The Relationship between Ritual and the Construction of Space in Mapungubwe.
The following events take place whilst I am a minor in the K2 culture, once we had relocated to Mapungubwe. The essay encapsulates what I see around me and how I feel about it, the types of spaces created, and the alteration in space to suggest the move from profane to sacred. My emotions correspond and add value to the exploration of ideas and themes that I have investigated, namely: The background and meaning of Mapungubwe, the reasons as to why the K2 culture relocated to the confluence, the core values of trade and how/why we trade, the ideology behind the Bantu migration and how it influenced our way of living, how we established hierarchy and the transformation …show more content…
This move signified the manifestation of class distinction and the start of sacred leadership. We live as a first class based social system, where leaders are separated and ranked higher than us, the inhabitants. Our lives are centered around family and farming. There are many sites in our newly developed perimeter, which we use for initiation ceremonies, household activities and other social functions. Our class distinction and sacred leadership characterized our culture, and our tremendous wealth comes from long distance trade and the increase in our population. These have stimulated a series of internal transformations involving economy, social organization, ideology, religion and our settlement patterns. The economy started to change as now we do not just farm and own cattle, but we also trade with cattle, ivory, gold and other goods. People with more cattle and land have a lot more power than my family does; these people make important decisions for our culture. We believe that Mapungubwe is a very holy place, and it is the place of spirits and ancestors. My father always tells me never to look directly at the hill as it is very sacred. Us, the ordinary town people, are not allowed to go up the hill. There are two stairways that go up the hill and soldiers guard them, they are called the “eyes of the …show more content…
Controlling rain became an integral part of our culture. Rock tanks were incorporated into this ritual, as their occurrence is an important component in selecting the rain hills. Rock tanks could be enlarged, however most of ours are not tampered with. Rain control was negotiated, as it consists of a mix of tradition, if rock tanks were going to be engaged with, a decision was made that both hammering the rock and surrendering animals would be included into the ritual. Deposit was intentionally put into the rock tanks; this was a very important part in the process of controlling rain. These deposits include beads and metal fragments. There was a growth in local farmer ancestors, combined with philosophical changes; this resulted in changes in our rain control views and exercises. These changes comprised of the erection of grain bins and the building of gravel floored constructions, which were used for ritual reasons. Ritual is said to be spatially defined. The ideology of the ritual was created through the interaction between the hunter-gatherer and the farmer. Rain control is comprised of collective rituals that occur annually, these include; the cleaning of the water so that it is banished of any pollution, spilling the water onto the ground in order to cool the earth or treating the land with water medicine. Clay vessels that are made from clay and water store our
The following events take place whilst I am a minor in the K2 culture, once we had relocated to Mapungubwe. The essay encapsulates what I see around me and how I feel about it, the types of spaces created, and the alteration in space to suggest the move from profane to sacred. My emotions correspond and add value to the exploration of ideas and themes that I have investigated, namely: The background and meaning of Mapungubwe, the reasons as to why the K2 culture relocated to the confluence, the core values of trade and how/why we trade, the ideology behind the Bantu migration and how it influenced our way of living, how we established hierarchy and the transformation …show more content…
This move signified the manifestation of class distinction and the start of sacred leadership. We live as a first class based social system, where leaders are separated and ranked higher than us, the inhabitants. Our lives are centered around family and farming. There are many sites in our newly developed perimeter, which we use for initiation ceremonies, household activities and other social functions. Our class distinction and sacred leadership characterized our culture, and our tremendous wealth comes from long distance trade and the increase in our population. These have stimulated a series of internal transformations involving economy, social organization, ideology, religion and our settlement patterns. The economy started to change as now we do not just farm and own cattle, but we also trade with cattle, ivory, gold and other goods. People with more cattle and land have a lot more power than my family does; these people make important decisions for our culture. We believe that Mapungubwe is a very holy place, and it is the place of spirits and ancestors. My father always tells me never to look directly at the hill as it is very sacred. Us, the ordinary town people, are not allowed to go up the hill. There are two stairways that go up the hill and soldiers guard them, they are called the “eyes of the …show more content…
Controlling rain became an integral part of our culture. Rock tanks were incorporated into this ritual, as their occurrence is an important component in selecting the rain hills. Rock tanks could be enlarged, however most of ours are not tampered with. Rain control was negotiated, as it consists of a mix of tradition, if rock tanks were going to be engaged with, a decision was made that both hammering the rock and surrendering animals would be included into the ritual. Deposit was intentionally put into the rock tanks; this was a very important part in the process of controlling rain. These deposits include beads and metal fragments. There was a growth in local farmer ancestors, combined with philosophical changes; this resulted in changes in our rain control views and exercises. These changes comprised of the erection of grain bins and the building of gravel floored constructions, which were used for ritual reasons. Ritual is said to be spatially defined. The ideology of the ritual was created through the interaction between the hunter-gatherer and the farmer. Rain control is comprised of collective rituals that occur annually, these include; the cleaning of the water so that it is banished of any pollution, spilling the water onto the ground in order to cool the earth or treating the land with water medicine. Clay vessels that are made from clay and water store our