dc.contributor.author | Molosiwa, Phuthego | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2016-11-14T13:28:41Z | |
dc.date.available | 2016-11-14T13:28:41Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2016 | |
dc.identifier.citation | Molosiwa, P. 2016. New Contree : A journal of Historical and Human Sciences for Southern Africa. 75:14-40, Jul. [http://dspace.nwu.ac.za/handle/10394/4969] | en_US |
dc.identifier.issn | 0379-9867 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10394/19405 | |
dc.description.abstract | To follow is a critical narrative on the intersection between identity
production and transformations in the indigenous herding systems of the
Babirwa of pre-colonial Botswana. The production of the Babirwa’s pastoralist
identity rested on the adaptability of their cultural practices, language and
social systems to socio-ecological influences. This emerging pastoralist identity
was embedded in organic or loan words and concepts, which were continually
reconstituted to negotiate social and environmental change. From the 1850s,
the Babirwa of the eastern Botswana gradually transformed into cattle herders.
The assimilation of cattle led to a symbolic shift in the Babirwa’s social identity
from the Banareng (people of the buffalo) to the Bakgomong (people of the
cow). This shift was crucial in the production of a cattle-based identity in
an area where crop production, hunting and the herding of caprines (goats
and sheep) had been the primary ways of life since the first settlement of the
Babirwa in the eastern Botswana a century earlier. | en_US |
dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
dc.publisher | School for Basic Sciences, Vaal Triangle Campus, North-West University | en_US |
dc.subject | Bakgomong | en_US |
dc.subject | Botswana | en_US |
dc.subject | Babirwa | en_US |
dc.subject | Cattle | en_US |
dc.subject | Identity | en_US |
dc.subject | Environment | en_US |
dc.subject | Power | en_US |
dc.subject | Cultural Encounters | en_US |
dc.subject | Social change | en_US |
dc.title | Bakgomong: The Babirwa’s transboundary pastoralist identity and social change in late 19th century Botswana | en_US |
dc.type | Article | en_US |