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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Rathateng and Mabyanamatshwaana: Cradles of the Kwena and Kgatla |
Author: | Pistorius, Julius C.C. |
Year: | 1995 |
Periodical: | South African Journal of Ethnology |
Volume: | 18 |
Issue: | 2 |
Period: | June |
Pages: | 49-64 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | Kgatla Kwena archaeology Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Anthropology and Archaeology |
Abstract: | Mabyanamatshwaana, stretching along the hills between Rustenburg and Pretoria, and Rathateng, on the border between South Africa and Botswana, represent two nuclear areas from where Kgatla and Kwena lineage groups - perhaps for decades and centuries - dispersed over the Transvaal, the Free State and southern Botswana. Excavations in 1993 in the centre of the Mabyanamatshwaana complex exposed settlement features analogous to historical and archaeological Kwena and Kgatla (Pedi) settlements. The characteristic 'letlatswa' (that part of a Pedi village consisting of the main entrance of the settlement, a main cattle kraal, the formal court, etc.) of historically known Kgatla (Pedi) settlements in Sekhukhuneland is conspicuous in the Mabyanamatshwaana complex. The special nexus which characterizes Kwena settlements could not be recognized in the Mabyanamatshwaana complex. It probably once existed in the central part of the settlement but was eventually nudged out to the periphery to form the 'letlatswa' - probably as a result of the introduction of large-scale secondary iron working in the central part of the settlement. Bibliogr., sum. in English and Afrikaans. |