Zigua Medicine, between Mountains and Ocean: People, Performances, and Objects in Healing Motion

Real but unrealised: object transformations and political economy in East and southern Africa, AD 750–1250

“…In shrine assemblages from West Africa, evidence of the repeated bundling of glass and carnelian beads, vertebrae from pythons, and iron and other objects reveals how bundles became implements of new ritual habits (Stahl 2018) and spiritual concepts (Kankpeyang et al 2011). Similar bundles-particularly adornments comprised of modified snake vertebrae, and beads of glass, carnelian, rock crystal and/or aragonite, in association with whole land-snail shells-have been recovered from Kwa Mgogo in inland Tanzania, and interpreted in connection with healing practice (Figure 3C) (Walz 2015(Walz , 2017b. In southern Africa, bundles of glass, metal and shell beads placed in the neck and pelvic areas of juvenile burials acted to reconfigure relations between the living and the dead (Moffett & Chirikure 2016).…”

“…The dynamism and innovations indicated in materials should be married to evidence of performance and different modes of production and exchange, which might be done using artefacts or macropatterns across landscapes, for instance, but where possible also should take into account evidence from cognate disciplines (e.g. oral traditions and historical linguistics; de Luna 2012; Walz 2015). Research investing in these methodologies will help archaeologists to rethink power in areas formerly considered passive peripheries, and then enable them to vigorously explore the intersections among communities (e.g.…”

Comparative assessment on rodent impacts and cultural perceptions of ecologically based rodent management in 3 Afro‐Malagasy farming regions

“…2018). Among the Zigua of Tanzania, snakes are represented as metaphors for addressing changes in ways of life deemed negatively by the Zigua through discussions of the country's history of the slave trade and colonization (Walz 2016). In certain Malagasy cultural groups, certain animal species are entwined with local taboos, known locally as “ fady .” Negative taboos linked to snakes resulted in their frequent killing (Holmes et al .…”

“…A belief in the magical properties of animals and occult practices that harness the harmful properties of magical creatures, such as witches using snakes to attack their victims (Bjerke 1969) have led to their persecution in Tanzania (Holmes et al 2018). Among the Zigua of Tanzania, snakes are represented as metaphors for addressing changes in ways of life deemed negatively by the Zigua through discussions of the country's history of the slave trade and colonization (Walz 2016). In certain Malagasy cultural groups, certain animal species are entwined with local taboos, known locally as "fady."…”

Material assemblages and percolating pasts in Zigua households, north-eastern Tanzania

“…Whereas the original project was distinctly ethnoarchaeological in orientation, this paper offers an analysis of the ethnographic data on households and household inventories that draws on more recent theoretical discussion of relationality and material agencies. Focusing on two Zigua communities, our analysis seeks to historicise their household material culture and architecture in light of the oral histories told by the project's original interlocutors and relational Zigua and Shambaa epistemologies, as materialised in healing practices (Thompson, 1999;Walz, 2009Walz, , 2016. We draw also on insights taken from assemblage thinking and the significance of the percolation of time in the present.…”