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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Ethnographic insights on rural sustainability: homestead design and permaculture of Eastern Cape settlements in South Africa |
Author: | Perry, Adam F. |
Year: | 2013 |
Periodical: | Africanus (ISSN 0304-615X) |
Volume: | 43 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 115-125 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | sustainable agriculture rural areas |
Abstract: | This article considers the prevalence of sustained agricultural practices, particularly large-scale homestead gardens, and questions current public debate that permaculture strategy is foreign to South Africa. The article is based on recent ethnographic work by the author in rural parts of the Eastern Cape. It makes comparisons with some of the founding principles of permaculture theory and practice to suggest that current agricultural practices and Xhosa homestead, 'umzi' (plural 'imizi'), settlement patterns follow closely to 'permaculture ideals' in theory and practice. The author critiques ideas that rural areas are to be 'de-agrarianized', or solely supported by the welfare State. A further critique is raised because of the idealized manner in which foreign ideas on development are esteemed as better than regional adaptations. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract, edited] |