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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat 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.
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