People making history: the last ten thousand years of hunter-gatherer communities in the Thukela Basin

Abstract

The primary aim of this paper is to document and explain the 10000 BP - AD 1800 history of the Thukela Basin hunter-gatherers. The primary information for this study comes from my excavation, between 1981 and 1984, of eight rock shelters in the upper Thukela catchment.

My aims and theoretical orientation have altered substantially since the project's inception. They have changed from being concerned primarily with ecological phenomena to the reconstruction of a regional social history. As part of this redefinition I have developed a critique of South African Later Stone Age (LSA) studies from the early 1960s, arguing that the predominant ecological approaches of this period are inadequate in dealing with past human societies.

My reason for adopting a socially orientated historical approach concern the social relevance of archaeology, and the need to generate the best possible insight into past societies. I submit that historical materialism offers a very valuable framework for social historical analysis. The theoretical and methodological propositions germane to this study are presented.

I then concentrate specifically on Thukela Basin hunter-gatherer history. The periods dating to before and after 2000 BP are dealt with separately because of the arrival of farmers in the Thukela Basin  AD500