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Author Hewitt, Roger.

Title Structure, meaning & ritual in the narratives of the southern San / Roger Hewitt
Edition 2nd ed
Published Johannesburg : Wits University Press, 2008

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Description 1 online resource (x, 254 pages)
Series The Khoisan heritage series
Khoisan heritage series.
Contents Ethnographic background -- Introduction to the narratives: their context, performance and scope -- Legends and stories of!Khwa -- Sidereal narratives: the story of the Dawn's Heart and his wife the Lynx -- Animal narratives -- /Kaggen in belief and ritual -- The /Kaggen narratives: (1): characters and content -- The /Kaggen narratives (2): sequence and structure -- /Kaggen in belief, ritual and narrative: a synthesis -- Two /Kaggen narratives: compositional variations -- The verbal surface: a note on the narrators
Summary Structure, Meaning and Ritual in the Narratives of the Southern San analyses texts drawn from the Bleek and Lloyd Archive - arguably one of the most important collections for the understanding of South African cultural heritage and in particular the traditions of the /Xam, South Africa's 'first people'. Initially appearing in a now rare 1986 edition and here re-issued for the first time, the doctoral thesis on which the book is based became the catalyst for much scholarly research. The book offers an analysis of the entire corpus of /Xam narratives found in the Bleek and Lloyd collection, focusing particularly on the cycle of narratives concerning the trickster /Kaggen (Mantis). These are examined on three levels from the 'deep structures' with resonances in other areas of /Xam culture and supernatural belief, through the recurring patterns of narrative composition apparent across the cycle and finally touching on the observable differences in the performances by the various /Xam collaborators. Hewitt's text remains the only comprehensive and detailed study of /Xam narrative, and it has become itself the object of study by researchers and PhD candidates in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Canada and elsewhere. This new edition at last makes Hewitt's important work more widely available. It will be a welcome addition to the recently burgeoning literature on the place of the /Xam hunter-gatherers in the complex history of South African culture and society
Notes First edition published: Hamburg, Germany : H. Buske, 1986
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-246) and index
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
Print version record
digitized 2014 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Subject San (African people) -- Folklore
Tales -- South Africa
San (African people) -- Social life and customs
HISTORY -- Africa -- General.
San (African people)
San (African people) -- Social life and customs
Tales
South Africa
Khoisan-Sprachen.
Genre/Form Folklore
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781868147038
1868147037
9781776141265
1776141261
Other Titles Structure, meaning and ritual in the narratives of the southern San