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The Dancing Kudu: women's initiation in the Namib Desert during the second millennium AD

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2017

John Kinahan
John Kinahan*
Affiliation:
School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, 1 Jan Smuts Avenue, Braamfontein 2000, Johannesburg, South Africa; Namib Desert Archaeological Survey, P.O. Box 22407, Windhoek, Namibia (Email: jkinahan@iafrica.com.na)
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Abstract

Although the rock art of southern Africa is overwhelmingly concerned with ritual, there are few depictions of the initiation rites so important to hunter-gatherer identity. This study presents the first definitive evidence of women's initiation based on evidence from rock art and archaeological features at the site of /Ui-//aes in Namibia. The evidence reveals multiple links between initiation, women's work in gathering wild grass seed, and the importance of the female kudu as a metaphor of positive social values. These links show that the beliefs underlying ritual practice also form part of everyday subsistence activity, extending the same precepts from mundane artefacts such as grindstones, to the habits of desert antelope.

Keywords

southern AfricaNamib DesertLate Holoceneinitiationwomenhunter-gathererkudu
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 91 , Issue 358 , August 2017 , pp. 1043 - 1057
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2017 

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