Abstract:
This paper presents an analysis of the faunal remains from
three farmer or Late Iron Age sites in the Steelpoort River
Valley, occupied c. AD 1700–1900 by Ndzundza Ndebele. The
Ndzundza were forced, successively, to relocate from
KwaMaza and Esikhunjini toKoNomtjarhelo as a result of continual
fighting among themselves, other farmer communities,
and with the British and the Boers. I examine their subsistence
behaviour during this period through an archaeozoological
analysis, identifying what species, sex and age of animals were
utilized by the Ndzundza. This examination of daily life
through animal procurement, during a violent and unstable
political period in South African history has produced a 200
year trajectory that shows people trying to perpetuate cultural
norms in ever more abnormal conditions until they broke with
tradition and followed necessity by abandoning cattle, hunting
wild game on a larger scale, and exclusively tending small
herds of small stock.
