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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Traces in the Landscape: Hunters, Herders and Farmers on the Cedarberg Frontier, South Africa, 1725-95
Author:Mitchell, Laura J.ISNI
Year:2002
Periodical:The Journal of African History
Volume:43
Issue:3
Period:November
Pages:431-450
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:Khoikhoi
San
colonists
Europeans
land use
agricultural land
history
1700-1799
History and Exploration
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
colonialism
Ethnic and Race Relations
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/4100602
Abstract:Land tenure was at the centre of the struggle between settlers and Khoisan on South Africa's colonial frontier during the eighteenth century. Different perceptions of land claims and differing patterns of land use prevented the possibility of mutual accommodation. Although precolonial hunters and herders coexisted in the Cedarberg region, the introduction of competition from settler pastoralism challenged the survival of both San and Khoikhoi patterns of subsistence. The fight for territory was rooted in competition over specific locations - sites endowed with resources such as permanent water, defensible shelter and ritual significance for the San. Colonial social structure supported settler land claims, eventually enabling successful occupation of a rugged region relatively isolated from the rest of the colony. In the last quarter of the century some Khoisan individuals worked within this system to make land claims of their own. Superior technology and a tightly woven social structure did not alter the basic features of the landscape, so colonists continued to subsist from transhumant pastoralism throughout the century. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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