12 research outputs found
Ghost in my town: Kuruman Centre for Oral History and Cultural Development
No full textIn my thesis I wish to illustrate the relationship between myth, architecture and landscape. In South Africa, particularly in small towns or ‘dorpies’, places1 are often associated to some kind of metaphysical phenomena which is usually represented through spoken word as either mythic tales or oral history (often being merged into one). The inseparable relationship between the place and its story has allowed for the preservation of knowledge and information about people and their cultures despite the legacy of an un-inclusive South African Historiography. We find that in the present day South Africa the stories of a place can often be the only way of bridging historical ‘gaps’, and becomes essential when dealing with cultural identity and origin.
I begin my thesis by discussing the relationship between place (architecture and landscape) and myth (the story).This is followed by a visual essay, in which my home town Kuruman becomes a way of discovering more about places and their associated narrative. This is done through relating a few stories told by members of the community to specific sacred places in the landscape.
The visual essay leads to my choice of site and ultimately to the development of the Kuruman centre for Oral history and cultural development
The role of ritual in Southern African hunter-gatherer environmental adaptation
No full textA cultural neurophenomenological approach.Twentieth-century Southern African San hunter-gatherer communities
are often depicted as a people who are environmentally fluid, adapting to climatic
variability through mobility so as to ensure their survival. However, based on environmental
psychology and phenomenology of place we also know that all humans possess
the propensity to have a deep embodied attachment to place, and that change in place
can cause a range of emotions between mild nostalgia to severe psychological and
social crisis. Research has also demonstrated the centrality of ritual practices such as the
trance dance in San culture and cosmology. This article aims to explore the phenomenological
role rituals played in ensuring adaptability in the face of change, as well as
providing the fundamental need for existential and psychological emplacement. Using
literature from both environmental adaptation and ritual in San communities, as well as
cultural neurophenomenology and embodiment as theoretical frameworks, the article
will discuss how San rituals mediated people/place relationships as a means of coping
with highly variable environments and change.LP202
Stories of the Forgone Forlorn Forgotten Space: Interrogating Mdantsane’s Liminal Space in which Ritual Operates
No full textA research report proposal submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture (Professional).The proposed site is located on Golden Highway in Mdantsane, Eastern Cape, and is a vacant plot of land adjacent to Mdantsane Correctional Services. The site situates itself in close proximity to multiple educational institutions and commerce, centrally within the township. The proposed research aims to analyse how Amasiko (cultural practices and their memory) within a non-transcribed culture can be translated into a built form that would be representative of its people. The built form would be envisioned as a container for memory where the ethnographic layering of information becomes a tool to access the ritual and its memory as a “Grand Mnemonic Device” to relay import ant aspects of the culture and its history (Trieb, 2013). The space envisaged must promote the acts of remembering and collecting as a tool in the process of creating a “house of memory” (Bahloul, 1992). This assembles what was not transcribed into a physical, experiential manifestation by creating a stronger link between architecture and society, looking beyond the merely functional state of architecture represented in the context. The program enacted in the space will mirror the act of the ritual by providing spaces that relate to the processes of the ritual in their various stages of the procession. The three main ritual processes focused on include Umgidi (Initiation ceremony), Umshado (wedding) and Umngcwabo (Funeral). The spaces proposed function as a tool to access the memory and ritual through its organisation while its program reaches out to the community. The program includes a community hall centred around the acts of song, dance and sermon; a kitchen to be used during gatherings and as a link to food security outreach; urban farm facilities to service the kitchen and community; discussion rooms for skill sharing, dialogue, non-transcribed learning and storytelling; video exhibition spaces to immerse oneself in the memory; a foyer with a primary focus on cleansing or washing hands before crossing the threshold into the space; storage and offices for facilitators of the space.MM202
The role of ritual in Southern African hunter-gatherer environmental adaptation
No full textemotional trauma due to change in place is; ‘symbolic of a deep desire to find the
balance between anomie and rootedness in the flux of change’ (Brislin 2012:9)
There is a considerable amount of archaeological and anthropological literature
demonstrating a time when human communities have had a close relationship
to their environments (Ingold 2000). Of particular interest are studies of
Southern African hunter-gatherers commonly referred to as the Bushmen or
San. This article will be drawing on literature of the Ju|’hoan of Southern AfricaTwentieth-century Southern African San hunter-gatherer communities
are often depicted as a people who are environmentally fluid, adapting to climatic
variability through mobility so as to ensure their survival. However, based on environmental
psychology and phenomenology of place we also know that all humans possess
the propensity to have a deep embodied attachment to place, and that change in place
can cause a range of emotions between mild nostalgia to severe psychological and
social crisis. Research has also demonstrated the centrality of ritual practices such as the
trance dance in San culture and cosmology. This article aims to explore the phenomenological
role rituals played in ensuring adaptability in the face of change, as well as
providing the fundamental need for existential and psychological emplacement. Using
literature from both environmental adaptation and ritual in San communities, as well as
cultural neurophenomenology and embodiment as theoretical frameworks, the article
will discuss how San rituals mediated people/place relationships as a means of coping
with highly variable environments and change.MM202
Architecture for resilience: dialogues with place in the indigenous communities of Kuruman during the Holocene period
No full textA thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2016Since the latter part of the 20th century to the present, we have seen growing concerns about the potential collapse of socio-ecological systems due to climate change. On the other hand, palaeoenvironmentalists, archaeologists and anthropologists consistently point to evidence of how Homo-sapiens have survived within climate variability underpinned by an embodied/embedded relationship to their environments. Archaeological data shows how indigenous groups such as the Bushman have inhabited landscape features such as caves for longer than 10 000 years and thus survived through periods of climate variability.
