Descent of Iron Age Farmers in Southern Africa During the Last 2000 Years

Abstract

Ethnographies from southern Africa indicate that patrilineal descent dominates Bantu-language speakers. With great differences in material culture suggesting sociopolitical and economical changes between the earliest farmers that settled in the region in the first millennium AD and those described from ethnographies, it is very likely that descent patterns did not remain static over the course of nearly 2000 years. With major sociopolitical and economical changes, it is not surprising to suggest that other forms of descent also existed amongst farmers of southern Africa in the past. Although it remains ambiguous to establish descent patterns from archaeological remains in the absence of human burials, in this paper I investigate herding practices and the nature of farming as ways to infer descent. The results indicate that at least matrilineal descent was common in southern Africa before the arrival of ancestral Nguni and Sotho-Tswana speakers in the region during the Late Iron Age in the second millennium AD. Other forms of descent were likely present alongside matrilineal descent during the Early and Middle Iron Ages, when widespread evidence for patrilineal descent is absent.Résumé Les tout premiers fermiers du premier millénaire et début du deuxième millénaire A.D. (Âge du Fer Ancien et Moyen) en Afrique australe étaient probablement des communautés matrilinéaires. Cette proposition se base sur une considération des pratiques d'élevage, sur la nature des systèmes agricoles, et la distribution des groupes matrilinéaires contemporains. Cela étant dit, les études ethnographiques indiquent que les groupes de langues bantoues vivant dans la région se distinguent par un mode de filiation patrilinéaire. Je suggère que ce système de descendance est un trait qui s'est développé lors du deuxième millénnaire A.D. (Âge du Fer Récent) en Afrique australe, une période marquée par l'arrivée des groupes ancestraux Nguni et Tswana dans la région. Cette interprétation diffère de celle articulée par Thomas Huffman dans son modèle du 'Central Cattle Pattern', qui avance qu'un mode dominant de filiation patrilinéaire existait déjà en Afrique australe durant le premier millénaire A.D., quand les premières communautés d'agriculteurs ont commencé à occuper la région.

Whole-genome sequencing for an enhanced understanding of genetic variation among South Africans

“…Archeological evidence suggests that the migration of groups of Bantu-speaking agro-pastoralists into southern Africa was initiated about 2000 years ago 15 – 17 . It further supports two different migration paths, one in the east and one in the west of Africa, giving rise to southeastern Bantu-speaker (SEBs) and southwestern Bantu-speakers (SWB) 15 , 18 .…”

Feasting among Venda-speakers of South Africa: the Late Iron Age fauna from Mutokolwe

“…Eastern Bantu-speakers of southern Africa used cattle in ceremonies, bride wealth payments and exchange (e.g. Schapera 1953a;Mitchell 2002;Huffman 2007;Badenhorst 2010).…”

Pollution Concepts and Marriage for the Southern African Iron Age

“…Some scholars once argued that the low ratio of cattle to ovicaprine remains on most Early Iron Age sites indicated fundamental economic differences between first-and second-millennium agriculturists. Badenhorst (2009a,b;2010) recently revived these arguments as possible evidence for matriliny, but his argument fails to shift a significant body of counter-data and reasoning accumulated since the mid-1980s. Huffman (2010b) provides a comprehensive response.…”

“…These ideas are tentative, but worth airing, partly because of recent interest in the nature of Early Iron Age society (Badenhorst 2009a,b;2010), but also because they flow naturally from earlier work on the period. Further, it may be that they provide a position from which to consider in more detail two topics of current interest: the origins of the Zimbabwe Culture and the Early Iron Age-Late Iron Age interface.…”