Xhosa beer drinks and their oratory

McAllister, Patrick A

Title: Xhosa beer drinks and their oratory
Creator: McAllister, Patrick A
Subject: Beer -- Social aspects -- South Africa
Subject: Drinking customs -- South Africa
Subject: Xhosa (African people) -- Social life and customs
Date Issued: 1987
Date: 1987
Type: Thesis
Type: Doctoral
Type: PhD
Identifier: vital:2120
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012863
Description: This is a study of 'beer drinks' among Xhosa people living in the Shixini administrative area of Willowvale district, Transkei. Beer drinks are defined as a 'polythetic' class of events distinguishable from other kinds of ceremonies and rituals at which beer may be consumed, and an attempt is made to outline their major characteristics. A detailed description of the way in which beer drinks are conducted is provided in Chapter 3, with emphasis on the symbolism involved in the allocation of beer, space and time, and on the speech events (including formal oratory) that occur. The main theoretical argument is that beer drinks may be regarded as 'cultural performances' in which social reality or 'practice' is dramatised and reflected upon, enabling people to infuse their experience with meaning and to establish guidelines for future action. This is achieved by relating social practice to cultural norms and values, in a dynamic rather than a static manner. It is demonstrated that the symbolism involved in beer drinking is highly sensitive to the real world and adjusts accordingly, which means that 'culture' is continually being reinterpreted. Despite poverty, a degree of landlessness and heavy reliance on migrant labour, Shixini people maintain an ideal of rural selfsufficiency and are able to partly fulfill this ideal, thereby maintaining a degree of independence and resistance to full incorporation into the wider political economy of southern Africa. They achieve this largely by maintaining a strong sense of community and of household interdependence, linked to a sense of Xhosa tradition. It is this aspect of social practice, manifested in a variety of forms - work parties, ploughing companies, rites of passage, and so on - that is dramatised, reflected upon and reinforced at beer drinks. In a definite sense then, beer drinks may be regarded as a response and a way of adapting to apartheid, and this study one of a community under threat.
Format: 400 leaves
Format: pdf
Publisher: Rhodes University
Publisher: Faculty of Humanities, Anthropology
Language: English
Rights: McAllister, P. A.

Hits: 2439
Visitors: 2467
Downloads: 172

Collections

McAllister, Patrick Allister (Prof)

RU Department of Anthropology

		Thumbnail	File	Description	Size	Format
View Details Download			SOURCEPDF	PDF	51 MB	Adobe Acrobat PDF	View Details Download