Another well researched element of Bushman life is their ritual practices. Given the low supply of livelihood resources within the contexts where such communities have survived, this study hypothesised a possible relationship between Bushman ritual practices and their long-term resilience when faced with variability. Using the Holocene habitation of the Wonderwerk Cave as the main case study, this study explored the relationship between people, place and ritual. Furthermore, the study applied phenomenology as the primary data collection method. The resultant first-person experience guided the researcher in engaging with secondary data from archaeology and ethnography.
The study found that Bushman ritual practices such as trance constituted a critical adaptation tool in response to perpetually variable environments. Through such practices and their related tools such as art, space and myth, such communities managed to sustain a synchronised dialogue with place thus facilitating for ongoing dissolution of maladaptive behaviour. Another key finding is that our inability to change constitutes a key characteristic of our species today as we have been seduced into the trap of our deep psychic longing for existential continuity.
The study argues for an architecture for resilience whose primary role would be to facilitate higher fluidity in our embeddedness to place and allowing for faster and trauma-free transitioning in synchronicity to our changing environments. In conclusion, the study finds that our own contemporary climate change has implications far beyond the techno-scientific understanding which has prevailed so far and is instead calling to be understood as an existential phenomenon to be primarily resolved through relevant/responsive ritual practices to facilitate our own transitioning and continued resilience.MT201
The Drone, the Snake, and the Crystal: Manifesting Potency in 3D Digital Replicas of Living Heritage and Archaeological Places
No full textCreating and sharing 3D digital replicas of archaeological sites online has become increasingly common. They are being integrated in excavation workflows, used to foster public engagement with the site, and provide communication and outreach of research, which now happen on digital media platforms. However, there has been little introspection by the community involved in the 3D documentation field, which has resulted in problematic practices. We critique the western paradigm of archaeological visualisation and propose recommendations for inclusive, decolonised visualisations of living heritage and archaeological places. To begin, we define in broad terms what an archaeological site is, and then we describe how these sites have been recorded and represented using the latest technology for digital re-production, namely laser scanning and photogrammetry. Following that we provide a critical analysis of current 3D visualisations of archaeological sites and develop an approach to ensure that the significance, meaning, and potency of archaeological and living heritage places are transferred to their digital replicas. Our case study at Ga-Mohana Hill in South Africa then offers practical approaches and methodologies that the fields of cultural heritage documentation and archaeological visualisation can employ to address their recurring issues as identified in the critical analysis. We present an online, interactive 3D digital replica of a living heritage and archaeological place that we believe responds appropriately to its political, cultural, and social context along with communicating its archaeological significance
Architectural education @ different scales: Symposium 2016
No full textEdited proceedings of the Architectural Education Forum Symposium held at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 3–4 September 2016.Not availableSAIA AZA event, which generously supported the 2016 AEF symposium.
Wits Teaching Development Grant from the Department of Higher Education.MM202
Toward sustainable industrialization in Africa: the potential of additive manufacturing – an overview
No full textThe integration of sustainable additive manufacturing (AM) within the framework of African industrialization presents a promising avenue for economic advancement while addressing environmental concerns. This review explores the convergence of sustainable AM practices with the industrial landscape of Africa, highlighting potential benefits and challenges. Through efficient resource utilization and localized production capabilities, AM holds promise for enhancing industrial resilience, stimulating employment opportunities, and fostering innovation. However, the realization of these benefits necessitates navigating infrastructural limitations, technological disparities, and regulatory complexities. By critically examining sustainable AM strategies and their relevance to African contexts, this review aims to delineate actionable pathways for leveraging the transformative potential of AM. The role of AM in industrialization as expressed in the African Union Agenda 2063 are highlighted. This has the potential to increase the staggering ∼11% contribution of manufacturing to gross domestic product of Africa. Collaboration through the triple helix approach focusing on government, industry and academia is highly pivotal for the success of such nascent and ubiquitous AM technology which is able to address the sustainable development goals. Africa can leapfrog and harness sustainable AM as a catalyst for inclusive industrial development and sustainable growth across the continent. The implications of AM for an industrialised Africa and areas for future research direction are briefly discussed
Innovative Homo sapiens behaviours 105,000 years ago in a wetter Kalahari
No full textThe archaeological record of Africa provides the earliest evidence for the emergence of the complex symbolic and technological behaviours that characterize Homo sapiens1-7. The coastal setting of many archaeological sites of the Late Pleistocene epoch, and the abundant shellfish remains recovered from them, has led to a dominant narrative in which modern human origins in southern Africa are intrinsically tied to the coast and marine resources8-12, and behavioural innovations in the interior lag behind. However, stratified Late Pleistocene sites with good preservation and robust chronologies are rare in the interior of southern Africa, and the coastal hypothesis therefore remains untested. Here we show that early human innovations that are similar to those dated to around 105 thousand years ago (ka) in coastal southern Africa existed at around the same time among humans who lived over 600 km inland. We report evidence for the intentional collection of non-utilitarian objects (calcite crystals) and ostrich eggshell from excavations of a stratified rockshelter deposit in the southern Kalahari Basin, which we date by optically stimulated luminescence to around 105 ka. Uranium-thorium dating of relict tufa deposits indicates sporadic periods of substantial volumes of fresh, flowing water; the oldest of these episodes is dated to between 110 and 100 ka and is coeval with the archaeological deposit. Our results suggest that behavioural innovations among humans in the interior of southern Africa did not lag behind those of populations near the coast, and that these innovations may have developed within a wet savannah environment. Models that tie the emergence of behavioural innovations to the exploitation of coastal resources by our species may therefore require revision.No Full Tex
Toward sustainable industrialization in Africa the potential of additive manufacturing an overview
No full text
