. University Avenue Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109, USA
(2) University of Oxford, 1 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3TG, UK
(3) University of Toronto–Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Onatrio, M1C 1A4, Canada
(4) University of Alberta, 13-15 Tory Building Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2H4, Canada
Abstract
Ostriches are peculiar birds and their strangeness has been recognized by southern African hunter-gatherers through multiple symbolic associations. Such qualities are likely to have been enhanced where people had access to beads made from their eggshell but did not have direct knowledge of the birds themselves. Southeastern southern Africa, encompassing the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains and surrounding lowlands, is one such area. We review the unusual attributes and associations of ostriches and their eggshell and summarize results of strontium isotope analyses to investigate past bead exchange networks in this region. Because bead size can be controlled and varies through time and space, we employ it as an additional indicator of the existence and spatial extent of past social networks. Having critically considered previous efforts to do so, we report on our work to build the largest sample of such data yet obtained in southern Africa and compare our preliminary results with other signals of interaction between precolonial hunter-gatherer and, where applicable, agropastoralist communities. Our results speak to mountain societies enmeshed with those of surrounding lowlands for at least 35,000 years.
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