Butua and the End of an Era: The effect of the collapse of the Kalanga state on ordinary citizens. An analysis of behaviour under stress

Description

The Kalanga state Butua, which had dominated the Zimbabwe plateau (south central Africa) for four centuries, collapsed in the 1830s due to repeated difaqane invasions, and its population became subject to Ndebele invaders. This work is a study of how the farming population coped with the stresses brought by these events and how this is manifest in the archaeological remains. A model of group behaviour under stress suggests that, with increasing stress, group solidarity at first increases, but later decreases: a series of hypotheses based on this model guides this study. The first section of the research presents a reconstruction of the 'Butua' state based on oral and documentary evidence as well as archaeological research in Botswana. The second part combines information from historical sources with archaeological evidence from two villages at Domboshaba to reconstruct events and conditions in northeastern Botswana during the turbulent 19th century. Front Cover Title Page Copyright Abstract Table of Contents LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 2. STATE COLLAPSE AND ITS EFFECT ON ORDINARY CITIZENS A MODEL FOR BEHAVIOUR UNDER STRESS 3. ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXT 4. ETHNOGRAPHIC BACKGROUND 5. PREVIOUS RESEARCH 6. APPROACHES AND METHODS 7. BUTUA HISTORY FROM DOCUMENTS AND ORAL TRADITIONS 8. ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF BUTUA ELITE SITES 9. COMMONER SITES 10. VUMBA 11. BOSHE SELOLWE AND OTHER ELITE SITES NEAR VUMBA 12. BATHU NE BOSHE SUBJECTS AND RULERS DURING THE KHAMI PHASE 13. HISTORY OF THE END ORAL AND DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE 14. DOMBOSHABA REFUGE SITES 15. CHANGING BEHAVIOUR UNDER STRESS Epilogue APPENDICES APPENDIX A. RADIOCARBON DATES APPENDIX B. ZIMBABWE TRADITION RUINS IN BOTSWANA APPENDIX C. COMMONER SITES BIBLIOGRAPHY